11 Scribes · All titles · 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.

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.

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.← Back to all titles