A Million Little Pieces, James Frey

For the month of February, I have selected the first edition of James Frey's, "A Million Little Pieces," as the collectible of the month. I selected this book based on a lot of the attention it has been receiving from not only Oprah, but also TheSmokingGun.com, Larry King Live, and news organizations around the world. Some people have told me that this fame is very limited and the attention will die down soon. If that’s the case, wait for the attention to die down, and try to find a copy. The problem then lies in actually locating a copy because as soon as the attention dies down, so will the sales.

After 12 rejections, the Nan A. Talese division of Random House first published “A Million Little Pieces” in April of 2003. For the first book by James Frey, Random House chose to run Frey's memoir at 50,000 first printings. The book was released to minimal attention, but was popular amongst those who actually read it. A few years later, Frey published the sequel to "Pieces" titled, "My Friend Leonard." Frey started to get more attention with his second book which brought more interest back into "Pieces."
In the winter of 2005, Oprah Winfrey selected "Pieces" as her selection of her book club. This was a break for Oprah who seemed to have only selected classics for her book club. The last time Oprah selected a book that was not a classic, was Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections." That book selection caused possibly the most backlash that Oprah could ever receive from a book club selection. Franzen said, and I am paraphrasing, "Get lost, Oprah."

So when Oprah selected a recent book for her selection, I was grateful to her because the attention that her book club receives is something that new authors couldn’t pay for. With her selection of classics, she is getting people to read great books - but books that have been appreciated for many years. With her selection of newer books, the public gets to read authors who are alive and get to appreciate the attention.

Who knows what the long term collectiblity of "Pieces" but for the most part, the attention has been sustained for a while. You can buy a signed copy for about $100 on eBay. Signed copies sell online for about $80-$300. Unsigned first printings sell for under $60.

Frey will publish a new book. I suspect it will be a few years for him not only to recover from this negative attention, but to also get back on track to write a novel. So I would suggest that now is the best time to buy the book if you are interested. I think that the book is still in the minds of many people, but starting to die down. What that means is that people are still selling, but buyers are dying down.

To add on top of this - its a great friggin book. It's a book about addiction and the value of a life. If you aren't interested in the book as a collectible, reading the book wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks.

The Importance of Dust Covers

About 100 years ago, when books were published and sold, dust jackets were there to simply protect the book during shipping; sort of like wrapping paper if you will. Today, the dust jacket is just as important to the book than the actual book itself! Any folds, tears, or creasing must be documented in all sales because that can seriously lessen the value of the book total.

For instance, in 1925 when Scribner’s published “The Great Gatsby,” it had a royal blue dust jacket that was easily damaged. When customers received the book, it was customary to just rip the jacket off and throw it away; its main purpose was served. However, today, a first edition of The Great Gatsby with its first printing dustcover is literally priceless. So much so that I haven’t seen one for sale in years. If you look online at many book sellers, a first edition of The Great Gatsby can sell for $500 - $1800 depending on the condition. If the book has the original dustcover, the value can multiply more than 20 times. There are probably less than 20 dustcovers, and less than 5 are in good condition. “The Great Gatsby” with its first edition dust jacket is one of the rarest books in American Literature.



With Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With The Wind,” a good copy without a dust jacket, unsigned, can sell for $1200 - $3500 depending on the buyer. There is a seller in North Carolina who has an unsigned copy with its dustcover in excellent condition selling for $15,000.


But the most famous dust jacket story of them all is a book that is only about 30 years old. In 1975, Stephen King published Salem’s Lot. When the book was printed, the sales department had originally priced the book at $8.95, however last minute, they felt that the book was over priced and should be lowered to $7.95. So all dust jackets that were printed with the $8.95 price were clipped and sold at $7.95. Another flaw in the dust jacket is one of the characters has the wrong name. In the book, one of the main characters is Father Callahan, yet on the dust jacket, it read “Father Cody.” A major error which today leads to an expensive error.

At any rate, for years, the first printing dustcover was the $7.95 price clipped Father Cody dust jacket. In 1983, there were 3 dust jackets found at Doubleday with the original price of $8.95 with the Father Cody error. These dust jackets represent one of the most elusive item known to Stephen King collectors. To have Salem’s Lot in its first edition, first printing state with a first state dust jacket (unclipped $8.95 price with Father Cody error) is logistically and financially out of the realm of the majority of not only Stephen King collectors, but also book collectors in general.

A well-known collector in the King world has his copy of the first state dust jacket for sale. It’s yours for $60,000.

The error with the Salem’s Lot dust jacket can be a very common occurrence which later leads to a high interest with collectors. The Great Gatsby first state dust jacket had an error. On the front flap, the name Jay is missing a capital J, so it reads, “jay.” Things like this add to the over all value of a book because after the error has been detected, later printings will have the corrected version. In another topic, I will discuss errors in the actual book; there are errors in first printings than you think…

There are many ways to protect your dust jackets from damage. Many collectors have Brodart or mylar covers on their books. This is a clear protective wrap that you can buy and all you have to do is insert your dust jacket, and fold. You not only have a great (inexpensive) protector for your dust jacket, but its also very neat and presentable when its on your shelf. Below are a few links to brodart covers that you can buy online.

http://www.shopbrodart.com/site_pages/bjc/default.htm

http://stores.ebay.com/CraftHall-Books - one of my favorite eBay sellers

Hopefully this information has been useful because if you are honestly looking to collect books, please be sure that you know the full extent of the condition of the dust jacket. I think it is fair to say that the dust jacket represents 50% or more of the overall total of the book…signed or not. Just think for yourself: if you had the chance to buy Salem’s Lot without a dust jacket, would you? Or would you rather it with its dust jacket?

To close with a helpful hint – many times people will stray away from buying ex-library books. They are marred with black marker and stamps and the condition of the book might be downright poor. However, libraries protect their dust jackets from the day they get it. So if you see a book that you really want and it's an ex-library copy, ask about the condition of the dust jacket. If it’s in good – great condition…buy it. You have a great dust jacket which means you are halfway there. All you need is a first edition with a good or poor dust jacket. Put the good condition dust jacket from the ex-library book on the good condition first edition and you have a valuable book for 1/3 of the price.

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my site!
I hope that in time, this will be a great source of information for all book collectors since we will have topics ranging from the tips of collecting first printings, how valuable dustcovers are, and most of all, if your book is signed.
I anticipate lots of help from you in the "comments" section. You don't have to be a member of blogspot to send a message, all you have to do is post a message with your real name, or you can remain anonymous. I would rather you post your real name for consistency reasons...it is just helpful to identify with people who are participating.

If you have any questions, please just post a comment. I will be glad to reply to you as soon as I can.

On Sunday, I will select a "collectible of the month" which I will feature on the right hand of the page for easy access to locate later. This will go on once a month from now on. If you have any ideas about a new collectible of the month, feel free to email me with your suggestions and we can go from there.

Thank you again!

Kenny (site creator)