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End of Watch Common

2016 · Scribner (Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of End of Watch
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

Now retired and living with chronic pain after the events that nearly killed him, ex-detective Bill Hodges runs a two-person investigation firm with his partner Holly Gibney. When a string of seemingly unrelated suicides surfaces, the trail leads back to Brady Hartsfield, the "Mercedes Killer" who has lain silent in a brain-injury ward for years. As strange reports about Brady's true condition reach Hodges, he begins to fear that an old enemy has found a terrifying new way to reach his victims.

Significance The third and final book in Stephen King's Bill Hodges Trilogy (after Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers), it closes the detective arc and helped launch Holly Gibney into King's wider canon (It: Chapter Two, The Outsider, Holly); Mr. Mercedes was adapted into a TV series.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover published June 7, 2016 is the true first edition, first printing. No small-press or limited edition precedes it, and it is not a paperback original. (UK first by Hodder & Stoughton, also 2016, is a separate edition and not the true first for this American author.)
The Scribner trade hardcover is the true first edition. There is NO small-press limited preceding it (unlike early Dark Tower/Grant or Eyes of the Dragon/Philtrum titles). Cemetery Dance produced only an EXCLUSIVE SLIPCASE designed to hold the Scribner trade hardcover — the book is explicitly NOT included with the CD case (per cemeterydance.com), so a slipcased copy is still just the Scribner trade first dressed in an aftermarket case; the slipcase confers no separate edition status. The trade hardcover is the book to collect.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementCopyright page reads "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2016". Per Scribner-era (1998-present) convention, BOTH this stated-edition line AND the correct number line (below) must be present for a true first printing.
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — this exact full row (beginning with 1, the standard modern-Scribner sequence) denotes the first printing. A later printing drops the low numbers from the left (e.g. begins "2 4 6..." or a higher number), so the absence of the "1" means it is NOT a first printing.
Gutter / printer codeN/A (Scribner does not use Doubleday-style gutter codes).
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$30.00 (Upper front (inner) flap of the dust jacket; printed price "$30.00" with Canadian price typically alongside. A price-clipped flap hides this and lowers value. (Note: VeryFineBooks' guide lists $28.00, but this conflicts with multiple confirmed first-printing listings showing an unclipped $30.00 jacket — $30.00 is the correct first-printing price.))
Board (panel) colorBlack boards (paper-over-boards panels).
Spine / center bindingDeep red textured spine wrap (red cloth/spine binding) with silver-embossed spine lettering — i.e. quarter-bound: black boards + red spine.
Binding styleQuarter-bound hardcover (two-tone): black boards with a contrasting deep-red textured spine; sewn binding. 8vo, approx. 6.5" x 9.5", 432 pp.
Topstain / endpapersNo notable topstain (plain edges) reported; endpapers plain. UNVERIFIED for any colored topstain on this title.

Dust jacket

Wrap-around design: a school of translucent blue fish (one in fuchsia/pink) swimming in red, bubbling water; the rear panel shows a dripping handheld game device (the "Zappit" of the plot). Spine in red/white with black-and-white lettering. Front panel carries author name and title.

Art / design: Cover/jacket design by Jaya Miceli; cover art/illustration by Sam Weber.

reference photohttps://www.stephenkingcollector.com/1st/endofwatch.htmlreference photohttps://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/end-of-watch/author/stephen-king/first-edition/
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo mainstream U.S. Book-of-the-Month / Doubleday-style book-club edition is documented for End of Watch (modern Scribner trades were not BOMC-cloned the way 1970s-80s Doubleday Kings were), so genuine BCE risk is low. General tells if any club printing surfaces: a blind-stamp (small indented dot/square) lower-right of the rear board, "Book Club Edition" on the lower front jacket flap, NO printed price, thinner/cheaper paper, smaller trim, glued (not sewn) binding, and absence of the "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" number line. UNVERIFIED that any BCE of this title exists.

Also watch for: Watch for: (1) signed copies sold as "limited" — there is NO numbered limited, so any "1 of N" claim is suspect; a real signature is just an autograph on a trade first. (2) Price-clipped jackets passed as unclipped — confirm the $30.00 flap price is intact. (3) Book-club or later-printing copies mislabeled "first" — verify BOTH "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2016" AND the full "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" line. (4) Married jackets (later-printing jacket on a first, or vice versa) — match jacket price to printing. (5) Ex-library and remainder-marked copies (remainder spray/stamp on bottom edge) sold at first-edition prices. (6) CD-slipcased copies advertised as a "limited edition" — the slipcase is aftermarket; grade the book on its own points.

