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Joyland Common pb original

2013 · Hard Case Crime (imprint of Titan Books / Titan Publishing Group, London/New York)
First-edition cover of Joyland
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

In the summer of 1973, college student Devin Jones takes a job at Joyland, a small North Carolina amusement park, to nurse a broken heart and earn his way through school. Wearing the fur and learning the carny lingo, he gets pulled into the legend of a young woman murdered years earlier on the park's dark ride — a killing that was never solved. It is a coming-of-age tale wrapped in a noir mystery, shot through with first love, loss, and a touch of the uncanny.

Significance Published in 2013 as a paperback original under the pulp-styled Hard Case Crime imprint (with classic pulp cover art), King initially refused an e-book edition to drive readers to print bookstores; it won the 2014 Edgar Award nomination buzz and remains a fan-favorite standalone, distinct from his Castle Rock and Dark Tower webs.

Is this the true first?NO. Joyland is a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL. The true first edition is the Hard Case Crime / Titan trade paperback (HCC-112, ISBN 978-1-781-16264-4), published June 4, 2013. There was NO trade hardcover first edition and no US trade hardcover at all. The ONLY hardcovers are three Titan limited collector editions, all released June 11, 2013 — one week AFTER the paperback — so even those hardcovers do not precede the true first. (A later 2015 illustrated hardcover, ISBN 9781783295326, is a much later separate edition, not a first.) Treat the paperback as the first edition/first printing.
The true first is the mass-market-priced TRADE PAPERBACK from Hard Case Crime / Titan Books, June 4, 2013, book number HCC-112. No hardcover precedes it. The three Titan limited HARDCOVERS (gift 1,500 unsigned; numbered/signed 724; lettered/signed 26) shipped June 11, 2013 — a week later — and are separate signed/limited collectibles, NOT the trade first. King had only one prior Hard Case Crime title (The Colorado Kid, 2005), also a paperback original — the same pattern: no hardcover trade first.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementHard Case Crime convention: the copyright page carries a printing/edition line reading "First Hard Case Crime edition: June 2013" (some collectors also report a traditional number line; see numberLine). The book number HCC-112 appears on the spine and title area. A genuine first printing does NOT carry any "New York Times bestseller" banner across the top of the front cover — that banner was added to later printings. (Exact verbatim copyright-page string is reported by sellers but not photo-confirmed in two independent sources here — treat the month/year edition statement as the marker and verify against a copy. UNVERIFIED for exact punctuation.)
Number lineUNVERIFIED as an exact row. Hard Case Crime paperbacks typically identify printings by the worded line "First Hard Case Crime edition: June 2013" rather than a descending integer string; some listings nonetheless cite a full number line on the copyright page. Could not cross-confirm an exact "1 3 5 7 9 ... 2"-style row from two independent sources. Rely on the worded June 2013 edition statement plus the no-NYT-banner cover point; a later-printing copyright page updates the printing wording.
Gutter / printer codeN/A — Hard Case Crime / Titan, not a Doubleday title; no Doubleday gutter code applies.
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$12.95 (US) printed on the back cover of the first-printing paperback (also UK £7.99 / CAN $14.95 on the same panel). NOTE: one source rendered this as "$12.99"; the standard 2013 Hard Case Crime trade-paperback list price was $12.95 — verify against the back cover of the actual copy. There is NO dust-jacket price because this is a paperback original; the price is part of the printed back cover, not a clip-able jacket flap. (Lower portion of the printed BACK COVER (above/near the barcode), since the book is a paperback with no dust jacket. US price top-line of the price block.)
Board (panel) colorN/A (paperback original) — printed pictorial card covers. Limited hardcover board color UNVERIFIED.
Spine / center bindingN/A (paperback original) — printed spine, Hard Case Crime branding + "112".
Binding styleTrue first: perfect-bound (glued) pictorial trade paperback, raw/rough-cut page edges in HCC pulp style. Limited hardcovers (Titan): cloth-over-boards, sewn, with jacket; lettered state housed in a black book-style clamshell/traycase (HCC logo gold-foil).
Topstain / endpapersN/A for the paperback first. Limited hardcovers: topstain/endpaper details UNVERIFIED.

Dust jacket

Paperback first: classic Hard Case Crime pulp-noir painted cover by Glen Orbik — a redheaded "carny girl" / scream-themed pin-up composition with the Joyland title treatment; back cover carries blurb + price block + barcode. Limited hardcovers carry a separate Robert McGinnis painted jacket and include 9 McGinnis interior plates and Susan Hunt Yule's park map (not present in the paperback).

Art / design: Paperback (true first) front cover painted by Glen Orbik (some sources also credit Robert McGinnis on the paperback art). The three LIMITED HARDCOVERS use DIFFERENT cover art by Robert McGinnis, plus 9 interior illustrations by McGinnis and a Joyland amusement-park map by Susan Hunt Yule.

reference photohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyland_(King_novel)reference photohttps://stephenking.com/works/limited/joyland.htmlreference photohttps://veryfinebooks.com/stephen-king-joyland-signed-limited-first-edition-724-DOLSO-Case-Titan-Books/
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyThere is no book-club edition of Joyland — it is a paperback original with no trade hardcover for a club to reprint. Therefore "BCE tells" do not apply. The only legitimate hardcovers are the three numbered/limited Titan editions, identified by a printed limitation page (signed by King in the 724 numbered and 26 lettered states; unsigned in the 1,500 gift edition). Any "hardcover Joyland" claimed as a trade first edition is a misdescription — it is either one of the limiteds or the much later 2015 illustrated edition.

