Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing Common

Stephen King; Introduction by Peter Straub

2000 (October) · Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC), New York. VERIFIED INDEPENDENTLY: BOMC is BOTH the original AND only publisher — never issued as a separate trade hardcover. Marketed as a companion to King's "On Writing." Confirmed by Wikipedia, stephenking.com, the StephenKingCollector forum, and multiple dealers (bookshopapocalypse, AbeBooks, evermorereads).

First-edition cover of Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing — First-edition jacket

What it’s about

A career-spanning gathering of Stephen King's writing about writing — essays, speeches, interviews, articles, and short fiction that trace how a craftsman is made. Readers come for the rarities: a tongue-in-cheek guide to selling stories to men's magazines, advice King hands down to his own son, a long meditation on the horror genre pulled from Danse Macabre, and unpublished tales he wrote as a twelve-year-old. It reads as both a toolbox and a self-portrait, opening the secret windows onto a working author's mind.

Significance A 2000 Book-of-the-Month Club exclusive (sole King authorship, no Bachman), conceived as the companion to his memoir On Writing, with an introduction by friend and collaborator Peter Straub and the first-in-print appearance of the story "In the Deathroom" — a sought-after collector's anthology never given a wide trade edition.

Is this the true first?Yes — VERIFIED. This is the unusual inverted case. "Secret Windows" was published EXCLUSIVELY by the Book-of-the-Month Club. There is no trade hardcover (no Scribner/Viking/Donald M. Grant commercial first). Therefore the BOMC hardcover IS the true first edition / first (and only) printing — a book that would normally be a derivative "BCE" is here the genuine first because no other edition exists. Independent re-confirmation: StephenKingCollector forum and Wikipedia both state no trade edition was made; the format is hardcover (NOT a paperback original).
The true first edition = the 2000 Book-of-the-Month Club hardcover (ISBN 0-9650064-3-9 / 9780965006439), 433 pp., Introduction by Peter Straub, design by Irene Lipton, cover by Tony Vevers, quarter-bound all-white case with BLACK spine lettering, in an UNPRICED pictorial dust jacket. It is the first, only, and therefore definitive edition — there is no trade hardcover to outrank it. VERIFIED across Wikipedia, stephenking.com, the StephenKingCollector forum, and multiple dealers.

I own a copy of this title

My notes — condition, state, price intact, is it a book-club copy?

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementUNVERIFIED exact wording (confidence LOWERED after adversarial check). Some dealer listings call copies "First Edition," but the StephenKingCollector forum is explicit that, being a BOMC exclusive, first edition/printing is "difficult/impossible to discern" — BOMC printings are NOT delineated. There is no Scribner-style "First Edition" + number-line apparatus. No primary scan in available sources confirms the copyright page literally prints "First Edition." Treat any "First Edition" copyright-page slug as plausible but UNCONFIRMED. The operative identifier is the unpriced jacket, NOT a printing statement.

Number lineUNVERIFIED / none expected — re-confirmed. No publisher number line is documented; standard trade-first identifiers do not apply to this BOMC exclusive (per StephenKingCollector forum). Absence is normal and NOT a disqualifier.

Gutter / printer codeUNVERIFIED. No specific gutter-code or blind-stamp string for "Secret Windows" is documented in any source found (forum, dealers, Wikipedia all silent on a precise code). BOMC hardcovers of this era often carry a small blind-embossed mark/colophon on the rear board, but no alphanumeric gutter code is confirmed for this title. Confidence LOW.

First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed

First jacket priceNone — the dust jacket is UNPRICED. VERIFIED as the single most reliable identification point by the StephenKingCollector forum ("No price on dust jacket" — the defining characteristic) AND multiple AbeBooks/dealer listings. Never clipped because never printed. This is normal/correct for the true first here, NOT a defect. (N/A — no price printed in any location (not at the upper front-flap corner, not on the rear panel). The absence itself is the diagnostic feature. Re-confirmed across independent sources.)

Board (panel) colorWhite boards. Re-verified: "quarter bound in white with white boards having white pastedowns" (forum) and "1/4 white cloth on white paper-covered boards" (dealer). CAUTION ADDED: an eBay catalog page titled "...Black Boards on Writing" is a MISNOMER — "black" there refers to the black SPINE LETTERING, not black case boards. The boards are white; there is no black-board variant. A small blind-embossed BOMC mark may appear on the lower rear board; because this IS the first edition, that mark does NOT downgrade the copy — it confirms the genuine BOMC issue.

