Doubleday

Doubleday's British list is an imprint of Transworld Publishers in London, and its books are identified the British way: a first impression is shown by a complete number line on the copyright page.

• A Doubleday UK first impression has a number line that still includes the 1, usually set as 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2, although other orders such as 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 also occur.
• A later impression keeps the line but loses the lowest figure, so a second impression reads 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2.
• The same convention runs across Doubleday's children's books, which from the 2000s appeared from Random House Children's Books (later Random House Children's Publishers) in London.
• The publisher line names Transworld Publishers, London, which tells a London copy apart from the New York Doubleday edition of the same title.

Example

• Monica Ali's Brick Lane (Doubleday, London, 2003): a first impression has the complete line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2.

From the 1920s Doubleday printed "First Edition" on the copyright page of a first printing and left it off every later printing, so an American Doubleday book without the statement is not a first printing.

The copyright page

• Doubleday, Page (by the late 1920s at the latest), Doubleday, Doran (formed by the merger with George H. Doran at the end of 1927) and Doubleday & Co. first printings carry the words "First Edition" on the copyright page, with the copyright notice on the back of the title page. By 1937 the firm said it had done this for many years.
• Later printings carry no printing statement at all: the "First Edition" line is simply dropped, so its absence is the sign of a reprint.
• Where a Doubleday book also has a number line, the lowest figure is the printing whatever order the figures run in, so a first printing shows both the statement and a 1.

Gutter codes

• Doubleday books of the 1970s and 1980s, Stephen King's early novels among them, often carry a short printed code, a letter followed by a number, low in the gutter of a page at or near the end of the text. For some titles a specific code marks the first printing, so check it against a bibliography of the title.
• Sometimes the code is the main point: the first printing of Again, Dangerous Visions (1972), the anthology edited by Harlan Ellison, is identified by the code N7 in the gutter of page 760.

Traps

• Book club copies are the main trap. Doubleday ran its own clubs, among them the Literary Guild, the Doubleday Book Club, the Mystery Guild and the Science Fiction Book Club. Club copies are usually smaller and lighter than the trade edition, on thinner paper, and their jackets have no price on the front flap, so a priced trade jacket is a key check.
• Older Doubleday club jackets say "Book Club Edition" at the foot of the front flap; later ones instead carry a five-digit code, often black figures in a white box, on the back panel. Club jackets also often lack the barcode of the trade jacket.
• A book club copy can still print "First Edition" on the copyright page, because the clubs often printed from the trade plates without removing it, so the statement alone does not prove a trade first.
• Book club printings can carry gutter codes too, so a code alone does not prove a trade copy.

Examples

• The first printing of Stephen King's Carrie (1974) says "First Edition" on the copyright page, has the code P6 in the gutter of page 199, and comes in a jacket priced $5.95 on the front flap.