Association Copy: a copy of a book that has been signed and inscribed by the author for a friend, colleague, or a person of historical significance. In addition to the signature, the author of the book will generally address their signature or inscription to the person with a personal note or salutation
Book Plate: an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner or former owner of a book
Dust Jacket: a protective cover for a book that is usually made with paper and wraps around the binding of a book. Can also be referred to as book jacket, dust cover, or dust wrapper
First Edition: the first appearance of an author’s work in book form
Foxed/Foxing: age-related browning or brown-yellowish spots that occur to the inside pages of book over time
Gilt: decoration or lettering applied to the binding or page edge of a book
Hyper Modern: a very recently published book where the market price for that book increases rapidly due to book collectors speculating on the book’s future value
Impression: the number of copies of an edition printed from one type of setting
Inscribed: a book in which a written inscription has been made by the author to a specific person
Jacket Flap: the part of the dust jacket that is tucked inside the front and rear endpaper of a book. The jacket flap helps keep the dust jacket in place, and sometimes contains blurbs about the book
Limited Edition: a book edition that is issued in a stated, usually very small, number of copies. Typically, the lower the number, the more valuable
Octavo: a size of book page that results from folding each printed sheet into eight leaves (sixteen pages). Generally, this results in pages that are 6 x 9
Offset: a printing technique where the inked image or text is transferred from a plate to rubber blank, then to a surface of a page or paper, “off-setting” the print
Presentation Copy: a book that has been gifted to someone from the author without that person’s request
Price Clipped: when the dust jacket has been cut so that the price of the book doesn’t show
Rebound: book condition when the original binding has been removed and replaced with new binding that has been attached and resewn
Recto: the page on the right side of the book
Replacement Value: The amount of money you would expect to pay for the book from a dealer or retailer if something happened to a book
Review Copy: a copy of a book that was sent out for review before its publication
Slip Case: a protected sleeve, often made of either decorative cardboard or leather. It is open on one end allowing the book to easily slide in and out
Uniform Edition: a collection or series of individual volumes of an author’s work that were bound to match other books in a series to be uniform in size and style
Verso: the page on the left side of the book