Spine / center bindingWhite (quarter-bound white spine material over the white boards), with BLACK spine lettering. Re-confirmed by forum ("spine title in black") and multiple dealers.

Binding styleQuarter-bound hardcover: white spine material over white paper-covered boards, white pastedowns/free endpapers, issued in a pictorial dust jacket. Spine material is described inconsistently across dealers as cloth, tape, or paper — the binding is genuinely quarter-bound white; the exact spine substrate is not authoritatively settled.

Topstain / endpapersNo top-stain documented. Pastedowns/endpapers are white (plain) — re-confirmed by forum ("white pastedowns"). No colored top edge or decorative endpapers reported.

Dust jacket

Pictorial dust jacket over the all-white quarter-bound case. Front panel bears the title "Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing," Stephen King's name, and notes the Introduction by Peter Straub. Cover artwork by Tony Vevers. Distinctively, the jacket carries NO printed price (the standard BOMC tell). Jacket is unclipped because no price was ever printed.

Art / design: Cover/jacket art by Tony Vevers; jacket and book design by Irene Lipton. Re-confirmed by StephenKingCollector forum ("Design by Irene Lipton. Cover by Tony Vevers"; the forum's "Tony Veers" is a typo of Vevers).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325826374914

https://bookshopapocalypse.com/products/secret-windows-essays-and-fiction-on-the-craft-of-writing-by-stephen-king-first-edition-2000

https://www.firstandfine.com/product/king-stephen-2000-secret-windows-us-signed-first-edition/

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1310839897/stephen-king-secret-windows-book-of-the

Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyKEY REFRAMING — VERIFIED and intact after adversarial check: ordinarily a "Book-of-the-Month Club edition" is a derivative BCE you AVOID. Here the BCE tells (unpriced jacket; small blind-embossed mark on rear board; BOMC house ISBN 0-9650064-3-9; "Book-of-the-Month Club" on copyright/title page; no trade publisher imprint; all-white quarter binding) instead CONFIRM the genuine first edition, because no trade edition was ever made. The usual "BCE = avoid" rule is INVERTED for "Secret Windows." (Note: the blind-stamp/colophon claim is plausible/typical but not individually scan-confirmed for this title.)

Also watch for: (1) Do NOT reject a copy for lacking a jacket price or carrying a BOMC blind stamp — both are correct for the true first here. (2) Beware the red leather "Stephen King Library / Library Edition" rebinds sold as upgrades — private/after-market rebindings, not the original white case, NOT the collectible first. (3) "Black Boards" eBay listings are a MISNOMER — they mean black spine lettering, not black boards; the boards are white. (4) The foreign-cataloged record ISBN 9783860633373 / 3860633376 (appears on some AbeBooks/Amazon pages) is NOT the U.S. BOMC first — match ISBN 0-9650064-3-9 / 9780965006439 + the white quarter binding. (5) Wikipedia prints a garbled ISBN "0-16-500643-9" (independently re-confirmed verbatim on the page) — this is a transcription error of 0-9650064-3-9, NOT a separate edition. (6) Signed copies should show King's signature (typically front free endpaper); verify provenance — signatures are easily faked on a low-cost book. (7) Watch page-count noise (431 vs 433) — both describe the same book; 433 is the dominant figure.

Print run & scarcity

BOMC exclusives were printed to fill club demand and are not announced as numbered printings. The book is moderately scarce but not rare — readily found used (multiple copies live on AbeBooks/eBay/Etsy/Biblio at any time) — implying a substantial but undisclosed run. No second printing is documented; all copies are effectively one issue. The forum reiterates that printings are "impossible to discern."

First-state points & errata

Single-issue BOMC exclusive, so "first state" effectively equals "any genuine BOMC copy." Identifying points (re-verified across forum + dealers): (1) Quarter-bound white spine over white boards — note material is described variously as cloth, tape, or paper ("1/4 white cloth on white paper-covered boards" per some dealer specs); (2) BLACK lettering on the spine; (3) white pastedowns/endpapers; (4) 433 pages (consensus; one Etsy listing cites 431 — minor variance, 433 is the dominant figure incl. Wikipedia); (5) Introduction by Peter Straub; (6) Design by Irene Lipton, cover art by Tony Vevers; (7) NO price printed anywhere on the dust jacket; (8) ISBN 0-9650064-3-9 (BOMC house prefix 0-9650064). No separately collectible "second state" documented.

