Do Ian Fleming book collectors badly need a new film too?

The regular promise that 'James Bond will return' to movie theatres has undoubtedly kept interest in Ian Fleming going. So does the current delay to the films imperil the author's ongoing collectability?

Back in the good old days - you always knew another movie was just around the corner

How popular is James Bond?

This sounds like a stupid question. Twenty-five films, grossing more than £18 billion (adjusted for inflation) – very popular one would say.

The fact Bond is a cultural icon, and part of what’s quintessentially British are just two other yardsticks one could fall back on.

But I’m NOT talking about the films.

I’m talking about the books, and I'm currently questioning whether we’ve reached an inflection point where whether the future of the books is now inextricably linked to future the films (which – quite frankly – isn’t looking great).

I ask this question now because in a literally a matter of weeks, the first complete set of hardback books is going to be available since 2008 (see some of the covers above)

It’s the first big test of people’s willingness to buy these stories for a long time.

It’s the first set of hardbacks produced by Ian Fleming Publications themselves, but their arrival comes at an ominous time.

Not only has their been the controversy last year about the sensitivity changes to the new paperback set, but more than this, fans seemingly have no idea when the next cinematic adventure is likely to happen (some say it’s a least two-three years away – which if this transpires will represent the largest gap between films since License to Kill and Goldeneye).

Now, I don’t normally like to conflate the films and the books.

Book collectors typically want the books stand alone as literary works, and the films satisfy those who like going to the movies for their slice of Bond.

And yet, I can’t help wondering whether we need the films (and quickly), if the books are to have any ongoing relevancy to people.

Bond book sales:

The reason is book sales.

It's generally accepted that the James Bond books (the original 14 books that is), have racked up more than 100 million sales since first being introduced 71 years ago.

It’s accepted that some 30 million of these were sold in Fleming’s lifetime, and that double this number (that's 60 million) were sold in the two years immediately after his death (27 million were sold in 1965 alone).

That means the vast majority (90 million) of this total amount was sold almost contemporaneously to Fleming’s own life.

If the numbers are to be believed, this leaves 10 million books to be shared over a period of 60 years – so not exactly bombastic.

As someone who doesn’t have an account with Nielsen BookScan (the go-to place publishers for official book sale data), it’s difficult to know exactly how Ian Fleming performs today, week-to-week.

However, check Amazon, and we can get a pretty clear picture of current sales.

Dr No’s sales ranking currently comes in at lowly 3,385,794th place in ‘Books’ overall [205, 949th in ‘Thrillers’ and 20,345th for ‘Spy Stories’].

Diamonds Are Forever chart in overall at 2,637,713th place, and Live and Let Die in 1,620,461st place overall.

To put this into some sort of perspective, one Amazon book expert suggests that to be ranked 250th on Amazon, you need to be selling around 200 books per day.

A ranking of 10,000 is around 10 books per day, and a ranking of 100,000 is one book per day.

A ranking of 500,000+ means you're selling less than one book per month.

Trips I’ve taken to Waterstones and other large book stores seem to corroborate the fact Bond isn't exactly flying off the shelves – with only a handful of books ever seeming to be on shelves, and hardly ever a full compliment at that.

It's understandable in one regard. The books are between 60-70 years old.

And yet, for 60 years+ of these years, Ian Fleming (book) collectors have been blessed with having a continual supply of regular films to kick-start off a new generation – people who love the films, and as they get older, want to seek out the literary originals.

Which reluctantly brings me to thinking that the continued success of the original books (whether you judge that by interest, value-achieved, or maintaining cultural relevancy), is indeed dependent on the predictability of a new films dropping every few years.

The generation that remembers buying the original Capes when they first came out are (sadly) passing away. New blood is needed.

The link between books and films

I think there’s always been a symbiotic relationship between the popularity of the books and the frequency of the films.

As 007 MAGAZINE Webmaster Kevin Harper notes in his excellent history of the Pan movie-tie-in books (MTI), sales of Ian Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale were reinvigorated and reached a whopping 177,000 when the spoof movie of the same name came out in 1967.

Compare that to the very lowly sales figures of the same novel a year later in 1968 – when no new James Bond film was released.

Here just 9,000 copies of Casino Royale were shifted. That was the lowest ever number of sales up to that point.

