The suavest spy from Her Majesty’s Secret Service is back, not with new titles but with a new format. The estate of James Bond author Ian Fleming has signed a deal with a new publisher, Random House, for the back list of the James Bond titles. This ten-year deal will mean the books are re-released in paperback through Random House’s Vintage Books imprint. Interestingly, the first Ian Fleming title in the series, Casino Royale, was almost seventy years ago by another imprint of the company.
In recent years, the company managed by the estate of Fleming has retained the digital rights to the fourteen James Bond books and has published those titles as ebooks on its own. Now, as part of the deal with Vintage Books, the paperback and ebooks will be released under that imprint.
The fourteen titles and two non-fiction Fleming books will be released this summer, as this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first James Bond film, Dr. No. The newest Bond film, Skyfall, will be released this year.
While some publishers are still trying to get their bearings in regard to how digital publishing works with their business model, more and more authors and publishers are using ebooks as a way to revitalize classic books and back list titles and bring the books to a new set of reader fans.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.