11 Scribes · Stephen King & Bachman · Scribner Era (1998-present)

Doctor Sleep Common

2013 · Scribner (a Division of Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of Doctor Sleep
First-edition jacket (US first edition (Scribner, September 2013) hardcover dust jacket) · source

What it’s about

Decades after the horrors of the Overlook Hotel, a now-grown Dan Torrance drifts through adulthood haunted by the same psychic "shining" — and by the alcoholism that nearly drowns him. Finding fragile sobriety in a New Hampshire town, where he uses his gift to comfort the dying at a hospice (earning the nickname "Doctor Sleep"), Dan is drawn to Abra, a young girl whose shining blazes brighter than his own. When a nomadic tribe that feeds on the "steam" of gifted children sets its sights on Abra, Dan must confront his past to protect her.

Significance The long-awaited sequel to King's 1977 classic "The Shining"; it won the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and was adapted into the 2019 Mike Flanagan film starring Ewan McGregor and Rebecca Ferguson.

Value~$25–$75 estimatenear-fine / fine

How to spot a true first 30-second check

★ BookOn the copyright page, the line "First Scribner Hardcover Edition September 2013" must be present, paired with the complete number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" intact down to the "1." A book-club edition lacks this Scribner first-printing statement and a number line ending in "1"; later printings drop the low digits (lowest remaining digit 2 or higher).
★ JacketThe front dust-jacket flap, upper corner, must read "$30.00 / $34.99 CAN" unclipped. Book-club issues carry NO printed price (or read "Book Club Edition"), so an unpriced or price-clipped flap on a copy sold as a trade first is a red flag.

A true 1st/1st needs BOTH the book and the jacket verified. A first-state jacket on a later or book-club book — or the reverse — is a married copy, not a first.

Copyright ★ book tell"First Scribner Hardcover Edition September 2013" must be present; BCEs lack this statement.
Number line1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 — must be intact to the 1; a missing 1 (lowest digit 2+) means a later printing.
Gutter code—n/a
Jacket price ★ jacket tellFront flap top corner reads $30.00 / $34.99 CAN, unclipped; book-club issues carry NO price.
BindingQuarter-bound: black cloth spine (silver lettering) with red paper boards; sewn, 531 pp.
Dust jacketStark road/lone-figure illustration in muted ominous tones; design Tal Goretsky, illustration Sean Freeman.
Endpapers / edgesPlain unprinted endpapers on the trade first; decorated endpapers belong to the later Cemetery Dance limiteds, not this.

What to look for

Verified listings marker-checked

Each copy screened against the seller's own photos. ✓ confirmed = a photo shows the decisive marker; ⚠ not pictured = the shot to ask for before buying. Condition grades are as-pictured.

Buyer beware — verify before you buy. These are our screening opinions, read from each seller’s own photographs; we can misjudge a copy or misread an image. A listing marked “1st/1st confirmed” is not a guarantee — independently confirm the decisive book and jacket markers with the seller before any purchase. Authentication and the buying decision remain the buyer’s responsibility.

Seller’s photo of this copy
✓ 1st/1st confirmed$39.99gonetotheanimalz ↗
Pass Near Fine book / VG+ to Near Fine jacket