Also watch for: (1) MISLABELED HARDCOVERS: any "Joyland first edition hardcover" sold as the trade first is wrong — no trade hardcover exists; it is either one of the 3 Titan limiteds or the later 2015 illustrated hardcover. Confirm via the printed limitation page (and King's signature for the 724/26 states). (2) LATER-PRINTING PAPERBACKS passed as firsts: check that the front cover has NO "New York Times Bestseller" banner. (3) AFTERMARKET TRAYCASES: DOLSO/Dick-Olson maple cases on the 724 numbered edition are collector add-ons, not original issue — do not pay an original-traycase premium for them. (4) Signature authenticity on the 724/26: King signed the limitation page in the book; loose/laid-in or clipped signatures are suspect. (5) Ex-library / remainder marks and price-stickers over the printed $12.95 block on the paperback lower value.

Print run & scarcity

FORMAT FLAG (load-bearing): Joyland (Hard Case Crime HCC-112, June 4, 2013) was a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL — King insisted on a physical paperback-first release, no commercial hardcover. So there is NO trade hardcover first printing in the Carrie/Scribner sense. Hard Case Crime/Titan does not publish mass-market print-run numbers, so the paperback first-printing quantity is "No reliable figure published." The ONLY hardcover is the limited edition from Titan Books (the imprint behind Hard Case Crime), released June 11, 2013, one week after the paperback, in three states: (1) GIFT edition — 1,500 copies, hardcover w/ dust jacket, UNSIGNED; (2) NUMBERED edition — 724 copies, signed by King, slipcased; (3) LETTERED edition — 26 copies, signed by King, black clam-shell box w/ gold-foil HCC logo. Total limited hardcover run = 2,250. All hardcover states carry nine Robert McGinnis illustrations and a Joyland park map by Susan Hunt Yule. (Note: a separate later 2015 "Joyland Illustrated" edition exists with its own signed limitations — not the 2013 first edition.) Carrie's ~30,000 figure is unrelated and was correctly not applied here.

First-state points & errata

First-printing cover is CLEAN (no "New York Times Bestseller" banner across the top); later printings add the banner. No documented textual errata or point-issue typos separating states for this title.

Limited & signed editions

Three Titan / Hard Case Crime limited HARDCOVERS, all June 11, 2013 (1 week after the paperback): (1) GIFT EDITION — 1,500 copies, UNSIGNED, no slipcase, issue price $40 (now ~$200-$250). (2) NUMBERED/SIGNED EDITION — 724 copies, SIGNED by King on a limitation page, no slipcase/traycase, issue price $75 (now ~$700-$800); aftermarket DOLSO/Dick-Olson maple traycases exist but are NOT publisher-issued. (3) LETTERED/SIGNED EDITION — 26 copies (A-Z), SIGNED, in a black book-style clamshell/traycase with the Hard Case Crime logo in gold foil, issue price $200 (now ~$2,500-$3,000). All three: Robert McGinnis cover + 9 McGinnis interior illustrations + Susan Hunt Yule park map. (Separate 2015 illustrated hardcover exists but is a later edition, not a limited first.)

Market value estimate

~$25–$60

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): $25–60 (true first-printing trade paperback, fine, unread, NO bestseller banner, $12.95 back-cover price). NOTE: the signed/numbered limited hardcover is the real collectible at $700–900.

Book-club edition (the trap): No traditional BOMC/BCE exists (paperback original). The functional "trap" equivalent — later trade-paperback printings (with the "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER" banner / $7.99 back price), reprints, and the 2015 illustrated reissue — are $5–15 reading copies and are constantly mislisted as "first edition." — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition sensitivity is HIGH relative to the low price band: a fine, unread, flat-spined copy holds the top of range; any spine roll, creasing, or shelf-cocking drops it to $10–20. Signed/inscribed premium is enormous and is where the value actually lives — a King signature on a flat-signed trade paperback can take a $30 book to $200–400+, and the publisher's signed/numbered limited (724) runs $700–900, lettered (26) $2,500–3,000. THE SINGLE BIGGEST TELL for THIS title: ignore the prompt's generic "Doubleday gutter code" — Joyland is a Hard Case Crime/Titan PAPERBACK ORIGINAL with no Doubleday involvement. A genuine first printing has NO "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER" banner across the top of the front cover and carries the $12.95 (US $12.99) price on the back cover; every later printing ADDS that banner and drops the price to $7.99. Banner present = NOT a first, full stop. That banner check separates the true first from ~90% of the "first edition" mislistings.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Verify on a physical copy: (a) exact back-cover US price ($12.95 expected; one source said $12.99); (b) exact copyright-page edition/printing wording ("First Hard Case Crime edition: June 2013" expected) and whether a true integer number line is present; (c) absence of the NYT bestseller banner on the front cover for first printings. These three were not photo-confirmed in two fully independent sources during research and are marked accordingly.

confidence: medium-high. HIGH on the core fact pattern (paperback original, no trade hardcover first, HCC-112, June 4 2013, three Titan limited hardcovers June 11 2013 at $40/$75/$200, McGinnis art + Yule map, no-NYT-banner first-printing point) — cross-confirmed across Wikipedia, stephenking.com, Titan, and collector sites. LOWER on two specifics: exact paperback back-cover price ($12.95 vs a stray $12.99 report) and exact copyright-page/number-line wording, neither photo-confirmed in two independent sources here — both marked UNVERIFIED/verify-on-copy.← Back to all titles