Limited & signed editions

No signed/numbered publisher limited edition was issued. Author-SIGNED copies exist on the secondary market (e.g., the First & Fine listing) — these are after-market signatures, NOT a publisher limitation. A red leather "Stephen King Library / Library Edition" appears in marketplace listings (e.g., eBay 325826374914); CAUTION: this is an after-market/private rebinding (or a separate Library-club binding of the same BOMC text block), NOT a publisher signed/numbered limited and NOT a true-first variant — it replaces the original white case and should be treated as a non-collector-first rebind.

Market value estimate

~$80–$225

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

No confirmed sale found, so this is rated at no less than its original jacket price — a true first/first should hold at least retail in near-fine/fine condition. Soft estimate from dealer listings (treat as approximate): $80–225 (genuine first, white-board BOMC issue, fine/fine, unsigned); signed by King $400–900+

Book-club edition (the trap): For THIS title the usual BCE trap is INVERTED — the BOMC issue IS the true first and is the collectible. The actual low-value trap is the later "Stephen King Library" RED-LEATHER reprint (ISBN 9780739480311), a secondary club reprint worth only ~$15–35, routinely mislisted as "1st Ed." — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

Condition-driven: dust jacket present, unclipped, and unfaded is essential — though note the correct DJ is UNPRICED by design (no price ≠ clipped here, the usual rule does not apply). White papered boards stain/scuff easily, so true fine/fine is uncommon and carries the premium. Signed-by-King (genuine front-free-endpaper signature, ideally with provenance/COA) multiplies value 4–6x and is the only way this title reaches strong money — King rarely signed this minor collection. THE SINGLE BIGGEST DISCRIMINATOR FOR THIS TITLE: there is NO trade first edition — the Book-of-the-Month Club edition (white boards, ISBN 0-9650064-3-9, Oct 2000, Peter Straub intro) is the genuine and ONLY first printing. So the mistake to avoid is not "spotting the BCE" but (1) dumping the real first as a worthless club book, and (2) confusing the original white-board BOMC issue with the later red-leather "Stephen King Library" reprint, which is the actual non-first. A known ISBN-misprint variant exists and is a curiosity, not a value driver.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: ADVERSARIAL RE-VERIFICATION (independent sources): Format CONFIRMED hardcover (not paperback original) — Wikipedia + forum. BOMC-exclusive / no trade edition CONFIRMED by Wikipedia, stephenking.com, forum, dealers. Unpriced jacket CONFIRMED by StephenKingCollector forum ("No price on dust jacket" = defining characteristic) AND multiple AbeBooks/dealer listings — this is the operative first-state point. Peter Straub introduction CONFIRMED. ISBN 0-9650064-3-9 / 9780965006439 CONFIRMED; Wikipedia's "0-16-500643-9" independently re-confirmed as a verbatim mis-transcription on the page, not a real variant. Designer (Irene Lipton) / cover (Tony Vevers) CONFIRMED by forum. RESOLVED DISCREPANCIES: (a) page count — 433 is consensus (Wikipedia + most dealers); one Etsy listing's 431 is minor noise. (b) "Black Boards" eBay title = misnomer for black spine lettering; boards are white. (c) spine substrate described inconsistently (cloth/tape/paper) — left as quarter-bound white, substrate unsettled. STILL UNVERIFIED by primary scan (confidence LOW): exact copyright-page wording (whether it literally prints "First Edition" — forum says printings are impossible to discern), any gutter/blind-stamp code STRING, and print-run figure. NO first-printing number line exists. Sources returning errors on fetch: evermorereads (ECONNREFUSED), one eBay catalog page (timeout) — corroborated instead via search snippets.

confidence: HIGH on the core thesis (BOMC-exclusive = the BOMC issue IS the true first; UNPRICED jacket = the defining first-state point; hardcover format; Peter Straub intro; white quarter binding with black spine lettering; ISBN 0-9650064-3-9; Irene Lipton / Tony Vevers credits) — all independently re-confirmed. MEDIUM on page count (433 consensus, 431 outlier) and value range. LOW on exact copyright-page wording, any gutter/blind-stamp code string, and print-run figure (all marked UNVERIFIED; forum explicitly says printings are impossible to discern).← Back to all titles