James Bond retains e-rights

Philip Jones reports in The Times (Books, 3 November) that James Bond retains his image as a double agent. 

The estate of author Ian Fleming has decided to sell e-editions of the mega-selling books directly to the public, instead of through Penguin, the publisher of the paper versions.

They have every right to do this, they claim, as the original contracts were written before the e-book era, and so digital rights were not included.

Penguin are playing tough, and have informed Ian Fleming Publications (IFP) that they will not renew the licence to print the novels if the digital rights are not included.

They could be bluffing -- the novels still sell well, topping 100,000 sales each and every year.

Literary agents are watching with interest, as it could hail a big shift from the traditional publishing mode, with the big digital publishers, such as Amazon, directly competing with print editions in the marketplace.

Already, Amazon offers authors a 70% royalty for books published exclusively on Kindle.