It's called the fifth printing, but that is a bit of a misnomer. These days the actual physical printings are done in small runs in multiples of six. It is really more like the fifth “edit.”
In practice, corrections have been made to each new edit while its previous edit was running. After five edits, there have been hundreds of corrections. The issues addressed have included a lot of out-of-place commas, over-used hyphens, typos, and more grammar errors than I'd like to admit.
How do you know you've got the fifth (or better) printing?
Easy. Look at the bar code on the back cover. If the price code (the smaller bar-code, to the right of the ISBN number) says “90000” (no price specified), you have an older copy. If it reads “54795” (USD $47.95) you have the fifth or better edit.
This fifth edit will surely continue to have bugs, but it is the first one to “feel” much improved over the first printing. It is still the same book. No new material has been added and nothing has been taken away. Just as importantly, no index references have jumped pages. None the less, it should be a lot easier to read now for those readers who are sensitive to these things.
There is one change to content, however; the old back-cover blurb has been replaced with a new one. That replacement was done in the third or fourth edit.
Do you have a strong “cringe reflex?”
I've started to develop one of these, but only after embarking on the book project. If you have one, and you have purchased a book from one of the earlier printings, please accept my apology,
and
contact me.
-John
Stand Out Publishing
