11 Scribes · All titles · Scribner Era (1998-present)

Fairy Tale Common

2022 · Scribner (Charles Scribner's Sons / Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of Fairy Tale
First-edition jacket (first (Wikipedia infobox)) · source

What it’s about

Seventeen-year-old Charlie Reade is an ordinary high-school kid carrying more than his share of grief when he befriends Howard Bowditch, a reclusive old man with a locked shed in his backyard and a loyal aging dog named Radar. After Bowditch dies, Charlie inherits the secret hidden beneath that shed: a passageway to a parallel world of wonder and ruin, where a great evil is rising and the fate of two realities may rest on one boy's shoulders.

Significance A standalone, instant #1 bestseller published by Scribner in September 2022 (under King's own name, not Bachman), King's overt love letter to classic fairy tales and pulp fantasy — written during the COVID lockdown and named one of the year's notable horror/fantasy releases.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover (Sept 6, 2022, ISBN 978-1-66800-217-9) is the true first edition, first printing. There is no preceding small-press or paperback original; the simultaneous UK Hodder & Stoughton hardcover and the various deluxe/limited editions are secondary to (or derivative of) the US trade first.
The Scribner US trade hardcover is the true first. No Donald M. Grant / Philtrum / small-press limited precedes it. Collector caution on STATE: this first printing exists in two manufacturing states — copies "Printed in the United States of America" and copies "Printed in Italy" (some U.S. distribution stock was printed in Italy on lighter/inferior stock with weaker binding). Both carry the same full number line and are first printings, but the U.S.-printed state is the preferred/higher-quality copy among collectors. The UK Hodder first is a separate, simultaneous first and not the true first for an American author.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementNo explicit "First Edition" text line appears for this title; Scribner's first-printing identifier here is the full number line on the copyright page together with the manufacturing statement (e.g. "Manufactured in the United States of America" / "Printed in the United States of America", with the Italy-printed state reading "Printed in Italy"). The presence of the complete number line ending in "...2" with the "1" intact is the defining point.
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — a first printing shows the complete line with the "1" present. Later printings drop the low numbers from the left (a 2nd printing has no "1"; a 4th printing, for example, would begin at "4"). Cross-confirmed at skcollector.com, rarebookcellar.com, and the Dark Tower Palaver first-editions wiki.
Gutter / printer codeN/A (Scribner/Simon & Schuster era — gutter codes are a Doubleday-era convention; identification is by number line, not a gutter code).
First printing — copies~1,500,000 (announced first trade printing, Scribner US hardcover) accepted figure
First jacket price$32.50 (US); $43.99 Canada (Upper front jacket flap, top-right corner. A price-clipped flap (corner cut off) hides this and reduces value.)
Board (panel) colorBlack paper-covered boards (full cloth-grain paper over boards). Spine carries shiny gilt/metallic lettering; spine title is also embossed/engraved on some descriptions. Note: a minority of dealer listings describe the boards as midnight-blue/navy — this is most likely listing error or the UK/deluxe variant; the U.S. Scribner trade first is documented as black with red endpapers by the Palaver wiki and skcollector.
Spine / center bindingSame black board/paper as the covers (full, single-color binding — not quarter-bound / not two-tone), with gilt lettering on the spine.
Binding styleSewn, full paper-over-boards trade hardcover (single-color binding, not quarter-bound). Italy-printed state uses lighter stock and is regarded as a lesser binding.
Topstain / endpapersRed endpapers (pictorial/colored pastedowns and free endpapers). No colored topstain noted (UNVERIFIED — plain). Endpapers are a recognized point: the U.S. trade first uses red endpapers; the UK Special Edition Books deluxe (Hodder, 200 copies) uses gold bespoke-design endpapers, and the Scribner deluxe of 2,000 uses its own decorated endpapers — do not confuse those with the trade first.

