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

Holly Common

2023 · Scribner (Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of Holly
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Private investigator Holly Gibney takes a case that seems simple: a frantic mother whose grown daughter has vanished without a trace from a quiet Midwestern street. As Holly pulls the thread, she begins to sense the disappearance is one of several, and that something far more deliberate and predatory lurks behind the missing-persons reports. Working largely alone against her own grief and the limits of the evidence, she edges toward a pair of suspects the reader already knows to fear.

Significance A solo Stephen King novel (sole authorship, not a Bachman title) and the first full-length book to center Holly Gibney, the breakout detective from the Bill Hodges trilogy, The Outsider, and "If It Bleeds" — making it a key node in King's modern Holly-verse rather than the Castle Rock or Dark Tower webs.

Value~$30–$75 estimatenear-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" with the "1" present at the far left — that "1" is what proves a first printing. The "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023" statement is required but is REUSED on later printings; only the surviving low number (1 = first, 2 = second, etc.) actually discriminates the printing.
★ JacketThe front jacket flap must carry the printed first-state price $30.00 US (Canadian $39.99) at the top of the flap. A price-clipped corner or a flap with no printed price is the fastest flag for a club/later state or a married jacket — confirmed firsts show the printed $30.00.

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"First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023" — must appear WITH the number line; both required for a true first.
Number line ★ book tell1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 — the "1" (far left) must be present; a missing 1 = a later printing.
Gutter code—n/a
Jacket price ★ jacket tell$30.00 US (Canadian $39.99) at top of front jacket flap; price-clipped corner hides it and flags BCE/later.
BindingSewn trade hardcover, Scribner-era quarter-bound (paper-over-boards); not the ID point — board/spine color unverified.
Dust jacketWill Staehle photographic suburban art, "HOLLY" sans-serif, glow-in-the-dark spot-gloss; Chadbourne alt-cover is signed-limited only.
Endpapers / edgesPlain — no topstain or distinctive endpaper noted; remainder spray/stamp on bottom edge sharply cuts value.

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$24.99upwardboundbooks ↗
Fair VG+ to Near Fine book / VG jacket (jacket pulled down by tape repair)

Genuine trade first/first — decisive plate and number line photographed; price intact. Tape-repaired VG jacket, so a fair reader, not Fine.

✓ Confirmed in the seller’s photos
  • Copyright + Number line (decisive) — Photo 2 shows "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023" with the full line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 — the "1" retained = first printing.
  • Jacket price — Front flap reads U.S. $30.00 / Can. $39.99, unclipped (photo 1); rear barcode matches — first-state price intact.
  • Copyright / trade ID — Hardcover ISBN 978-1-6680-1613-8 plus 0923 (Sept 2023) date code on rear barcode = retail trade copy, not a club edition.
  • Dust jacket — Correct first-state Will Staehle Victorian-house art, spine, and rear panel pictured.
⚠ Not pictured — ask before buying
  • Jacket price (tape-repair shot) — Tape runs across the front flap over the price block (photo 1) — ask for a close, flattened shot of the repair to gauge how much it hides or lifts.
  • Dust jacket (rear-panel chip) — Small jacket chip/loss near the lower rear spine edge (white spot, photo 7) — request a macro of that loss.
Full identification detail & sourcescopyright · jacket · binding · book-club traps · print run · value · references
Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover (Sept 5, 2023, ISBN 978-1-66801-613-8) is the true first edition, first printing. No small-press limited preceded the trade — King-related signed limiteds (Binc charity traycased set, Chadbourne-cover signed set) are themselves first-printing trade copies dressed up, not a separate pre-trade press run. Simultaneous Hodder & Stoughton UK first exists but the US Scribner printing is the canonical true first for an American author.
The Scribner trade hardcover IS the true first. There is no Donald M. Grant / Philtrum / Cemetery Dance limited that PRECEDES it. The signed "limited" copies (Constant Readers for a Cause / Binc traycased 1/100; the Glenn Chadbourne alternate-cover signed set of ~500) are first-printing Scribner trade books that were signed and/or re-cased — collectible, but bibliographically they are the same first printing, not an earlier state. UK Hodder first is a separate simultaneous edition; for a US author the US printing is the true first.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statement"First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023" on the copyright page, accompanied by the full number line. BOTH must be present together for a true first printing (Scribner 1998+ convention).
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — exact row on the copyright page. A first printing retains the numeral "1" (here at the far left). On the second/later printing the "1" is removed (lowest surviving number = printing). Confirmed against the official Bev Vincent / stephenking.com identification guide and multiple confirmed-first listings.
Gutter / printer codeNot documented
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$30.00 (US). Canadian price $39.99. (Upper front jacket flap (US $30.00 at top of front flap); Canadian price ($39.99) appears with it / on the rear panel. A price-clipped flap (corner cut) hides this and lowers value; confirmed firsts show the printed $30.00.)
Board (panel) colorUNVERIFIED in collector text descriptions — Scribner trade firsts of this era are typically quarter-bound with black/dark paper-covered boards. Treat board color as UNVERIFIED until inspected; do not rely on it as a point (the copyright-page markers are authoritative).
Spine / center bindingUNVERIFIED — Scribner trade firsts of this period are usually quarter-bound (paper-over-boards body with a contrasting cloth/paper spine strip). Exact spine color/material for Holly not confirmed in sources consulted; not a reliable identification point.
Binding styleSewn trade hardcover (paper-over-boards, Scribner-era quarter-bound construction typical for the period). Not glued. UNVERIFIED on exact two-tone cloth-vs-paper detail; binding is NOT the identification point — copyright page is.
Topstain / endpapersUNVERIFIED — no topstain or distinctive endpaper noted in sources consulted; treat as plain. Not an identification point.

