”The True First Edition”

Earliest Known Printing, Batch Numbers and More.

Due to the Paolinis sporadically ordering around 10000 books in batches of 50 to 100, we have a way of knowing early, middle and late printings of 2002 Eragons. Lightning Source batch numbers are used on all their books in this time period, batch 3299 is Eragon, batch 3300 could be a user manual for a Ford F150. The batch number is located on the last page and reads,
“Printed in the United States”
[Batch Number]
Early batch numbers are four digits, Lightning Source changed their numbering system sometime in 2002, and later batch numbers are nine digits followed by a B.
The current theory is that B stands for Batch and that Lightning Source had a maximum number of books they’d print in a run, so if you ordered 250 books, they might have been printed in lots of 50, the first would have looked like "[XXXXXXXX1B] and the last [XXXXXXXX5B]. We have asked Lightning Source for info but they have not been helpful.

Christopher Paolini

Known Batch Numbers

  • 706800002B

  • 713800001B

  • 711500002B

  • 722900001B

  • 724600001B

  • 730600002B

  • 733900001B

  • 740900003B

  • 750300001B

  • 763100001B

Research Team

Vaerhonse: “Well, we thought they each had individual print numbers at first as we were cataloguing the print number on the back of the book but then we realized that we're starting to get doubles now. So we're trying to figure out what those numbers mean.” 

Chris: “I don't know. It's print-on-demand. So they didn't do print runs in the way we normally did. It's possible the numbers are the amount of books that were printed in that individual batch that we ordered, and we usually ordered in anywhere from 50 to 100 books at a time and we broke it up in batches because they often had quality control issues, so even if we were ordering 300 books we'd order it with three batches so that if one batch was bad we could return it without too much trouble. So I'm going to have to ask my dad. I'll tell you what, I'll look into that if I get any information I'll tweet it or I'll pass it on some way.”

Wide Kerning Blue Eye

Donated Sticker

A small number of self-published Eragons have shown up with this sticker. The current theory is that these were books with damaged covers that the Paolini's added makeshift covers to and donated to libraries. All the ones that have showed up so far have had non-standard covers and the batch numbers have a wide range.

“As I recall, those were less-than-perfect copies that weren’t eligible for refund from the printer. We didn’t feel comfortable selling them, so we donated ‘em.” - Chris

Paolini International

2001 Eragon? 2003 Eragon?

There have always been rumours of 2001 Eragons, if they do exist, photos of one have never been seen online. If they are out there, they are most likely still held by the Paolini family. It has also been reported that Self-published Eragon was being sold in early 2003. Randomhouse picked up the book rights in late 2002, its possible self-published editions were being printed in early 2003 since Randomhouse didn’t release their edition until August 2003. Paolini’s book tour went well into 2003. Without first-hand accounts or Christopher releasing their batch number order dates we won’t be able to tell what batch numbers are from 2001,2002 and 2003.

“However, I seem to recall we did print some early copies of Eragon late 2001, which we later had to burn as the printer cut them wrong. Actually, I KNOW we did, because The Fellowship of the Ring came out that year, and I remember being shocked by how similar Eragon/Aragorn sounded. Lol. Also, in those very, very early versions, the Urgals were Orcs, so there's that.” - Chris

“The rare books room on the third floor of Powell’s bookstore in Portland, Oregon has a 2001 edition behind glass!”
- Fablelionhead

The original edition of Eragon published by Paolini International LLC, November 2001, but copyrighted 2002. - Chris

Not a gaurentee, however a 6361 was most likely purchased at Northwest Book Fest. Oct 24, 2002.

IBID

We don’t know the first printing, however, the Arceana Discord search has crowd-sourced multiple batch numbers, here is the current list of batch numbers. If you have a 2002 with a batch number not listed here, please let us know here

  • 3299

  • 3582

  • 3619

  • 3623

  • 5265

  • 5439

  • 5611

  • 5839

  • 5846

Torch

  • 4110

  • 4362

  • 4513

  • 4998

  • 5091

  • 5201

Thanks to a first-hand account we know a 3582 was bought on March 30th, 2002.

Tight Kerning Blue Eye

Thanks to a first hand account we know 4513 was bought around May 25th 2002.

Violet Eye

  • 6019

  • 6110

  • 6148

  • 6167

  • 6361

  • 6368

  • 6657

  • 6714

  • 6898

  • 6898

  • 768400001B

  • 783200001B

  • 788400001B

  • 793900001B

  • 800400001B

  • 867400004B

  • 878100005B

  • 934500001B

  • 941500001B

  • 990800001B

 “The manuscript was sent to press and the first books arrived in November 2001. The Paolini family spent the next year promoting the book at libraries, bookstores, and schools in 2002 and early 2003.”
- Alagaesia.com

The Paolini International LLC edition of Eragon, November 2001. - Chris

HELLOMYNAMEIS99

ARCAENA