As many of us know, by the late 60s, publishers couldn’t give copies of Octopussy away, with very poor sales seeing that title remain on bookshelves for another 20 years.

It’s not to say underlying interest doesn’t exist, but interest does seem to peak around the hype of a current film.

Here's an example:

When continuation novel Devil May Care came in out 2008, it was very much riding the wave of the recent Daniel Crag reboot. And sales of this Sebastian Faulks-authored continuation novel hit 44,093 within the first four days of release.

Waterstone's sold more than 19,000 of these, with the £100 special souvenir edition selling out in one morning.

Queues began outside the chain's Piccadilly store from 4.30pm the previous day.

Now that might not sound a lot, but [save for more recent writers like Richard Osman entering the fray], in terms of popular writers, it’s only the likes of Terry Pratchett and Martina Cole – both genre writers with an enormous loyal fanbase – that have ever regularly come close to this, shifting 30,000-40, 000 copies in the first week.

As The Guardian concluded: “Penguin's success with their new Bond obviously owes a debt to the new lease of life given the Bond film franchise since 2006's Casino Royale.”

We know that when there is anticipation for a film, interest in James Bond in paper-form follows.

Issue #1 of Dynamite’s comic book release of VARGR (2015) sold 35,632 units in the USA in its first month of release in November 2015 – which got a significant boost by Spectre being in theatres at the same time.

Charlie Higson’s phenomenally successful Young Bond series (2005-2008) sold over a million copies in the UK alone – and were also perfectly times around Craig’s appearance as Bond.

A book launch in a film void?

The stakes are pretty high for IFP, which is launching its set of new hardback books slap-bang in the middle of what is likely to become the longest film void ever.

Filming for No Time to Die wrapped in 2019, but its release was delayed by nearly two years to September 2021.

No Time To Die smashed UK box office records, grossing more on its opening weekend than any other film in the history of the James Bond franchise – proving that Bond still puts bums on seats.

But to put reading bums onto sofas, we arguably need a new film soon.

Do the original books stand on their own merit?

This is the $64,000 question.

Plenty of people will argue that the original books and the films are separate, and that the published Capes (and later incarnations they have come in), remain as collectible now as they ever did, and exist in their own book collecting bubble.

This is certainly a valid point. As previous blogs have touched upon – including this recent one on how much you need to spend to buy a first edition Casino Royale – auction values are holding extremely firm.

This may well be because the literary work Ian Fleming is on the cusp of transitioning into living memory reading to bibliographic artifact. (His work goes out of copyright in 2035).

Perhaps the original first edition Cape books are morphing into items of antiquity – which brings with it responsibility of preservation.

Most people I know want a first edition set of Ian Fleming books ‘not’ because they are going to read these specific copies, but because they just want them as items to own (with their separate ‘reading set’ being their go-to books to actually read).

In this respect – and some may view this sadly – the books have become rare objects rather than something people read.

This creates its own market, and it’s a market I still think is strong.

However, I don’t think anyone can contest the fact that the films have kept people engaged with the character of James Bond.

If we look at other enduring works of fiction (and those that carry continued collectability), we would see a pattern forming – whether it’s Bram Stoker; Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Tolkien, Bronte and others, the thing that links them all is their continued reinterpretation and adaption for the small or big screen.

Now think of authors who haven’t been so successful or enduring. Without repeat visibility on TV screens or movie theatres, these good works have largely vanished from sight once the living memory of the author disappears.

Positive vibes ahead?

There have long been accusations that movie-Bond hasn’t transitioned well into modern times and modern social sensibilities, and that literary Bond is becoming more and more dated to each new generation.

While that is an argument for another time, fan speculation that the next Bond films could be set in the time they were written may well give new readers to Fleming the ‘permission’ they need to access his original works.

This could be the positive news we've needed. It could spark a whole new generation of readers that are able to appreciate the written word of Bond.

Whether newbies to Bond initially start their reading in slight abhorrence to the ideals and notions presented about 1950s Britain, maybe that’s something we just have to accept.

But I’m pretty certain that once this mental block is broken, it's the stories, the pace, and the sheer mastery of the work will soon speak for itself.

That’s when sceptical readers transition into being collectors for life.

The final image from No Time To Die. We live in hope...