Doubleday?

[Sheri]

I read in one of the posts...forgot which one....that the books we get from the Clubs (Doubleday or Literary Guild) aren't up to par???? I never noticed the bar code or price inside the cover missing until I read it on the board here. Are these Club books inferior? I have been buying them for years and years and don't see them being inferior. Are they irregulars?

I never sell my books so I guess it doesn't matter but I was just curious.

[Rindis]

You mean from things like the Science Fiction Book Club?

Generally, I've noticed the paper is very thin in a lot of those books. Presumably, that's part of how they fit two or three books into a single volume. Also, the cover art in most cases is acceptable/good, but not stellar, unless they get to re-use the original cover art (my copy of Support Your Local Wizard is a welcome exception). Physically, they seem about average for a 'non-fancy' hardcover. At any rate, I've never had any that felt like they were going to fall apart, I wish I could say that for all my paperbacks and graphic novels.

I hadn't realized until I started cataloging my collection, that book club editions have very little printing information. They tell you who, and there is a number code on the back cover (which I've been putting in the descriptions of the ones I put in, in case there's ever ID tracking beyond pure ISBN), and there are copyright dates, but no date of publishing. Which is annoying, and means I have to make intelligent guesses.

[Seizure Romero]

Sheri, I commented on the "Hardcover or Soft?" thread last week (it's the last comment on the thread-- apparently I killed it) regarding Book Club Editions (BCEs).

'Inferior' and 'up to par' are relative terms here. BCEs are generally published using cheaper materials (lower grade paper, etc.) and as Rindis noted above, they also tend to be sketchy regarding publishing information. But the words inside are (or should be) the same. From my original post:

"The gist: if you're not a collector & don't care about resale value pick up whatever editions you want; BCEs will almost always be cheaper, sometimes cheaper than paperback editions. Selling BCEs to used shops may prove difficult, however."

When I referred to collectors I should have specified first edition collectors. With very few exceptions BCEs are not the first edition of any given book (they are occasionally the first hardback edition, however). In this sense BCEs are only inferior the same way the paperback edition is inferior-- neither version is the first edition.