6 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

I was lucky enough to once find the UK and US paperbacks of both James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me and James Bond And Moonraker at the same time, but naturally, the UK hardcovers are a thousand times more difficult. It has always seemed like his first book is much more difficult to even see for sale compared to James Bond And Moonraker. Anyone know why? Were the print runs drastically different?

[GreggAllinson]

Good question. If anything, Moonraker theoretically should've been harder to find, as you'd imagine they'd want to push the first new Bond novel(ization) in years with a big print run. The only thing I can guess is that after the "cold streak" of Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun, they were very cautious with the print run on the book. If TSWLM was a flop, it may well have buried the Bond franchise forever.

[marktmurphy]

I managed to find a first edition JBTSWLM in a library sale for a coupleof pence about two years ago. Shame it is ex-library as it would be worth a mint.

[Qwerty]

Good question.  If anything, Moonraker theoretically should've been harder to find, as you'd imagine they'd want to push the first new Bond novel(ization) in years with a big print run.  The only thing I can guess is that after the "cold streak" of Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun, they were very cautious with the print run on the book.  If TSWLM was a flop, it may well have buried the Bond franchise forever.

Could be Gregg. Perhaps that they were only novelizations also and weren't expected to be a big of sellers as the Fleming's?

[Triton]

I would presume that Christopher Wood's book James Bond and the Spy
Who Loved Me is more sought by collectors than James Bond and Moonraker. Christopher Wood successfully pulls off an emulation of Ian Fleming's writing style in 'Spy and of the two films, I believe that Bond collectors are more likely to collect 'Spy memorabilia.

[stromberg]

[quote name='marktmurphy' date='27 February 2005 - 21:51']I managed to find a first edition JBTSWLM in a library sale for a coupleof pence about two years ago. Shame it is ex-library as it would be worth a mint.

[/quote]

Still a nice catch, mark.

[quote name='Triton' date='28 February 2005 - 00:48']I would presume that Christopher Wood's book James Bond and the Spy Who Loved Me is more sought by collectors than James Bond and Moonraker.  Christopher Wood successfully pulls off an emulation of Ian Fleming's writing style in 'Spy and of the two films, I believe that Bond collectors are more likely to collect 'Spy memorabilia.

[/quote]

Not sure if this is true. This is not really a memorabilia thing, more a book thing. I guess that everyone who goes for one of the two books will go for the other one with an equal effort - so they should be equally sought after.

[quote name='Qwerty' date='27 February 2005 - 21:52'][quote name='GreggAllinson' date='27 February 2005 - 14:55']Good question.

[Qwerty]

Indeed, I seem to remember there being a thread centered around this very book. Can't imagine the print run to be all that large.