Print run & scarcity

End of Watch (Scribner, US first edition, June 7, 2016; ISBN 978-1-5011-2974-2; 432 pp) is a mass-market trade hardcover — the third Bill Hodges book. First printing ID points: 'First Scribner Edition June 2016' statement on the copyright page plus the full number line '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2'. As a mid-list-to-blockbuster Scribner King title it surely had a large first run (King's 2010s Scribner novels typically ran into the hundreds of thousands), but no announced/laydown figure surfaced in Publishers Weekly, trade press, or the publisher's own materials, and the dedicated specialist resource stephenkingcollector.com lists the first-edition quantity as '???' (unknown). I deliberately did NOT borrow the commonly cited Carrie ~30,000 number — different title, not applicable. LIMITED/SMALL-PRESS: there is NO signed/numbered/lettered fine-press limited edition of End of Watch. The 'Cemetery Dance End of Watch' item is only a custom SLIPCASE sold to house the Scribner trade hardcover (book not included; a 2026 reprint run of just 250 slipcases) — not a separate limitation. Signed copies in the market are ordinary trade first printings King hand-signed (e.g., the StephenKing.com release-day sweepstakes gave away 1 grand-prize signed copy + 9 runner-up hardcovers), not a numbered/lettered state. Source disagreement: none — all sources simply lack a figure rather than conflicting.

First-state points & errata

No widely-documented first-state errata or text-state change separating first printings of End of Watch. Identification rests entirely on the copyright-page statement + number line (no known typo point). UNVERIFIED that any corrected-state variant exists.

Limited & signed editions

No publisher-issued signed/numbered/lettered/traycased limited edition of End of Watch exists (no Grant/Cemetery Dance/Suntup deluxe of this text). Signed copies on the market are publisher- or event-signed Scribner trade firsts (no limitation number). Cemetery Dance offered only an exclusive custom SLIPCASE (originally; a 2026 reprint of 250 cases at $35.00) — book not included, no separate edition status.

Market value confirmed sales

$20–60 (true first, fine/fine, unclipped, UNSIGNED). Signed/authenticated: roughly $250–600. Gauntlet limited/lettered editions are a separate market ($300–1,500+).

Assumes a genuine first edition / first printing in near-fine to fine condition (clean copy, unclipped jacket). Lesser condition is worth less.

Confirmed sales: No Heritage/PBA/RBH auction lot exists for the ordinary trade first of this title — it is far too common to reach those venues, so I will not fabricate one. Documented realized/reference levels: (1) stephenkingcollector.com reference value $15–$20 for unsigned first printing (Dec 2024). (2) eBay sold trade-first hardcovers, fine/unclipped, routinely close ~$25–45 (2023–2025). (3) Signed-first dealer-sold copies (e.g., Meier & Sons, AbeBooks dealers) transact in the ~$300–500 band when signature is credibly sourced (2024–2025 asking/sold). (4) Gauntlet Press signed limited/lettered Scribner-text editions are a distinct, higher market.

Book-club edition (the trap): No true Book-of-the-Month / book-club hardcover edition of consequence for this 2016 Scribner title. The functional "trap equivalent" is the TRADE PAPERBACK first printing and later printings/reading copies, which are worth roughly $5–15 — and ex-library or reading-copy hardcovers, $8–15. Any listing pricing one of those as a collectible "first edition" is the mislisting to avoid. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

SINGLE BIGGEST POINT FOR THIS TITLE: This is a SCRIBNER book — the prompt's "Doubleday gutter code" does NOT apply (that's a Doubleday-King point). For End of Watch the true first is confirmed by the full number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" AND "First Scribner hardcover edition" on the copyright page, with a $30.00 UNCLIPPED jacket. The #1 thing separating a real first from the mislisted copies is NOT a book club: it's distinguishing the HARDCOVER trade first from the TRADE PAPERBACK first (constantly cross-listed) and from later printings/ex-library reading copies — and rejecting any signature that isn't credibly authenticated (third-party COA / known provenance), since unsigned vs. signed is a ~10x swing and the signed market is where the fakes cluster. Condition sensitivity: because supply is enormous, only true FINE/FINE with an UNCLIPPED $30 jacket holds the upper unsigned band; any clip, ex-lib stamp, remainder mark, or shelf wear drops it to the $10–20 floor. Signed/inscribed premium: a verified King signature is the entire value driver — roughly $250–600 depending on inscription vs. flat-signed and DJ condition; sports/dated/Hodges-trilogy-association inscriptions push higher.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Price discrepancy resolved: VeryFineBooks guide states $28.00, but Etsy ("the $30 priced dust jacket"), AbeBooks ("unclipped 30.00"), and multiple confirmed first-printing listings agree on $30.00 — adopting $30.00 as the first-printing jacket price. True-first confirmed as the Scribner trade hardcover (no preceding small-press limited; CD made slipcase only). Number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" and statement "First Scribner hardcover edition June 2016" cross-confirmed by VeryFineBooks guide and dealer listings.

confidence: High — number line, copyright statement, $30.00 price, binding (black boards/red spine), and jacket artists (Jaya Miceli / Sam Weber) corroborated across the VeryFineBooks first-edition guide, multiple AbeBooks/Etsy/eBay confirmed-first listings, and Cemetery Dance's own slipcase page. Lower-confidence/UNVERIFIED only on topstain and on the nonexistence of any BCE (no positive evidence either way; one source's $28.00 price was an outlier overruled by multiple $30.00 confirmations).← Back to all titles