How to Identify a First Edition of The Way of Kings
Brandon Sanderson
The US first edition says "First Edition: August 2010" on the copyright page — Tor, 2010, jacket priced $27.99. The part collectors care about is the state: on the first state the ornamentation around the series name on the cover is gold. Later states use white, which is also what most photographs online show.
The first edition at a glance
- Publisher
- Tor Books
- Published
- 2010
- Original price
- $27.99
- Pages
- 1008
- Edition statement
- "First Edition: August 2010" on the copyright page.
Identification checklist
Copyright page
Reads "First Edition: August 2010".
Cover ornamentation — the first-state point
On the first state, the ornamentation around the series name on the cover is gold rather than white. Worth knowing that most images online show the white version, so a photograph is a poor way to check this and the book in your hands is a good one.
Publisher, format and jacket
Tor Books, hardcover, 1008 pages, jacket art by Michael Whelan, priced $27.99 US and $31.99 Canadian. ISBN 9780765326355.
What does not make it a first edition
A correct copyright page with white cover ornamentation
That is a later state of the first edition, not a first state. The copyright statement does not change between them, which is exactly why the cover is the thing to look at.
Variants and states
First state
First printing. Gold ornamentation around the series name on the cover.
Second state
Third and fourth printings.
Third state
Sixth printing.
Fourth state
Ninth printing.
Fifth state
Fourteenth printing.
Sixth state
Sixteenth printing.
Think you have one?
Photograph the cover and the copyright page and FirstFinder will work out the edition and printing, then price it against copies that actually sold. What a specific copy is worth depends on its condition and its jacket, which is why there is no single number on this page.
Check your copyOther identification guides
- How to identify a first edition of Dune — Frank Herbert
- How to identify a first edition of East of Eden — John Steinbeck
- How to identify a first edition of The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald
- How to identify a first edition of Gone with the Wind — Margaret Mitchell
- How to identify a first edition of Pet Sematary — Stephen King
- How to identify a first edition of The Stand — Stephen King
- How to identify a first edition of It — Stephen King
- How to identify a first edition of Rage — Stephen King
- How to identify a first edition of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger — Stephen King
- How to identify a first edition of The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower — Stephen King
Sources
- The Way of Kings, US HC 1st State — collectingsanderson.com — accessed 2026-09-09