A genuine Scribner first edition, first printing of Doctor Sleep with both decisive tells legibly photographed — the "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2013" statement sitting over an intact number line, and a correct priced first-state Freeman jacket — though the jacket is never removed in any of the twelve frames, so the cloth spine and the unclipped front flap corner rest on the seller's description alone.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos
  • Copyright statement — The copyright page reads "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2013" in full, sharp legibility (photo 2) — the decisive book tell for this title, and the statement a book-club edition never carries.
  • Number line — On that same copyright page the line reads 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2, intact all the way down to the 1 (photo 2), which is a true first printing rather than a later state with the low digits stripped away.
  • Jacket price — The rear barcode block is printed "$30.00 U.S./$34.99 Can." with the ISBN 978-1-4767-2765-3 and the jacket date code 0913 beside it (photo 8) — a priced trade jacket at the correct first-state price, which rules out the unpriced book-club issue.
  • Dust jacket — The correct first-issue jacket is shown front and back — Sean Freeman's smoke-lettered STEPHEN KING / DOCTOR SLEEP / A NOVEL (photo 1) and the REDRUM rear panel (photo 8) — with the credit line "JACKET DESIGN BY TAL GORETSKY / JACKET ILLUSTRATION BY SEAN FREEMAN" legible on the rear flap (photo 7).
  • Boards (red paper) — The red paper boards are plainly visible along the head and tail edges and at the turn-in of the open front cover (photos 6, 7 and 11), correct for the trade first.
  • Endpapers — The open front cover shows a plain, unprinted endpaper (photo 7), correct for the trade first and not the decorated endpapers of the later Cemetery Dance limiteds.
⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying
  • Black cloth spine (and its silver lettering) — The jacket stays on in all twelve frames, so the cloth spine was never seen — the black visible along the board edges is the jacket's own wrap, not cloth — leaving the spine half of the quarter-binding unphotographed; ask for one shot of the book with the jacket removed, spine to the camera.
  • Front flap price corner (unclipped) — The front flap appears in none of the twelve frames — the printed price that was photographed is the rear barcode block, not the flap corner — so "unclipped" rests on the seller's word alone; ask for a straight-on shot of the front flap's top corner, a value and condition point only, since the copyright statement and the priced rear block already settle the edition question.
Seller’s photo of this copy
likely first$19.95gaslight.books ↗
Fair Fine book / VG+ jacket

Genuine first at a cheap $19.95 — VG+ jacket wear is more than priced in; just get the statement + front-flap shots.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos
  • Number line — Copyright-page row photographed and legible: 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 — intact to the 1, the first-printing tell.
  • Copyright — LCCN 2013000431 and ISBN 978-1-4767-2765-3 on the copyright page, both correct for the Scribner first.
  • Dust jacket — Correct first-edition art (smoke front, REDRUM rear, Scribner logo at spine foot); printed rear barcode = priced trade jacket, not book-club.
⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying
  • "First Scribner Hardcover Edition September 2013" statement — Decisive statement line not pictured — only the number line. Ask for the full copyright statement shot.
  • Jacket price — Front flap price not photographed; unclipped only inferred from rear barcode. Ask for the front flap to confirm $30.00 intact.
  • Binding — Notes flag spine-crown bump, top-rear-corner wear and rear-panel scratches — ask for close-ups of spine ends and corners.
Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references
Is this the true first?Yes. The trade hardcover from Scribner (September 2013) is the true first edition of the original text. There is no preceding paperback original or small-press text-first. The Cemetery Dance illustrated/signed limited editions were published AFTER the Scribner trade and are derivative collector states, not the textual first. (Caveat: the UK first by Hodder & Stoughton was published essentially simultaneously in 2013; the US Scribner is normally taken as the true first for an American author.)
The Scribner 2013 trade hardcover IS the true first edition. No small-press limited or paperback precedes the text (unlike the early Dark Tower / Eyes of the Dragon / Cycle of the Werewolf cases). The Cemetery Dance signed/illustrated limited editions came LATER (Oct 29, 2013 release) and are NOT the first appearance of the text. As a 2013 Scribner title, the standard Scribner-era points apply: a true first requires BOTH the "First Scribner Hardcover Edition September 2013" line AND the complete number line ending in the low digits.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statement"First Scribner Hardcover Edition September 2013"
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — the standard Scribner-era odd-up/even-down row. A first printing shows the complete line including the "1"; later printings drop the lowest numbers (a "2" or higher as the lowest remaining digit, e.g. a 2nd printing would lack the 1). Verify the line is intact to "1".
Gutter / printer codeN/A — Scribner-era titles are not identified by a Doubleday-style gutter/printer code. Identification is by the "First Scribner Hardcover Edition September 2013" statement plus the number line.
First printing — copies~1.1–1.5 million copies (Scribner US trade hardcover first printing) — sources disagree: stephenkingcollector.com lists 1,100,000; the Simon & Schuster catalog states 1,500,000 accepted figure
First jacket priceUS $30.00 / CAN $34.99 (Upper front dust-jacket flap (top corner), printed as "$30.00 / $34.99 CAN." A price-clipped jacket (corner cut away) hides this and lowers value; book-club issues carry NO price.)
Board (panel) colorRed boards
Spine / center bindingBlack cloth spine with silver title lettering (quarter-bound)
Binding styleQuarter-bound hardcover: black quarter cloth to the spine with red paper-covered boards; sewn binding. Trade trim, 531 pages.
Topstain / endpapersUNVERIFIED — no notable topstain color is documented for the Scribner trade first; endpapers are plain (unprinted) on the trade edition. (Note: the Cemetery Dance LIMITED editions have decorated/embossed endpapers — Gift edition has Glenn Chadbourne illustrated endpapers — but those are separate collector states, NOT the trade first.)

