# Is "The Colour of Magic" by Terry Pratchett a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (Colin Smythe, 1983) is identified by: First edition published under the Colin Smythe imprint (Gerrards Cross), 1983. Precedence is genuinely tangled.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition published under the Colin Smythe imprint (Gerrards Cross), 1983
- The sheets were printed in the United States by St
- Martin's Press, which ran 4,540 copies in all and shipped roughly 506 to Smythe for the UK issue — a large share (about 400) going to libraries, which is why a fine jacketed copy is very scarce
- The UK jacket bears NO printed price, only a Colin Smythe price sticker; jacket art is by Alan Smith (NOT Josh Kirby, whose art is on the later Corgi paperbacks)
- Two jacket states exist: the first-state front flap carries the original blurb
- UK publication was delayed (from 10 to 24 November 1983) so a printed label could be pasted over an embarrassingly inaccurate blurb written by the American printers, creating the far more common overlaid second state
- Publisher imprint reads Colin Smythe

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Terry Pratchett |
| Publisher | Colin Smythe |
| Year | 1983 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition published under the Colin Smythe imprint (Gerrards Cross), 1983 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition published under the Colin Smythe imprint (Gerrards Cross), 1983. The sheets were printed in the United States by St. Martin's Press, which ran 4,540 copies in all and shipped roughly 506 to Smythe for the UK issue — a large share (about 400) going to libraries, which is why a fine jacketed copy is very scarce. The UK jacket bears NO printed price, only a Colin Smythe price sticker; jacket art is by Alan Smith (NOT Josh Kirby, whose art is on the later Corgi paperbacks). Two jacket states exist: the first-state front flap carries the original blurb; UK publication was delayed (from 10 to 24 November 1983) so a printed label could be pasted over an embarrassingly inaccurate blurb written by the American printers, creating the far more common overlaid second state. Green boards, gilt-lettered spine.

## Is this the true first?
Precedence is genuinely tangled. St. Martin's Press in New York printed the sheets and released the US issue first (commonly cited as 21 October 1983); the Colin Smythe UK issue followed on 24 November 1983 after the jacket-blurb correction. Simultaneous publication had been intended. The Smythe UK issue (about 506 copies) is the publisher of record for the first Discworld novel and is far scarcer and more sought-after, but it is not unambiguously earlier by date than the larger US issue — collectors nonetheless treat the Smythe issue as the true first. The parallel US St. Martin's issue is documented on the-color-of-magic page.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The Corgi paperback (1985, Josh Kirby cover art) and later reprints are common; a separate, larger US St. Martin's issue and a US book-club edition also exist, as does a later Colin Smythe / Discworld.com facsimile edition — none should be confused with the 1983 Smythe first. Verify the Colin Smythe imprint, the absence of a printed jacket price (sticker only), and — for the premium first state — the front-flap blurb WITHOUT the pasted printed overlay.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Colour of Magic* by Terry Pratchett a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-colour-of-magic
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.