Publisher:Science Fiction Book Club

History

Doubleday created the Science Fiction Book Club in 1953, offering one selection per month, with the first book appearing in March. This practice continued until July 1969, when the club began offering a second selection. Both books were sent to members who chose to receive them (or forgot to mail back the selection card!) Around this time additional selections were offered in seasonal announcements (Winter, Spring, etc.) This gave members a choice of up to 32 new books each year, while occasionally making available "alternate selectons" and cross-over selections from other Doubleday book clubs. These alternate selections were not automatically sent to club members.

In the beginning the selections were mostly reprints of books originally published by Doubleday's trade division, and were of comparable quality. As the years went by, more publishers' books were made available as the monthly selection. These printings had to be reset to conform to Doubleday's printing presses, and were mostly of cheaper quality.

In the late 60s, the SFBC began publishing first world hardcover editions of original paperback books, even sometimes printing these hardcover editions several months before the paperback editions. These latter editions usually appeared under the Nelson Doubleday imprint. This imprint was also used for exclusive book club editions of omnibus volumes, making these true first editions.

The German media corporation Bertelsmann A.G. purchased the Bantam Doubleday Dell publishing group in 1987, and in the process acquired the Doubleday book clubs, including the SFBC. The Nelson Doubleday imprint was retired, and the GuildAmerica imprint was created to publish original editions. In 2000, Bertelsmann and Time Warner (the two largest media conglomerates in the world) combined their direct book sales (Doubleday Direct Inc. and Book-of-the-Month Club), creating Bookspan, the current owner of the SFBC. In May of 2007, it was announced that long-time SFBC editor Ellen Asher would be taking "early retirement" (corporation-speak for "fired".) In the Age of the Internet, the future of the SFBC and all direct sales publishing is in question. The website for the SFBC.

Identification

SFBC editions were never identified as being published by the Science Fiction Book Club. The publisher as stated in the printing was always the original publisher of the title. Even original editions published exclusively for the club carried the Nelson Doubleday imprint. Only in recent years has the Science Fiction Book Club imprint been used on reprints of classic works.

Cover artwork was identical to the trade edition, so, except for the standardized size, the outward appearance showed no indication of a book club reprint. There was never a price printed on the inside front flap, the usual location for trade editions. At the bottom of the inside front flap, there was usually the additional slug line "Book Club Edition". (Some book dealers occasionally use the abbreviation "BCE" without indicating that the item for offer is a book club reprint.) All printings of selections from Doubleday's various book clubs (The Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, The History Book Club, The Stephen King Library, etc.) carried the same slug line, so this can't be used as proof that the book was ever an offering of the SFBC.

For more than forty years, these editions never printed the ISBN of the original edition, and never carried an edition statement (e.g. First Edition, First American Edition). Even when club members were offered a selection originally published by Doubleday itself, their copies had the "First Edition" slug line removed. The club began using ISBNs on their original publications (mostly omnibuses) in 1993 under the GuildAmerica imprint.

From 1958 to 1988 (just after their purchase by Bertelsmann) Doubleday printed a code on or near the last page of text in both their trade and book club editions. Bibliographers have deciphered this code as a printing date. [For more information see Gutter Codes.] These codes can be used by bibliophiles to determine which copies are first printings, thus making them possibly of more value to collectors. This is especially the case when the SFBC edition has been identified as the true first edition.

Until the mid-80s, the lower back flap printed a four-digit number (now five or more digits), which book dealers and collectors use as a defacto catalog number, although there has never been an official statement as to the meaning of this number. In the beginning these numbers were assigned in roughly chronological order, but over the years became somewhat random. It is not printed in the book itself, only on the dust jacket, and with the addition of a fifth digit it became the catalog number in the SFBC's announcement flyer. For example, John Varley's The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977) has "2205" printed at the bottom of its back flap. The catalog number printed in the December 1977 flyer is "#22053". This number began appearing on the back of the dustjacket in the late 80s.

ISFDB Entry Standards

Because of these special circumstances, different standards are required for the entry of SFBC editions. For more information about entering SFBC editions go to this help page.

Book Listings

The following tables were created from the following sources:

• 1953-1968: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968, Volume 3: Miscellaneous, pp. 911-913
• 1969: rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup posting, March 16, 2003
• 1970: rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup posting, March 18, 2003
• 1971: rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup posting, March 20, 2003
• 1972: rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup posting, March 21, 2003
• 1973: rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup posting, March 24, 2003
• 1974-1983 Things to Come, the SFBC announcement flyer, with corroboration from monthly issues of Locus
• 1984-present [forthcoming] The Locus Index to Science Fiction

1953-59	1960-64	1965-69	1970-74	1975-79	1980-84	1985-89	1990-93	1994	1995
1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015

There is an older SFBC list generated from the ISFDB database data in January 2005.