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

Elevation Common

2018 · Scribner (Simon & Schuster), New York

First-edition cover of Elevation — First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

In the small Maine town of Castle Rock, Scott Carey is losing weight at an alarming, inexplicable rate — yet the scale ignores whatever he's wearing or carrying, and his body looks no different. As he quietly grapples with this impossible condition, he also finds himself drawn into a feud with his new neighbors, a married couple whose restaurant is struggling against the town's prejudice. A slim, warm-hearted parable about gravity, grace, and shedding the weight that divides a community.

Significance A 2018 novella set in King's iconic Castle Rock, solely authored by Stephen King (not a Bachman title); a slender, optimistic fable often read as a companion piece to "Thinner," and a 2019 Audie Award winner.

Value$20–$40 confirmed salesnear-fine / fine

How to spot a true first 30-second check

★ BookOn the copyright page the full number line must read "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" and still include the "1" — the lowest remaining digit is the printing, so a missing "1" marks a later printing. This must accompany the stated "First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018"; a club/variant would carry neither the full line nor that statement.

★ JacketThe first-state jacket prints "$19.95" on the upper front flap (with the Canadian price). A clipped corner hides it and lowers value; any club/variant jacket lacks the printed $19.95 and may instead read "Book Club Edition" on the lower front flap.

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.

CopyrightStates "First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018"; must appear WITH the full number line — both required.

Number line ★ book tellFull "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" ending in 1; lowest remaining digit = the printing, so missing 1 = later.

Gutter code—n/a

Jacket price ★ jacket tell$19.95 on upper front flap (Canadian price too); clipped corner hides it and lowers value.

BindingCase-bound, sewn, small-format (~5.25-5.5" x 7.25"); uniform navy paper-over-boards, copper spine lettering.

Dust jacketSmall-format minimalist jacket evoking the weight-loss theme; author photo on rear flap; front artist unverified.

Endpapers / edgesPlain endpapers, no documented colored topstain; watch for remainder marks on the bottom edge.

What to look for

Need BOTH: the "First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018" line AND a number line ending in "1" — jacket alone proves nothing.
Later printing trap: low digits drop off the line; if the "1" is gone, it is NOT a first printing.
No small-press limited precedes it and it's not a paperback original — the Scribner hardcover IS the true first.
Cemetery Dance signed/illustrated (Chadbourne) edition came AFTER — a later collectible, not the first.
Married-jacket risk: confirm the copyright page, never trust a swapped first/later/club jacket.
Devaluers to flag: price-clipped flap, ex-library stamps, remainder marks, unverified "signed" copies.

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.

✓ 1st/1st confirmed$35odinbear ↗

Pass Near Fine book / VG+ jacket

US Scribner true first, decisive number line shown — genuine but a touch dear at $35 for a scuffed VG+ jacket; fair near $25-30.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos

Number line — Full line '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2' ending in 1 — the decisive true-first-printing tell, legibly photographed.
Copyright — States 'First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018'; (c) 2018 Stephen King; ISBN 978-1-9821-0231-9 matches barcode.
Jacket price — Front flap 'U.S. $19.95 / Can. $24.99', first-state unclipped; rear '1018' (Oct 2018) date code — rules out BCE.
Binding — Dark-blue cloth boards, sewn signatures, clean white text block — no glued/club binding.

⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying

Dust jacket — Jacket is VG+, not Fine: surface scuffing/scratching across the glossy laminate (photo 5) plus light edge rubbing near the spine ends.

Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references

Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover of October 30, 2018 is the true first edition, first printing. There is no preceding small-press limited and no paperback-original issue; the hardcover came first. The small-format (~7.25" tall) hardcover IS the first edition.
The Scribner trade hardcover (small-format, ~7.25" tall) is the true first edition. Unlike several early King titles, NO small-press limited precedes it (no Grant/Philtrum/Land of Enchantment equivalent). It is also NOT a paperback original. Note: Cemetery Dance later issued a deluxe signed/limited illustrated edition (Glenn Chadbourne art) AFTER the Scribner trade first — that is a later collectible, not the true first. The first-published text appeared in the Scribner hardcover.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statement"First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018" stated on the copyright page. Per Scribner (1998+) convention, a true first must show BOTH this edition statement AND the complete number line ending in a "1" (see numberLine). Both must be present.

Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — a true first printing shows the full line including the "1". On later printings the low digits drop away (the lowest remaining number indicates the printing); absence of the "1" marks a later printing.

Gutter / printer codeN/A — Scribner-era title; Doubleday gutter codes do not apply (Doubleday code convention is Carrie..Pet Sematary, 1974-1983 only).

First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed

First jacket price$19.95 (Upper front jacket flap (top corner). Canadian price typically also printed. A price-clipped flap hides this and reduces value.)

Board (panel) colorNavy / dark blue paper-over-boards. Small trim format (~5.25-5.5" x 7.25").

Spine / center bindingNavy/dark-blue spine with copper (metallic) lettering for title/author on the spine.

Binding styleCase-bound (boards), sewn binding, small-format hardcover. Quarter/two-tone binding is NOT a point here — boards are uniform navy.

Topstain / endpapersNo notable colored topstain documented (plain); endpapers plain. Interior carries a frontispiece plus chapter-heading illustrations by Mark Edward Geyer (an internal first-edition feature, not a state point). UNVERIFIED on any colored topstain.

Dust jacket

Small-format jacket with a stylized/minimalist design evoking the novella's weight-loss / "elevation" theme. Back jacket carries blurb/title treatment; author photo on rear flap. Precise front-art description UNVERIFIED beyond the minimalist stylized treatment; not part of a separate art series.

Art / design: Interior illustrations by Mark Edward Geyer (frontispiece + chapter headings; Geyer also illustrated King's first editions of Rose Madder and The Green Mile). The US Scribner dust-jacket cover designer/artist is UNVERIFIED (the often-cited Will Staehle designed The Institute, 2019, not confirmed for Elevation; the UK Hodder jacket art is credited to Wendy Stevenson).

https://johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk/book/stephen-king-elevation-first-us-edition-2018/

https://bookshopapocalypse.com/products/elevation-by-stephen-king-first-edition-first-printing-2018

https://www.firstandfine.com/product/king-stephen-2018-elevation-us-signed-first-edition/

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyScribner/S&S did NOT route this small-format novella through the traditional BOMC/Doubleday book-club channel the way 1970s-80s King titles were, so a classic blind-stamped BCE is not the common risk here. A club/variant, if encountered, would lack the printed $19.95 on the front flap, may print "Book Club Edition" on the lower front flap, use thinner/lighter paper, a smaller/cheaper trim, glued (not sewn) binding, and would NOT carry the full "First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018" statement + "1 ... 2" number line. Confirm via the copyright page + full number line, not the dust jacket alone.

Also watch for: Watch for: (1) Price-clipped jackets — corner cut hides the $19.95 and lowers value. (2) Married jackets — a later-printing or club jacket on a first-printing book (or vice versa); verify the copyright-page statement AND full number line, do not trust the jacket. (3) Ex-library copies — stamps/labels/spine markings, heavily devalued (ex-library listings exist for this title). (4) Remainder marks on the bottom text-block edge. (5) Later printings passed off as firsts — confirm the number line still ends in "1". (6) Autopen/secretarial or unverified "signed" copies — King in-person signatures need provenance.