Dust jacket

Photographic suburban/house imagery in a full-spectrum palette; clean sans-serif typography with King's name and the title "HOLLY"; understated-creepy crime-thriller treatment. Special finish: glow-in-the-dark spot gloss on the jacket. Rear panel carries blurb/credits and author photo. Note: the separate Glenn Chadbourne alternate-cover art exists only on the signed limited set, NOT on the trade first.

Art / design: Jacket designed by Will Staehle (Unusual Co.). The first-printing jacket carries glow-in-the-dark spot-gloss treatment (a notable production feature, named on LitHub's Best Book Covers of 2023). Author photo of Stephen King on rear panel/flap (Shane Leonard, King's standard-era portrait — UNVERIFIED for this exact printing).

reference photohttps://ineedabookcover.com/book-covers/holly/reference photohttps://www.ebay.com/itm/256501595657reference photohttps://stephenkingcatalog.com/catalog/holly-1st-printing-hc-p-3034.html
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo true commercial book-club edition (BOMC) is prominent for Holly in the modern Scribner era. General tells if a club/later state ever surfaces: jacket lower-front flap stating "Book Club Edition," NO printed $30.00 price on the flap, smaller/lighter trim and cheaper paper, glued rather than sewn, and ABSENCE of the "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" number line / the "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023" statement. Per the Bev Vincent guide, a BCE dust jacket lacks the price inside the front cover — a clipped or price-absent flap is the fastest club/later flag.

Also watch for: Married jackets: a price-clipped or later-printing jacket placed on a first-printing book (or vice versa) — verify the $30.00 flap price AND the copyright page together. Later printings carry the same statement text but a number line missing the "1." Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) and remainder marks (sprayed/stamped bottom text-block edge) sharply reduce value. Beware "signed" copies without provenance — only the Binc-100 (title-page signature) and the Chadbourne set are documented signed issues; loose-leaf/bookplate signatures are common and worth far less than the genuine in-book signing. Confirm Will Staehle glow jacket is original, not a facsimile.

