11 Scribes · All titles · Scribner Era (1998-present)

You Like It Darker: Stories Common

2024 · Scribner (an imprint of Simon & Schuster), New York
First-edition cover of You Like It Darker: Stories
First-edition jacket (first edition (verified vs jacket)) · source

What it’s about

A twelve-story collection in which Stephen King turns toward the shadows his readers crave — tales of buried guilt, uncanny luck, dreams that bleed into waking life, and ordinary people brushing up against forces they cannot name. Spanning lonely highways, small towns, and the thin places where the inexplicable leaks in, these stories range from quiet dread to outright horror, each probing what waits in the dark corners of fate and the human heart.

Significance Published under King's own name (no Bachman involvement), this 2024 collection notably includes "Rattlesnakes," a direct sequel to his 1981 novel Cujo that revisits Vic Trenton — a major draw for longtime King collectors.

Is this the true first?Yes. The Scribner trade hardcover of May 21, 2024 is the true first edition, first printing. There is no preceding small-press limited or paperback original — this is a mainstream Scribner hardcover collection of twelve stories. (Later collector/limited variants and the UK Hodder & Stoughton/WH Smith editions are derivative, not the true first.)
The US Scribner trade hardcover is the true first edition. King is American and Scribner is his US publisher; the US printing is the first. No Donald M. Grant / Philtrum / Land-of-Enchantment-style small-press precedence exists for this 2024 title. UK firsts (Hodder & Stoughton, plus WH Smith and other retailer-exclusive jacket/board variants, ISBN 9781399725095 family) are simultaneous-market first editions but NOT the true first; collect the Scribner for primacy.

First-printing points at a glance

First-printing statementScribner true-first convention (1998+): the copyright page must state "First Scribner hardcover edition May 2024" (edition statement) AND carry the full number line. BOTH the edition statement and the number line ending in "...4 2" must be present together. Per stephenkingcollector.com the first printing is confirmed by the number line below; absence of a "1" / a truncated line indicates a later printing. (Exact verbatim edition-line wording on the copyright page: UNVERIFIED to the letter — treat the number line as the decisive point.)
Number line"1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" — confirmed by stephenkingcollector.com. A first printing shows the full line beginning with "1". Later printings drop the low digits (lowest number present = the printing; e.g. a line beginning "2" or "3..." indicates a 2nd/3rd printing).
Gutter / printer codeN/A (Scribner era — no Doubleday/printer gutter code; identification is by edition statement + number line).
First printing — copiesNot publicly disclosed
First jacket price$30.00 (Upper front dust-jacket flap (top-right corner), per Scribner convention. The Canadian price is typically printed beneath it. stephenkingcollector.com records the US price as $30.00. Note: the Stephen King Catalog retail listing of "$39.95" is that dealer's selling price with extras, NOT the price printed on the jacket.)
Board (panel) colorBlack boards (paper-over-boards, cloth-textured black).
Spine / center bindingBlack with shiny light copper-toned (metallic) spine lettering/titling; not quarter-bound — single-color boards with foil-stamped spine.
Binding styleSewn-bound trade hardcover, full black boards (not two-tone / not quarter-cloth), copper foil spine stamping, issued in a pictorial dust jacket. 502 pages.
Topstain / endpapersStandard plain (white/cream) endpapers and no special topstain on the Scribner trade first; topstain/endpaper color UNVERIFIED as a distinguishing point. (Note: certain retailer "exclusive" variants — Barnes & Noble, BINC, Fialta — were issued with special printed endpapers and/or hidden/alternate under-jacket cover art; those are variant issues, not the plain trade first.)

Dust jacket

Dark photographic/typographic jacket consistent with the title's "darker" theme; front panel carries title "YOU LIKE IT DARKER" and "STEPHEN KING," subtitled "Stories." Rear panel/flap carry blurb copy and author bio/photo. Precise front/back imagery description UNVERIFIED from text sources — see imageRefs for the jacket photo.

Art / design: Jacket/cover design UNVERIFIED to a named designer in collector sources for this title (Scribner in-house design likely; Will Staehle has designed other King jackets but is NOT confirmed for this one). Author photo credit: UNVERIFIED for this title.

reference photohttps://stephenkingcollector.com/1st/youlikeitdarker.htmlreference photohttps://stephenkingcatalog.com/catalog/you-like-it-darker-first-printing-p-3117.htmlreference photohttps://www.amazon.com/You-Like-Darker-Stephen-King/dp/1668037718
Book-club edition & fakes — how to spot a wrong copyNo traditional Doubleday/BOMC-style book-club edition exists for a 2024 Scribner title, so classic BCE tells (blind-stamp on rear board, "Book Club Edition" on the flap, missing gutter code) do NOT apply. The real watch-fors here are RETAILER VARIANTS, not BCEs: Barnes & Noble / BINC / WH Smith / Hodder exclusives with alternate boards, special endpapers, hidden under-jacket art, or different ISBNs. To confirm the plain Scribner trade first: ISBN 978-1-6680-3771-3, $30.00 jacket price, number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2," plain black boards with copper spine, plain endpapers, and NO "exclusive edition" markings.

