Print run

A print run is the number of copies printed in one batch: "the number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run." An edition is a different axis, "the whole number of copies printed at any time or times from substantially the same setting of type-pages," so a reprint from the same type is a new run of the same edition. Collectors tighten it: "first edition" in the trade means "specifically the first print run of the first edition," the "first edition, first impression," and since World War II a number line, the printer's key, indicates the run. The unsold tail has end states: remainders are liquidated "at greatly reduced prices," usually marked "with a stroke with a felt-tipped marker," while poorly selling mass-market paperbacks usually become stripped books.

The run's identity lives on the copyright page, where the number line and the ISBN say which printing a copy is.