Paperbacks sold out?
IstvanTheHun007
Posts: 75MI6 Agent
I'm noticing that all of a sudden the paperbacks from the last printing are becoming sold out, one by one. Not available on Amazon, the 007 store, and other various retailers like B&N.
Thunderball is sold out on Amazon, and when I recently ordered mine off the 007 store, it listed it as "last one".
Octopussy & the Living Daylights is actually going on ebay for $80-$300! Some older printings are still available, but mostly in 'used' condition.
I'd like to think this is because the people are re-discovering Ian Fleming again, and some publisher soon will have to re-print all the novels. Maybe its because No Time to Die made fans yearn for more purist Bond stories, or maybe its just the 60th anniversary that has re-invigorated the fan base. (lots of words with "re-" lol)
Comments
All of the books are going to be reprinted in house from Ian Fleming Publications next year. So the old publishers have ceased printing and distribution.
There are still paperbacks for online sale at the usual outlets : Amazon, Abe, Fantastic Fiction, World of Books, often the same books are advertised at different sites by the same sellers for different prices [e.g. ex-library copies of The Diamond Smugglers Vintage softcover for £2 on Abe, £4.99 on Amazon, same supplier] but you can get some decent copies. Currently saw a hardback, first edition, signed copy of The Diamond Smugglers for £22000, if you have the cash. I bought Thrilling Cities, Vintage edition for £9.99 from WOB. I had no idea it had even been published on Vintage. The things I don't know... It arrived today.
I don't think I've seen that cover before, that's a beautiful bit of design.
I remember picking that one up a good few years ago in Waterstones. Until I saw it on the shelf I hadn't been aware that Vintage had published the Fleming non-Bond books too.
does that edition of Thrilling Cities include 007 in New York?
or does 007 in New York now included in all new printings of Octopussy?
My Vintage Bond Collection is boxed and sealed. I've never opened it, although it probably doesn't have much value above the cost of the books, so I don't know if OO7 in New York is included in Octopussy. It certainly isn't in Thrilling Cities. I'm hunting down The Diamond Smugglers next.
I bought the above edition of Thrilling Cities and The Diamond Smugglers when they were released as they were published together. I really enjoyed Thrilling Cities and would read it again. I got bored of The Diamond Smugglers and gave up partway through.
Great cover, again
Yeah these are gorgeous bits of graphic design. I feel like they didn't get the praise they deserved.
Curious what the GG is about though? Surely not a Gustav Graves reference! 😂
No, it was only the US editions of Thrilling Cities that contained '007 in New York' as a kind of sop to American readers after Fleming had been so harsh on New York in the chapter on that city. At the suggestion of the US publisher he wrote a very short story to show that Bond hadn't disliked the city as much as his creator had. The short story wasn't published in the UK until the Sunday Times magazine had it as part of their TWINE Bond special in November 1999. This was the first time I'd ever heard of the short story myself and I still have two copies of the magazine bought at that time. This was all explained by Fleming's literary agent Peter Janson-Smith in a UK Penguin Books introduction to '007 in New York', written in (I think) 2001. From the early 2000s on I believe '007 in New York' should be included in all UK and US releases of the now expanded edition of Octopussy. The original title for the short story was 'Reflections in a Carey Cadillac' and I think it was dated 20 August 1963 by Fleming. I'm going from memory here so I may have gotten some details wrong. I'll have to double check a copy of Octopussy when I'm at home again.