Book Club Books:

Before we delve into the fascinating world of valuable, unique books, we need to establish one very important and worthwhile rule: DO NOT confuse book club books with first editions. We will cover true first editions in the following subsection, but we need to also know what does not constitute a first edition.

Book club books are those distributed by publications such as Reader’s Digest. These hardcover books are smaller than other hardcovers, and they do not contain a printed price in the upper right corner of the inside front dust jacket flap. Many a time, I have found Grisham’s A Time to Kill, opened the book to the copyright page to read, “First Edition,” and proceeded to stare in amazement. I’ve even bought such books, brought them home, and looked them up on the Internet only to find that they are, in fact, book club books.

It’s okay: we all do it at the beginning. What you want to look for is the size of the book, the publishing company, and the recommended US and/or Canadian sales prices printed on that inside flap. Since book club books have different price points, they will not have a price listed on the flap.

Next lesson, First editions.