Dust jacket

Front: dark, atmospheric design with a small lone figure descending a long flight of stone steps into shadow/an arched passage, title "FAIRY TALE" and "STEPHEN KING" in clean type — minimalist, photographic. Spine: title/author with publisher. Back: dark continuation of the motif with review/jacket copy; author photo on the rear flap. Designer Will Staehle credited on the jacket.

Art / design: Jacket designed by Will Staehle (jacket imagery built from stock photographic elements — stone steps/cobblestones). Interior black-and-white illustrations by Gabriel Rodríguez (odd-numbered chapters + epilogue) and Nicolas Delort (even-numbered chapters).

reference photohttps://skcollector.com/1st/FairyTale.htmlreference photohttps://www.rarebookcellar.com/pages/books/193374/stephen-king/fairy-talereference photohttps://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showwiki.php?title=Stephen+King+First+Editions:Fairy+Tale+US
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo U.S. Book-of-the-Month / book-club edition is a significant concern for a 2022 Scribner title (modern S&S titles are not BOMC-cloned the way 1970s-80s Doubleday Kings were). Tells to watch for any club/derivative copy: "Book Club Edition" printed on the lower front jacket flap, NO price on the flap, an absent or incomplete number line, smaller trim, thinner/cheaper paper, glued rather than sewn. For THIS title the real-world confusions are instead: (1) the Italy-printed first-printing state, (2) later printings (the "1" gone from the number line), and (3) the deluxe/limited editions being mis-sold as the trade first.

Also watch for: (1) Married/facsimile jackets — verify the $32.50/$43.99 price and Will Staehle credit on an original (not laser-printed) jacket. (2) Price-clipped jackets hide the price and lower value. (3) The Italy-printed first-printing state mis-sold at U.S.-printed prices — check the copyright-page manufacturing line. (4) Later printings (number line missing the "1," e.g. 4th printing) sold as "first edition" because the title page says nothing about printing — always read the number line. (5) Deluxe/limited (200 or 2,000) editions or the UK Hodder first mis-described as the U.S. trade first. (6) Ex-library copies (stamps, pockets, spine labels) and remainder-marked copies (spray/dot on the bottom edge) carry sharply reduced value.

Print run & scarcity

HEADLINE: Announced first printing ~1,500,000 copies for the Scribner US hardcover (ISBN 9781668002179, $32.50, Sept 6 2022). This is the publisher-ANNOUNCED figure carried in Library Journal's Prepub Alert and matched by the stephenkingcollector.com forum's tally, which attributes it to official Simon & Schuster digital catalog PDFs (same forum lists comparable big-King Scribner laydowns: Doctor Sleep 1.5M, Holly 1.25M, Billy Summers 1M). VERIFICATION CAVEAT: 'announced first printing' is a marketing/print-target number, not an audited bindery count — actual bound first-printing quantity is not separately published, and the dedicated first-edition ID page (skcollector.com) literally records 'A first edition of ??? copies.' SALES FLOOR: NPD BookScan via Publishers Weekly recorded 128,000+ print copies sold in week one (ended Sept 18, 2022), topping adult fiction — consistent with a 7-figure print run. LIMITED/SPECIAL EDITIONS (separate from the trade run): UK Special Edition Books signed slipcased edition limited to 200 numbered copies; a separate slipcased 'Special Collector's Edition' of 2,000 was also offered. No US Donald M. Grant / Cemetery Dance signed-numbered-lettered limited was identified for this title at time of research. UK trade hardcover (Hodder) and the WHSmith purple collector's / independent-bookstore variants are distinct printings, not part of the Scribner first-printing figure. Do NOT conflate the Carrie ~30,000 figure with this title — Fairy Tale is a modern blockbuster Scribner release with an order-of-magnitude larger announced run.

First-state points & errata

No widely documented textual errata/typo separating first-state from later-state first printings. The principal state distinction for this title is the manufacturing location on the copyright page: "Printed in the United States of America" vs. "Printed in Italy." Both are first printings; the Italy-printed state is noted by collectors for thinner paper and lesser binding quality. UNVERIFIED whether any reading-text point (page-line change) distinguishes the two.