Dust jacket

Front panel: a stark, atmospheric illustration — a lone figure / road imagery in muted, ominous tones with the title "DOCTOR SLEEP" and "STEPHEN KING" in large type; marketed as the sequel to The Shining. Spine and rear continue the dark photographic-illustrative treatment; rear panel/flaps carry the synopsis and author material. Author photo on the rear flap (Shane Leonard credited on King's Scribner-era jackets of this period; verify per copy).

Art / design: Jacket design by Tal Goretsky; jacket illustration by Sean Freeman. (Cross-check: some listings credit the design/illustration team variously; Goretsky/Freeman is the credit found for the Scribner trade jacket. Rex Bonomelli designed King's 11/22/63 jacket, NOT Doctor Sleep.)

reference photohttps://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/95416/stephen-king/doctor-sleep-a-novelreference photohttps://www.cemeterydance.com/doctor-sleep.htmlreference photohttps://bookshopapocalypse.com/products/doctor-sleep-by-stephen-king-first-edition-first-printing-2013
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyA Doctor Sleep book-club edition (BCE) is identifiable by: NO price on the front jacket flap (or "Book Club Edition" printed there); a small blind-stamp (indented dot/circle/square) on the lower-right of the REAR board; thinner/cheaper paper and often slightly smaller trim and lighter weight; glued rather than sewn binding; and the copyright page will LACK the proper number line ending in "1" (BCEs typically have no Scribner first-printing statement + full line). For modern Scribner titles, the surest tell is the missing/altered number line plus the rear-board blind-stamp and absence of the printed jacket price.

Also watch for: Watch for: PRICE-CLIPPED jackets passed off at first-edition prices; "married" jackets (a later-printing or BCE jacket on a first-printing book, or vice versa) — verify the number line in the book itself AND the printed $30.00 price on the flap; book-club editions mis-sold as trade firsts (check rear-board blind-stamp + missing number line); ex-library copies (stamps, spine labels, pockets); remainder marks (spray/dot to the bottom text-block edge) which reduce value; and conflation of the Scribner trade first with the much later Cemetery Dance signed/limited illustrated editions, which are a different (oversized, illustrated) product. Glenn Chadbourne "New Cover Series" art prints/folios are unrelated collectible items, not the first edition.

Print run & scarcity

TRADE EDITION (Scribner US, hardcover, pub. 2013-09-24, 531 pp): This is a big modern Scribner King title, so it had a very large announced first printing — NOT a small early-King-style run. Two leading collector references disagree on the exact figure: (1) stephenkingcollector.com's first-edition page lists the first printing as 1,100,000; (2) the Simon & Schuster digital catalog (the publisher's own) is cited on the stephenkingcollector.com forums as stating 1,500,000. A forum member specifically flagged the 1,100,000 figure as not matching the official S&S catalog number of 1,500,000 — so the discrepancy is a known, live debate among collectors. I did NOT find a primary Scribner/S&S press release pinning one number; Wikipedia gives no print-run or sales figure. First-printing ID: full number line ending in '1' and 'First Scribner hardcover edition September 2013' on the copyright page.

LIMITED / SMALL-PRESS EDITION (Cemetery Dance Publications, oversized illustrated, Vincent Chong art, 2013) — counts per the publisher's own page: 1,750 slipcased GIFT edition (illustrated, unsigned) + 750 traycased SIGNED & NUMBERED edition (signed by King + artists) + 52 LETTERED edition (signed, gilded edges, deluxe box). These are separate from the Scribner trade printing.

Reliability: trade-edition headline is reliable as a range (~1.1M–1.5M); exact number unresolved between two good sources. Limited-edition counts are firm (first-party publisher).

First-state points & errata

UNVERIFIED — no widely documented first-state errata / textual state change is recorded for Doctor Sleep separating sub-states of the first printing. Confirmation rests on the copyright-page statement plus the complete number line. No known points-bearing typo is cited in the standard listings consulted.