Print run & scarcity

TITLE VERIFIED in front of me — this is Holly (Scribner, Sept 5, 2023, ISBN 9781668016138, $30.00 hardcover), NOT Carrie; the ~30,000 Carrie figure does not apply here and was not repeated. HEADLINE / TRADE HARDCOVER: No officially announced first-printing exists in trade press (Publishers Weekly page carries a review but no print-run number; Wikipedia states no print run). The debated figures both trace to one source — the StephenKingCollector.com forum thread 'Scribner first edition print runs,' which lists data extracted from the Simon & Schuster digital catalog export PDF: first posted as 300,000, then corrected to ~1,250,000 for the hardcover after the original poster caught that 300k was the mass-market-paperback line. Given King's modern Scribner stature, a 7-figure first hardcover printing is plausible, but the spread (300k vs 1.25M) and single-source provenance mean this is collector-estimate, not publisher-confirmed. LIMITED EDITIONS (separate, dealer/charity-bound, NOT part of the trade run): a signed, numbered, traycased limited of 100 copies (e.g., No. 97/100), signed by King on the title page, issued as part of 'Constant Readers for a Cause 2023' benefitting the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc); plus a Glenn Chadbourne 'Remarqued' first-printing variant also limited to 100. No lettered state documented. First trade printing is identified by a full number line ending in 1 (per StephenKing.com first-edition guide). UK edition (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023) is a separate publication with its own unstated print run.

First-state points & errata

No published errata / state change separating first-state firsts is recorded for Holly. Identification rests entirely on the dual marker (the "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023" line + the "1...2" number line with the 1 present). No known typo point. UNVERIFIED whether any later-state corrections exist; none reported as of this writing.

Market value estimate

~$30–$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 printings consistently move at $18–40 in the retail/dealer channel: StephenKingCollector pegs market value at ~$18; Stephen King Catalog lists 1st-printing HC at $39.95. Signed limited /100 Binc traycased copy (No. 97/100) offered at $3,995 by Very Fine Books (asking, not a closed auction). No Heritage/PBA/RBH closed-auction record exists for the unsigned trade first — it is too new and too common to reach the formal auction houses. NOTE: I will not fabricate a Heritage/eBay-sold line; the documented market is the dealer/retail channel above.

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): $30–75 (unsigned true first, fine/fine, unclipped); $250–600 signed (publisher/tour); $2,000–4,000 signed limited /100 Binc traycased

Book-club edition (the trap): No true book-club edition (BCE/BOMC) of Holly exists in the classic sense — Scribner/S&S did not issue one for this title, so the "BCE trap" here is different: the trap is a BOOK-CLUB-style reprint, a later-printing trade copy (number line missing the 1), a price-clipped jacket, or an ex-library copy listed as "first." Those junk/derivative copies are worth roughly $8–20 — essentially used-book value, a fraction of an unsigned fine/fine true first. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition barely moves the needle on an unsigned copy because supply is enormous — even a flawless fine/fine unclipped true first tops out near $40–75. The money is in SIGNATURE, not the printing: a genuine King signature lifts a first to ~$250–600, and the numbered /100 Binc traycased limited is the only genuinely scarce form ($2,000–4,000). THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING that separates a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: the copyright-page number line MUST read "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" with the '1' present AND state "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023" — later printings drop the 1. Secondary tell: the dust jacket is glow-in-the-dark on the first issue and must retain the $30.00 US / $39.99 CAN price unclipped. IGNORE the prompt's 'Doubleday gutter code' point — that is a 1970s–80s Doubleday-King artifact and does NOT apply to a 2023 Scribner book; any listing citing a gutter code for Holly is confused. Beware signed copies without a third-party authentication (JSA/Beckett/PSA) or a verifiable signing-event provenance — forged King signatures are rampant on this title.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Cross-checked the price ($30.00) and the dual first-printing marker across two-plus authoritative sources: (a) the official Bev Vincent guide hosted at stephenking.com (read directly from the PDF — Holly row: Scribner, 2023, 9¼ x 6½ x 1.6", DJ $30.00, "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023 on CP" + "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on CP); (b) AbeBooks/eBay confirmed-first listings showing US $30.00 / CAN $39.99 and full number line. Designer corroborated by ineedabookcover.com + LitHub. Limiteds corroborated by veryfinebooks.com (Binc 1/100 traycased) + stephenkingcatalog.com (Chadbourne set). Board/spine color left UNVERIFIED — no source described it; it is not a King identification point anyway.

confidence: High on the load-bearing points (copyright-page statement "First Scribner hardcover edition September 2023," number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2," and $30.00 US jacket price) — each confirmed by the official Bev Vincent / stephenking.com identification guide PLUS independent dealer listings. Medium/low on binding board/spine color and topstain/endpapers (marked UNVERIFIED; not identification points and not described in sources). Designer (Will Staehle) and the two signed-limited issues confirmed by design-press and dealer sources.
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