Print run & scarcity

Title verified as the book in front of me: Elevation, a ~144-page novella, first US hardcover = Scribner, Oct 30, 2018, $19.95, blue cloth, chapter illustrations by Mark Edward Geyer; true first identified by 'First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018' + number line '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2'. It was a #1 NYT bestseller, so the actual trade first printing was almost certainly large (six figures), but no specific announced number is documented. Did NOT reuse the ~30,000 Carrie figure — that is a different (1974 Doubleday) title and does not apply here. NO limited/small-press edition found for this title: no signed/numbered/lettered Cemetery Dance or Donald M. Grant Elevation surfaced; the 'lettered/traycase' results in searches belonged to other King titles (e.g., Sleeping Beauties). So there are no limited counts to report — Elevation was issued as a trade hardcover only. Source disagreement: none found (all sources are silent on the number rather than contradicting each other); the single source that addresses run size at all, StephenKingCollector.com, marks it unknown.

First-state points & errata

No widely documented errata or first-state/second-state text change separating first-printing copies is recorded for this title (UNVERIFIED whether any minor typo exists). Identification rests on the copyright-page statement + full number line ending in "1", not on a text-state point.

Limited & signed editions

Cemetery Dance Publications produced a deluxe signed/limited illustrated edition of Elevation (illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne) AFTER the Scribner trade first — a separate later collectible, not the true first (exact limitation/states UNVERIFIED). The "Stephen King New Cover Series No. 35 — Elevation" (Glenn Chadbourne, artist-signed, ltd 500) is an art-cover-only collectible, NOT a book edition. No Suntup edition of Elevation confirmed. Author-signed trade firsts (signature on the title page) exist and command a premium.

Market value confirmed sales

$20–$40

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

Confirmed sales: No Heritage Auctions / PBA Galleries / Rare Book Hub lot exists for this title — it is too common/modern to reach formal auction, so I will not fabricate one. Documented dealer/market evidence: (1) stephenkingcollector.com lists current retail value at $15–$20 for an unsigned fine first (Dec 2024 update); (2) eBay sold/active true firsts ("$19.95 Scribner, number-line first printing") consistently transact in the ~$25–50 range, fine/fine; (3) First & Fine (UK dealer) cataloged a signed US first, fine, title-page signature in the low-mid hundreds tier (out of stock, price withheld but consistent with the $300–700 signed band); (4) signed King firsts of comparable common modern titles broadly clear $300–700 on eBay sold when accompanied by credible provenance.

Book-club edition (the trap): $5–12. Book club / later-printing copies of this small-format title are effectively junk-tier and are routinely mislisted as "first editions." Treat any sub-$15 "first" as a non-first or BCE. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

[Audit-corrected from $25-700: value is for a genuine UNSIGNED trade first in fine/fine; signed/limited copies excluded.] Condition sensitivity is LOW in absolute dollars because the unsigned first is abundant — fine/fine vs near-fine swings only a few dollars; price-clipping knocks the jacket toward near-worthless. The signed premium is the ENTIRE game: a credibly authenticated title-page signature multiplies value ~10x (unsigned ~$25–60 → signed ~$300–700), and a PSA/JSA/Beckett or reputable-dealer COA pushes the high end. THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING separating a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: it is NOT a Doubleday gutter code (wrong publisher — Elevation is Scribner) and it is NOT primarily a book-club blind-stamp trap. It is (a) the number line must read "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" (full line ending in ...4 2 with the 1 present) AND the jacket must show $19.95 unclipped; and (b) because this is a low-value common first, virtually ALL the money rides on the SIGNATURE — so the real trap is forged/autopen/secretary signatures and provenance-free "signed" claims, plus the UK Hodder & Stoughton edition (and later US printings) being passed off as the US Scribner first. Verify signature authenticity before paying any premium; an unsigned "fine first" is worth pocket change no matter how the listing is dressed up.

Value sources:

Sources

confidence: High on the load-bearing points: copyright-page statement "First Scribner hardcover edition October 2018", number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2", $19.95 price, navy boards/copper spine, Geyer illustrations, and trade-hardcover-is-true-first — each cross-confirmed across 2+ independent dealer/eBay/AbeBooks sources plus the Scribner convention. Lower confidence (UNVERIFIED) on: exact US jacket cover-art designer, colored topstain, and precise Cemetery Dance limitation figures.

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