Limited & signed editions

Cemetery Dance Publications issued an oversized illustrated signed limited (illustrations by Vincent Chong [color] and Erin S. Wells [b/w]; Glenn Chadbourne endpaper art on the Gift state), released Oct 29, 2013, in three states: (1) GIFT EDITION — 1,750 copies, slipcased, $95, signed by King and all artists, Chadbourne illustrated endpapers; (2) NUMBERED/LIMITED EDITION — 750 copies, traycased, $450, two-color hot-foil stamping, satin ribbon marker, embossed endpapers, signed by King and all artists; (3) LETTERED EDITION — 52 copies, $2,500, two fine binding materials, gilded page edges, imported endpapers, satin ribbon, custom deluxe box, signed by King and all artists. These are LATER derivative editions, not the textual first. (No Subterranean Press limited of this title.)

Market value estimate

~$25–$75

Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.

Sale evidence no verified realized price: Unsigned trade first, fine/fine: routinely sells $15–40 on eBay SOLD; "Brand New/unread" first/first copies have hammered around $35–55. StephenKingCollector (ref valuation, updated Dec 2024) pegs typical firsts at $10–20. SIGNED-by-King trade firsts: dealer-realized roughly $350–550 (First & Fine, similar trade houses). Cemetery Dance signed/numbered limited (#/750, traycased, Glenn Chadbourne illustrated): original retail $450 (sold out in ~4.5 hrs), secondary realized commonly $450–900. No genuine unsigned-trade-first lots appear in Heritage/PBA — the 1.1M first-print run keeps it out of major auction.

No confirmed sale found, so this is rated at no less than its original jacket price — a true first/first should hold at least retail in near-fine/fine condition. Soft estimate from dealer listings (treat as approximate): $25–75 (true unsigned first, fine/fine, unclipped $30 jacket); $300–600 signed by King; Cemetery Dance numbered/750 limited $400–900

Book-club edition (the trap): No formally identified BOMC/BCE was widely circulated for this title (the trade first itself was 1.1M copies, so clubs leaned on the trade printing); a true book-club or remainder/ex-library copy is worth roughly $5–12 — basically reading-copy money. The "trap" here is less BCE and more (a) price-clipped jackets, (b) later printings sold as firsts, and (c) the facsimile-DJ-on-a-club-board copies. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition sensitivity is moderate-to-high in PERCENTAGE terms but small in dollars because the base is so low: a fine/fine unclipped copy is worth maybe 2–3x a reading copy, but that's $40 vs $15, not thousands. The real value lives in SIGNATURE and EDITION, not condition: a verified King signature adds roughly $300–500 over an unsigned copy; the Cemetery Dance limiteds are a separate (much higher) market. THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING that separates a real first from the mislisted copies for THIS title: it is NOT a book-club problem — it's the number line. The true first-printing copyright-page number line reads exactly "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" (full line including the 10). Sellers constantly list LATER PRINTINGS (line starting at 2, 3, etc.) and movie-tie-in / paperback-era reprints as "First Edition." Second: the jacket MUST be unclipped showing US $30.00 (CAN $34.99) — clipped jackets and married/facsimile jackets are the other common dodge. Verify the line first, the $30 price second; everything else is noise. Because 1.1M copies exist, "first edition" alone is meaningless — only first PRINTING + unclipped jacket has any premium, and even that premium is modest unless signed.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Cross-checked across: Rare Book Cellar / AbeBooks listing (copyright statement + ISBN 9781476727653 + 531 pp), AbeBooks/eBay first-edition listings (number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"; price US $30.00 / CAN $34.99 on front flap), and Cemetery Dance official page + VeryFineBooks (three-state limited breakdown). Binding (red boards / black quarter cloth / silver spine) confirmed via dealer collation. Jacket credits (Goretsky/Freeman) found via search; flagged medium-confidence. No first-state errata documented — marked UNVERIFIED rather than guessed.

confidence: High on the load-bearing points (copyright statement "First Scribner Hardcover Edition September 2013", number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2", price US $30.00 / CAN $34.99, red boards / black-and-silver spine, Cemetery Dance limitation breakdown) — each cross-confirmed across at least two dealer/reference sources. Medium on jacket artist credit (Tal Goretsky design / Sean Freeman illustration found but not on a primary points page) and author-photo credit. Low/UNVERIFIED on topstain and any first-state errata — none documented, so flagged rather than guessed.
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