First Edition, First Printing

Thanks to Caroline Starr Rose's great blog, I've been trying to figure out the whole number of printings thing. I'm sure I knew this at some point in my librarian/ reader/ writer career. But only when Caroline blogged about it did I decide to read up on the whole Printing vs. Edition thing.

(Thank you, Caroline, for filling my afternoon with great googling and little writing. But it was fun!)

Here's a good explanation of how to find which printing a book's in:

http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/writing/editions/#prfa

And if you're a potential book collector, this might be helpful.
http://bookriot.com/2012/11/08/the-beginners-guide-to-identifying-first-editions-part-one/ 

I can't resist sharing an image from that link, above. 
I believe this is the copyright page from THE HELP. 
Do note how many printings that book's in...

 

That would be #56. And it was over a year ago. 
We should all be so lucky.