Doubleday Printings

[daniel_pyle]

How is it determined that the Phiesen DJ, 13th edition had a 2nd printing? Just from the price on the DJ going from 18.95 to 20.00?

If I'm understanding your question correctly, the 2nd printing is based on the number line from the $20 printing.




There were definitely at least two printings of the Phiesen edition of Carrie. The $18.95 version with a number line indicating a 13th printing and the $20 version with a number line indicating a 2nd printing. Why Doubleday started the printing number over for Carrie but none of the other books is something I've still never been able to determine. And I've still never seen anything between the $18.95 13th printing and the $20.00 2nd printing, so if they did a new 1st printing of the Phiesen edition, I've never seen it.

My edition has the 18.95 price and no gutter code.

None of the Phiesen editions have gutter codes.

Would it be more of just a second state DJ with a new price for the 13th edition?
It just sounds strange to me “13th ed. 2nd print” or if it is explained somewhere here and I missed it, that’s possible to.

The terminology for all this stuff gets complicated. The books with the original covers are all different printings of the first editions, which is normal and makes sense—you've got a 1st edition/3rd printing, 1st edition/5th printing, etc. just like any other book. Based on any kind of logic or common sense, the Phiesen editions should have been second editions and started the number lines back over at 1, and the Holdorf editions should have been 3rd editions and started the number lines over again. But based on all the evidence, Doubleday didn't start the number lines over. So, what does that leave us with? For instance, is the 14th printing of The Shining, which has the Phiesen cover/different colored boards/a different layout/etc. a 1st edition/14th printing or a 2nd edition/1st printing or a 2nd edition/14th printing? I mean, it's the first printing of that edition, but nothing we call it really makes total sense because of the way they did the number lines. The only sensical way to refer to it, I think, is as a 2nd edition/1st printing/14th overall printing, but how cumbersome and confusing is that? Maybe there's no right answer and we just have to do our best and over-explain it to anyone who asks or cares. But whatever we call it, it's definitely a different edition—the layout was completely redone with new section/chapter headings, page numbers, etc. You can't read something on page 47 of the 1st edition and expect someone from your book club to find the same text on page 47 of their Phiesen edition, for instance.

Carrie, of course, makes things even more confusing, because in the case of that one, they did start the number line over, so that one is a 2nd edition by any standard definition regardless of the cover/layout changes.

Also my DJ has the Carrie title on the spine reading left to right (horizontal) were I notice most are printed top to bottom (vertical).
Maybe there’s 3 states of the DJ for this book?

I have seen Phiesen copies of Carrie with the text laid out horizontally on the spine like you described:



But those seem to be far less common than the versions with the vertical text, and all the ones I've seen have also had 13th printing number lines. If I had to guess, I would say they designed the dust jackets for all four Phiesen editions and started printing them before realizing the text on Carrie looked ridiculous and redesigning just that one. At this point, I'd say it makes the most sense to say there are two different DJ states for the 13th printing unless we see other evidence that indicates otherwise.