Edition (book)
The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants.
First edition
According to the definition of edition above, a book printed today, by the same publisher, and from the same type as when it was first published, is still the first edition of that book to a bibliographer. However, book collectors generally use the term first edition to mean specifically the first print run of the first edition. Since World War II, books often include a number line that indicates the print run.A "first edition" per se is not a valuable collectible book. A popular work may be published and reprinted over time by many publishers, and in a variety of formats. There will be a first edition of each, which the publisher may cite on the copyright page, such as: "First mass market paperback edition". The first edition of a facsimile reprint is the reprint publisher's first edition, but not the first edition of the work itself.
The Independent Online Booksellers Association has A First Edition Primer that discusses several aspects of identifying first editions including publishing and specific publishers way of designating first editions.
Bibliographical definition
The classic explanation of edition was given by Fredson Bowers in Principles of Bibliographical Description. Bowers wrote that an edition is "the whole number of copies printed at any time or times from substantially the same setting of type-pages," including "all issues and variant states existing within its basic type-setting, as well as all impressions."Publishers often use the same typesetting for the hardcover and trade paperback versions of a book. These books have different covers, the title page and copyright page may differ, and the page margin sizes may differ, but to a bibliographer they are the same edition.
From time to time, readers may observe an error in the text, and report these to the publisher. The publisher typically keeps these "reprint corrections" in a file pending demand for a new print run of the edition, and before the new run is printed, they will be entered.
The method of entry depends on the method of typesetting. For letterpress metal, it typically meant resetting a few characters or a line or two. For linotype, it meant casting a new line for any line with a change in it. With film, it involved cutting out a bit of the film and inserting a new bit. In an electronic file, it means entering the changes digitally.
Such minor changes do not constitute a new edition, but introduce typographical variations within an edition, which are of interest to collectors.
Collectors' definition
A common complaint of book collectors is that the bibliographer's definition is used in a book-collecting context. For example, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as of 2016 remains in print in hardcover. The type is the same as the 1951 first printing, therefore all hardcover copies are, for the bibliographer, the first edition. Collectors would use the term for the first printing only.First edition most often refers to the first commercial publication of a work between its own covers, even if it was first printed in a periodical: the complete text of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea appeared in the September 1, 1952, issue of Life, yet the generally accepted "first" edition is the hardcover book Scribner’s published on September 8, 1952.
The term "first trade edition," refers to the earliest edition of a book offered for sale to the general public in book stores. For example, Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle was published in two variant forms. A "Sustainers' Edition", published by the Jungle Publishing Company, was sent to subscribers who had advanced funds to Sinclair. The first trade edition was published by Doubleday, Page to be sold in bookstores.
Many book collectors place maximum value on the earliest bound copies of a book—promotional advance copies, bound galleys, uncorrected proofs, and advance reading copies sent by publishers to book reviewers and booksellers. It is true that these are rarer than the production copies; but given that these were not printed from a different setting of type, they are not different editions.
Publisher definitions
Publishers use "first edition" according to their own purposes, and consequently among them the designation is used very inconsistently. The "first edition" of a trade book may be the first iteration of the work printed by the publisher in question or the first iteration of the work that includes a specific set of illustrations or editorial commentary. This means that a "second edition" and subsequent "third edition" will not entail a huge shift from the initial edition but simply contain updates and revisions required with time.Publishers of non-fiction, academic works, and textbooks generally distinguish between revisions of the text of the work, by typically citing the dates of the first and latest editions of the work in the copyright page. Exceptions to this rule of thumb include denominating as a "second edition" a new textbook that has a different format, title, or author because a previous textbook that shares only the same subject matter as the "second edition" is considered the first edition. The reason for this stretch of the definition is often for the short-term marketing advantage of the new textbook, because, although first editions are often considered more valuable than later editions to book collectors, being a subsequent edition of a previous textbook gives the impression that the textbook denominated as a subsequent edition is more authoritative.
Other types
Revised edition
Publishers sometimes denominate a new iteration of a work a "revised edition" or the "th edition, revised" when the previous iteration has been editorially revised or updated yet the author or publisher does not want to denominate it the "th edition" for some subjective reason. Conversely, a new iteration of a work that is not substantially different may be denominated a "new edition" or the "th edition".The qualitative difference between a "revised edition" and a "new edition" is subjective. This is analogous to the way that software publishers may denominate an iteration "version 3.7" and the subsequent updated iteration "version 4" instead of "version 3.8". The subjective judgment of the degree of the significance of the change made with the new iteration or the perceived marketing advantage of designating the new iteration as a specific number determines how the new iteration is numbered.
Therefore, the designation "revised edition" does not designate any quality or quantity of revision with certainty.
Revised and updated edition
When a non-fiction book is first published it sometimes instigates more research on its subject. The author may determine that new information justifies the revision of the book. A new iteration of the book would be published as a new edition, which may be denominated a "revised and updated edition". However, as with the denomination of "revised edition", the use of "revised and updated edition" manifests only the subjective choice of the publisher, which may be different from the publisher of a previous "revised edition" of the same work.Co-edition
The basic definition of a co-edition is when two publishing houses publish the same edition of a book, simultaneously or near-simultaneously, usually in different countries. English and American editions may differ in spelling, and they sometimes have different titles. Some examples:- An English-language edition, from the same plates, films, or files, may be published in different anglophone countries by different publishing companies. For example, Arms & Armour Press in the UK and Stackpole Books in the U.S. published co-editions of various monographs on military matters.
- A French-language novel published in France this year by a French publisher could become an English-language translation published in the U.S. next year by a U.S. publisher.
Advancing IT and the globalization of publishing have been blurring the lines of what co-edition means. For example, anything published online is effectively published worldwide. Also, large multinational publishers now have existing distribution systems for their hardcopy books in many countries, so they don't need to partner with other companies. They may issue a book under a different imprint for each country, but the imprints are parts of the same parent corporation. The actual manufacturing of the books may be done in China regardless of where the copies will be sold.
e-dition
The term e-dition, a play on the e-for-electronic prefix, has been used by various publishers to refer to various ideas, which include:- The hardcopy book's content posted online, fully searchable
- Supplemental online-only content for buyers of the hardcopy book
- Online-only publishing
- Proprietary-format digital publication for use in specialized hardware for reading the book
Library edition