What is a Book Club Edition?

Book club editions are made by companies that chose to reprint orginal published copies. Common known book club publishers include A. L. Burt, Moderd Library, Triangle, Grosset And Dunlap, Hurst, Blakison, and Doubleday.

Over the past 75 years or so, hundreds of book clubs have come and gone. Two of the book clubs are still going strong today are Doubleday and Book-of-the-Month Club which is probably the best known of the two. It was founded in 1926 by an ad copywriter, Harry Scherman and can boast about a million members at present. Doubleday has quite a few clubs such as the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club. It was started in 1927 and is said to consistently outsell BOMC.

Publishers of book club editions used various techniques to identify their book club editions. Some book club editions are stamped or printed with a specific logo. Knopf stamped their book club editions with their logo of a running Borzoi dog. Other Book Club Editions used blind stamps on the bottom right outside back covers. Some of those identification marks had a maple leaf, star, square circle or dot on them. It has however, become increasely more difficult to identify them over the years.

Sometimes you will find the dust jackets on Book Club editions will say that they are Book Club Editions. If there is still a dust jacket with your book and there is no price indicated, it might mean you are holding a book club edition.

Book Club editions were able to get a good price from publishers to the rights of a book which allow them to use their own equipment to publish the books for their companies. Basically these books are the exact copies of the original books, but they are reproduced from the original publisher and therefore not first editions of the first printings. Many of them were made to sell on a monthly basis via mail order to readers. Sometimes you will notice these as Book Club editions by the difference in size and quality of paper used. Book Club editions were much smaller than the orginal editions.

Some Book Club editions have different color binding covers and other have a completely different jacket art. Most of these editions have very little value for the collector. Although some of these editions are valuable if a new introduction was written or they have the same dust jacket and spine reproductions as the orginal published editions.

It may be well worth your while to take a second glance at any book club edition that passes through your hands. One instance that a book club edition may prove to be worthy is that it may have been the first edition or even the only edition of the title available in print.

Sometimes the book club edition is the first time the title has appeared in a hardcover form. Many titles of science fiction and mystery were previously published as paperbacks. Though these book club editions are not truly considered first editions, they may be more in demand because the original paperback is so fragile.

Book club editions are not always valuable as a collector's item, but they are sure to become a treasured part of any collection simply for the words they contain between the covers. However, if your selling old books, it is a good practice to list the book as a Book Club Edition and not just a first edition.