In 2006 I watched the movie The Prestige. I absolutely loved it and immediately watched it again. The next day I watched it again. I think I have seen it twice more since then. There is something about that story that really gets into me. Anyway (because I am a book collector and what else would you expect me to do?) I started looking for a first edition. I found that they were really expensive and online dealers were quoting figures like "only 200 printed in the first edition" and "between 200 and 500 printed." I finally found a F/F copy that was signed for a reasonable price and told myself that one day I needed to read the book.
I only recently got around to reading the book. I loved it even more than the movie. I think in this instance having already seen the movie INCREASED my enjoyment of the book, if that is possible. There are a few plot twists that are not in the movie and caught me completely by surprise. I think it is just a fantastic book. Anyway (because I am a book collector and what else would you expect me to do?) I found and bought an ARC/proof. On the back of the proof they mention a "massive PR and promotional campaign." I thought that was weird as supposedly they only printed 200 to 500 copies of the first edition.
I asked the seller who seemed knowledgeable about the book and he thought the 200 to 500 copy numbers were made up by some bookseller to enhance the saleability of his book and that the numbers just got perpetuated by other sellers. He suggested that I contact the author, Christopher Priest, and see if he knew. I found Mr. Priest's website and asked him. I was pleasantly surprised to get this reply just a few hours later:
Dear Mr Jackson
I thought no one would ever ask.
I don't know where those estimated figures for the print-run of the Touchstone edition of The Prestige came from. Not from me, and certainly not from the publisher. I have always assumed it was a used book dealers' fiction to keep the price up.
When it was first published The Prestige was released as a conventional trade hardback novel, and would therefore have been given a conventionally sized UK first printing. According to sales figures I would estimate the minimum print was 2,000 copies, and probably as high as 3,000. It was never to my knowledge reprinted in hardcover by Touchstone.
However, to put these figures in context. Firstly, although the Touchstone edition is a handsome production it is not well manufactured: the paper is too thin and the binding is weak. Copies once read or carelessly handled are often damaged. As is common in the UK, most sales of hardback fiction are to lending libraries, and you can safely assume that all those copies, if they reached the secondhand market now, would also be damaged or seriously over-used. Finally, my novels in hardback are bought by a core audience of readers, who appear to collect and keep their own copies. Good secondhand copies almost never enter the used trade. I am an habitual book-buyer myself, spending much time in s/h bookstores, and in the last 40 years I have only ever seen ONE copy of one of my first editions on sale in an ordinary UK bookstore (and that was at a fancy price). It might be different in the USA, of course.
What all this means is that clean or mint or unread copies of the Touchstone edition of The Prestige are genuinely rare. The scarcity is for those reasons, not because only a small number were printed. Used-book dealers are entitled to get what they can for scarce editions, so I don't complain, but I believe what I've told you here is the reality.
All best wishes
Christopher Priest
I thought this was pretty cool and the point to emphasize is to not accept print run numbers listed in book listings as facts. I am as guilty as anyone in repeating print run numbers that I have heard or read and accepting them as true. Few people really know for sure and online booksellers are an unreliable source. They get accepted by collectors as facts and we perpetuate the inaccuracies.