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.

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Example Sentences

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

Meantime, at the suggestion of his friend and patron, Gavin Hamilton, Burns had begun to arrange for a subscription edition of his poems.

From Robert Burns How To Know Him by Neilson, William Allan

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

Large paper copy of the original subscription edition.

From A Catalogue of Books in English Later than 1700 (Vol 2 of 3) Forming a portion of the library of Robert Hoe by Various

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)