Also watch for: Cautions: (1) Married jackets — a price-clipped or later-state jacket placed on a first-printing book; confirm the $30.00 price is intact and unclipped. (2) "Signed" copies — King rarely signs in person now; verify provenance/COA, as autopen and forged King signatures circulate. (3) Retailer-exclusive variants (B&N/BINC/WH Smith/Hodder) sold as "the first edition" — they are variant issues, not the Scribner trade first. (4) Text-state trap: a hardcover claimed as first that CONTAINS "The Music Room" is a later text state, not the first printing. (5) Ex-library, remainder marks (spray/dot on bottom edge), and reading wear all lower value. (6) Be skeptical of any "Book Club Edition" claim — not a real thing for this title.

Print run & scarcity

Format: hardcover trade first edition/first printing, Scribner, May 21, 2024 (ISBN 9781668037713). No publisher-announced first-printing quantity was found in a citable primary source within 2 quick searches; the only figure surfaced ("1,000,000") was an unattributed search-summary claim, so it is NOT reported as fact per instructions to avoid inventing numbers. Limited/collectible variants exist that are separate from the trade first printing: a remarqued signed edition limited to 1 of 100 (per Stephen King Catalog listing). If a verified figure is needed, the authoritative source would be the Scribner/Simon & Schuster announcement or a Publishers Weekly print-run report, which were not located here. Author note: published under Stephen King (not the Richard Bachman pseudonym).

First-state points & errata

First-state / first-printing point: the hardcover first printing OMITS the 2016 short story "The Music Room." King forgot to include it; it was added (after the Afterword) only in the later paperback edition. So a true first-printing hardcover does NOT contain "The Music Room" — its presence indicates a non-hardcover-first text state. No other errata corrections are documented separating first-state firsts at this time.

Limited & signed editions

No publisher-issued slipcased/traycased signed limited from Scribner is documented as the canonical first. Aftermarket/dealer signed and enhanced issues exist: Stephen King Catalog offered a "1st Printing Remarqued — 1 of 100," remarqued and signed by artist Glenn Chadbourne, $250.00. Author-signed first printings (signed by Stephen King) also trade. Retailer collector editions: Hodder & Stoughton / WH Smith UK collector's editions (multiple board designs, ISBN 9781399725095 family). These are NOT the true Scribner first.

Market value confirmed sales

$15–40 unsigned true first (fine/fine, unclipped $30 jacket); $300–900 for a genuine in-person signed first/first

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 high-end auction (Heritage/PBA) record exists for an ordinary first — too new and too common. Documented reality: stephenkingcollector.com pegs the standard unsigned first at ~$15–20 retail; Stephen King Catalog (Betts Books/SK official catalog) listed plain first printings at $39.95. Signed copies: a charity-channel signed first ran $2,500 (Binc Foundation benefit) and a fundraiser-lottery signed copy went for ~$160 — both special channels, not open-market comps. Open eBay signed first/first listings sit ~$2,000–4,050 ASKING and largely do NOT clear; realized signed prices cluster far lower ($300–900).

Book-club edition (the trap): No U.S. Book-of-the-Month/BCE was issued at release; the trap equivalents are book-club/secondary printings and non-first variants. A later printing or reading copy is ~$5–12. The UK Hodder & Stoughton / WH Smith purple "Collector's Edition" and exclusive-endpaper "hidden cover" editions are DIFFERENT books (not the Scribner U.S. first) and are frequently mislisted as "the first edition" — treat at ~$25–60 on their own merits, NOT as the U.S. true first. — a fraction of a true first; never pay first-edition money for one.

THE SINGLE BIGGEST POINT FOR THIS TITLE: a true Scribner U.S. first printing must show the number line "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2" on the copyright page WITH the statement "First Scribner hardcover edition May 2024," and the jacket must be price $30.00 and UNCLIPPED. Most "first edition" listings that command high prices are actually (a) the UK Hodder & Stoughton or WH Smith purple Collector's Edition, or (b) exclusive-endpaper/"hidden cover" special editions — NONE of which are the U.S. true first. Verify the number line, not the word "First Edition" on a bookseller blurb. Condition barely separates value on the unsigned copy (it's a new book), so reject ex-library, bumped, or price-clipped copies entirely rather than discount them. Signed is the ONLY real premium: a genuine in-person Stephen King signature (he rarely signs and there is heavy autopen/forgery risk) lifts a fine first to roughly $300–900 realized; demand provenance/COA or event photos. Charity/lottery-channel signed copies ($160–$2,500) are not market comps. The 1-of-100 Chadbourne remarqued first (~$250) is a distinct collectible.

Value sources:

Sources

Verification notes: Price cross-checked: stephenkingcollector.com gives jacket $30.00; the $39.95 on stephenkingcatalog.com is a dealer sell price (with art card/cover), not the jacket-printed price — do not confuse the two. Number line cross-checked at stephenkingcollector.com (full "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"). Binding (black boards, copper spine, 502pp) cross-checked across collector/retail listings. ISBN 978-1668037713 consistent across Scribner/Wikipedia/Amazon. "Music Room" omission as a first-printing text point confirmed by Wikipedia + ScreenRant. Open items to verify on a physical copy: exact copyright-page edition statement wording; jacket designer; author-photo credit; topstain/endpaper.

confidence: Medium-high. Number line ("1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"), $30.00 jacket price, black boards/copper spine, the "Music Room" omission first-state point, and the Chadbourne limited are each cross-checked (stephenkingcollector.com + stephenkingcatalog.com + Wikipedia/eBay/ScreenRant). Lowered from high because the exact verbatim copyright-page edition-line wording, the named jacket designer, the author-photo credit, and topstain/endpaper specifics for the plain trade first are UNVERIFIED in the consulted sources.← Back to all titles