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First edition and book club marks

How the copyright page says which printing a book is, and the marks that set book club editions and remaindered copies apart.

About first edition and book club marks

First edition and book club marks are the marks in a book that say which printing it is, and the ones that set some copies apart from the edition sold in bookshops. On the copyright page, the back of the title page, a first edition statement and a number line are the publisher’s own record of the printing. A book club blind stamp on the back board and a remainder mark on the page edges were put there for the book trade: one marks a book club’s copy, the other a copy sold off cheaply as unsold stock.

First edition or first printing?

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) defines a first edition as all the copies printed from the first setting of type, which can take in several printings; collectors who say first edition usually mean the first printing. Carter and Barker’s ABC for Book Collectors calls that a convention: first edition, unless qualified, means the first impression of the first edition.

Counting printings

The University of Chicago Press calls the number line the impression line. For each new printing the printer masks the lowest number, so a copy whose line still has its 1 is from the first printing. The Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) records one large exception: until roughly 2003, Random House printed the words First Edition in place of the 1.

Copies for book clubs and bargain tables

Book clubs sold their own printings by subscription, and the ABAA dates the best known, the Book of the Month Club, to 1926. IOBA describes the club stamp as a small circle, dot, square or maple leaf pressed into the lower corner of the back cover; ABC for Book Collectors calls a binding mark blind when it is pressed in without gold or colour. Remaindering, in ABC for Book Collectors, is a publisher selling off a book that has virtually ceased to sell at a heavily reduced price, and IOBA explains the remainder mark as the way to stop those copies being returned for full credit.

Sources

  1. First Edition (ABAA Glossary of Terms), ABAA Glossary of Terms, “First Edition”, Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, Definition
  2. ABC for Book Collectors, by John Carter and Nicolas Barker, John Carter and Nicolas Barker, ABC for Book Collectors, 8th edition (Oak Knoll Press and the British Library, 2004; reprint with corrections 2006), made available by ILAB with Oak Knoll Press’s permission, Oak Knoll Press and the British Library, via the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, “Edition and impression”, pp. 87–88; “Remainder binding”, p. 189; “Blind”
  3. Impression line (Chicago Manual of Style Online, Q&A), The Chicago Manual of Style Online, Questions and Answers: Manuscript Preparation, Copyediting, and Proofreading, University of Chicago Press, Q&A, Manuscript Preparation
  4. Identifying First Editions, A Primer: In General (IOBA), Independent Online Booksellers Association, “Identifying First Editions, A Primer: In General”, Part I, Independent Online Booksellers Association, “Numbers on books help identify first editions”; “Book club editions”
  5. Book club edition (ABAA Glossary of Terms), ABAA Glossary of Terms, “Book club edition”, Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, Definition; “Book of the Month Club”
  6. Remaindered Books and Remainder Marks (IOBA), Independent Online Booksellers Association, “Remaindered Books and Remainder Marks” (last updated 17 May 2016), Independent Online Booksellers Association, Article text

Last reviewed October 8, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research