subscription edition

American  

noun

1. an edition of one or more volumes for which a number of prospective purchasers place orders, usually in advance of publication.

2. a specially designed edition offered to subscribers, usually on an installment or deferred payment plan, or on an installment or deferred delivery plan, or both.

---

Example Sentences

The committee found a very ready response to its announcement of a subscription edition, and Mr. Murdock gave much time and thought to the preparation of material for the volume.

From A Backward Glance at Eighty Recollections & comment by Murdock, Charles A. (Charles Albert)

It was the original model of the insignia which, as a watermark, is used in the pages of Kipling's books and on the cover of the subscription edition.

From The Americanization of Edward Bok : the autobiography of a Dutch boy fifty years after by Bok, Edward William

This was at first designed to be a subscription edition for the benefit of Chatterton's mother and sister, but, the subscriptions not being numerous enough, it was issued in the usual way, through "the trade."

From A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

The story of how it came to be issued in that particular form is told by Mr. Wilson in his introduction to the subscription edition.

From Eugene Field, a Study in Heredity and Contradictions — Volume 2 by Thompson, Slason

The only complete translations of the Arabic version were made by Sir Richard Burton for a costly subscription edition and by John Payne for the Villon Society.

From Comfort Found in Good Old Books by Fitch, George Hamlin