Limited & signed editions

UK Special Edition Books / Hodder & Stoughton signed limited: 200 numbered copies, clothbound in slipcase, gold-and-silver foil, blue ribbon marker, head/tail bands, gold bespoke endpapers, signed by King. Scribner/Simon & Schuster Deluxe Limited "Special Collector's Edition": 2,000 copies, slipcased, gilded page edges, full-color illustrations, ribbon marker, no dust jacket (issued sealed). Lividian Publications produced an aftermarket custom slipcase for the deluxe. Cemetery Dance / Glenn Chadbourne produced signed remarqued first-edition copies and limited art prints ("The Mermaid in the Pool," "Hana's Domain," etc.) — these are dealer remarque programs, not a separate Cemetery Dance numbered/traycased press edition. A standalone Cemetery Dance traycased lettered/numbered press edition is UNVERIFIED.

Market value estimate

~$20–$45

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): $20–45 (unsigned US trade first, fine/fine, unclipped $32.50 jacket, full number line to 1). SIGNED US first: ~$250–500; Hodder UK signed/slipcased limited of 200: ~$700–1,200+

Book-club edition (the trap): No true BOMC/book-club hardcover was issued the way 1980s–90s King titles were, so there is no classic "blind-stamp" BCE trap here. The functional traps that trade as junk ($5–12): later printings (number line NOT ending in 1), ex-library copies, reading copies, price-clipped jackets, and the UK Hodder edition mislisted as the US "first." These should be valued at a small fraction of a true fine first. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition sensitivity: as a brand-new mass-market bestseller the value is almost entirely condition- and signature-driven, NOT scarcity-driven. A bumped/read copy is a sub-$15 reading copy; only crisp fine/fine with an UNCLIPPED $32.50 jacket reaches the top of the unsigned range. Signed premium is the whole story: a verified King-signed US first runs roughly 5–10x an unsigned one (~$250–500 with solid authentication), and the Hodder UK signed/slipcased limited of 200 (£250 issue, sealed) is the genuinely collectible object at ~$700–1,200+. THE SINGLE BIGGEST THING separating a real first from the mislisted copies of THIS title: the copyright-page number line MUST end in 1 (`1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2`) with "First Edition" stated AND the jacket must show the unclipped $32.50 price — ignore the generic "Doubleday gutter code" advice, that does NOT apply to a Scribner book; the gutter-code test is a trap-template carryover and any listing invoking it for Fairy Tale is uninformed. Also reject UK Hodder copies (different ISBN/price) sold as the US "first."

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Cross-checks performed: PRICE $32.50 confirmed by skcollector.com, rarebookcellar.com, and the Palaver wiki. NUMBER LINE "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" confirmed by rarebookcellar.com and the Palaver wiki. BOARDS black + RED endpapers confirmed by the Palaver wiki (skcollector listing consistent). Will Staehle jacket + Rodríguez/Delort interiors confirmed by Wikipedia and the Palaver wiki. Italy-vs-US printing state confirmed by stephenkingcatalog.com (separate "Italy Printed Version" listing) and the Palaver wiki caveat. DISCREPANCY: a few dealer listings say midnight-blue/navy boards and/or orange endpapers — judged listing error or conflation with UK/deluxe; the U.S. trade first is black/red. Page count cited as 599 (text) / 608 (incl. front matter) across sources.

confidence: High on the load-bearing points (price $32.50, full number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2," Will Staehle jacket, interior illustrators Rodríguez/Delort, black boards + red endpapers, the U.S.-vs-Italy printing state, and the deluxe/UK limiteds) — each cross-confirmed across two or more sources (Palaver wiki, skcollector, Stephen King Catalog, rarebookcellar, Special Edition Books, Lividian, Wikipedia/ISFDB). Medium/low on: exact topstain (treated as none, UNVERIFIED), the minority navy-board listings (judged error/variant), and whether a standalone Cemetery Dance traycased press edition exists (UNVERIFIED).← Back to all titles