Dan Brown's First Edition The Lost Symbol as an Investment

Is Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol a Good Signed First Edition to Buy ?

[UPDATE : Sales of the Lost Symbol are well over the 2 million mark - this includes hardcover, audio and e-book sales for its first week since it went on sale in the US, Britain and Canada.

Around 5% or 100,000 copies were sold as e-books, which is good news for Amazon and its ebook reader.

Amazon.com reported that it sold more copies of "The Lost Symbol" on its Kindle ebook reader than in hard cover.

"The Lost Symbol" has not, however, beaten the over 8 million copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" sold in the first 24 hours, but the weekly results were a record for Random House.

The book is Brown's first novel since "The Da Vinci Code," which has sold over than 40 million copies worldwide.]

Dan Brown shot to fame with his second novel The Da Vinci Code which sold over 79 million copies worldwide and was translated into more than 40 languages. His first novel was the less well-known The Digital Fortress, but if you are looking to make money from first edition books then a signed first edition of the Digital Fortress is the one to get, if you can afford it. Over at Abebooks true first printings of the signed first edition are being offered at prices ranging from $950 to $3500 - although you may be able to get them cheaper elsewhere.

So what about Dan Brown's latest book The Lost Symbol, on sale tomorrow at all good bookshops ? Is it worth buying a signed first edition ? Well 5 million copies have been printed, all of them first editions, so they ain't rare ! But if you can pick up a few signed copies for the cover price then it might be worth hanging on to them for a few years to see what happens to prices. NB.: Do not read the signed copies you intend to keep as investments, buy another 'reading' copy. And store your signed first editions upright and out of direct sunlight and damp.

Dan Brown's new novel - The Lost Symbol - is expected to be another best-seller and no doubt a film with Tom Hanks will follow. It is also said that it will put Washington on the map (cool I always wondered where it was).

In the novel Robert Langdon, Dan Brown's Harvard symbiologist hero (reminiscent of Indiana Jones at all?) battles his way around the Capitol in a 12-hour struggled with a tattooed muscle-bound eunuch. Langdon is assisted by female geekette the wise Dr Katherine Solomon, a Noetic scientist (noetics explore the nature of human consciousness and the potential thereof via the application of a variety of ways of knowing — such as feeling, intuition, reason, and the senses) And I am willing to bet she is beautiful as well !

The Lost Symbol has just been reviewed in The NYT, under the anti-noetic title "Fasten Your Seat Belts, There's Code to Crack". The reviewer is Janet Maslin, the same reviewer whose rave review of Brown's second novel The Da Vinci Code helped make him into a household name and a multi-millionaire (if he wasn't one already - he used to be a teacher so who knows?).

Maslin says Dan Brown has avoided falling into the trap of writing a flopping embarrassment after a blockbuster best-seller.

In The Lost Symbol Langdon is invited to the Capitol by Dr Katherine Solomon's brother Peter. But, and according to Janet Maslin this is the first neat trick, The Solomon summons was fake! Yikes ! There is nobody waiting for Langdon ! What sort of evil genius is he up against ?

As Langdon realises he has been cruelly deceived a "shriek arises from the Rotunda. Some fiend (yes she does say 'fiend') has deposited Peter Solomon’s severed, tattooed hand right above the Capitol Crypt — and right below the dome art that depicts George Washington, founding father and Freemason, as an ascending deity." Well, what can we say ? We are shocked, right below George Washington, surely no American would do that ? It all sounds like a hoot - but I don't remember too much humor in the Da Vinci Code, so I have probably got the wrong end of the stick.

Another benefit, for Amazon at least, is that The Lost Symbol is expected to boost sales of the Kindle Ebook Reader, which is already a best-selling gadget much beloved by Oprah.

If you are interested in first editions of Dan Brown's books then a signed copy of the first printing of the first edition of his first novel Digital Fortress may be a better bet, unfortunately, as mentioned above they already cost an arm and a leg. But have a hunt round second-hand bookshops and garage sales, you may get lucky !

As for Dan Brown's second novel The Da Vinci Code the cheapest signed first printings of the first edition I have seen online are $200 but you might be able to find one cheaper.

Generally speaking first editions of books are a good buy as they will go up in value over time and you can re-sell them, especially if you buy a first edition of the first novel of an unknown author who subsequently turns out to be a worldwide best-selling phenomenon such as J K Rowling and the Harry Potter series. The highest asking price I have seen for a single signed first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is over $68,000. That is the asking price, of course, it doesn't mean that is the price they will get for it.

If you are looking for a signed first edition by someone not quite so well-known as J K Rowling you might like to consider Magyk by Angie Sage. The book is the first in a series of seven and is to be made into a film by Warner Bros. apparently to fill the gap once the Harry Potter series has finished.