CommanderBond.net

Here's another bit of sweet scoopage (and a way boss graphic) from that tireless obsessive over at The Young Bond Dossier.

1000 signed copies of Hurricane Gold

Ugh.. indie. Oh well.

Nice photoshop of the book

Great find, zen. Hopefully we'll see several show up on eBay.

Hang on a minute - Puffin are going to cut-out all the major book sellers in the UK and only go through independents?

Are there that many left in the UK, outside of York, Stratford, Haye-on-Wye, and Charing Cross Road?

Do Hatchard's and Foyles count as independents?

I do hope that we're not going to encounter a situation as that indicated by "Mauro" on Zen's own site where he orders 30 through his connections in the booktrade - presumably to sell on at a much inflated profit to those without the good fortune of those kind of connections.

At least with the Waterstone's deal - so long as you lived in the UK or had friends in the UK - with the size of the Waterstone's group, you could guarantee to get a Limited Edition signec copy!

Well, just on 1000 copies. We know the YB novels have print runs over 150,000 so it really isn't that big of a deal. And I expect there are a fair amount of indie children's bookstores.


Oh, I think you misunderstood. Mauro is just a hardcore Young Bond fan who wants to make sure he'll land a copy so he called 30 stores to reserve a copy should they get one. I don't think he's in the book biz or he plans on buying all 30. I'm not sure how old he is, but I believe he's somewhere near or within the Young Bond readership age range.

However, I do expect some Bond dealers will snap up multiple copies to resell. But I doubt they will be able to jack up the prices too much. Because Charlie does book tours, there are no shortage of signed Young Bond novels out there and I'm sure that'll be the case with HG. This is not a special book...just a signed one. I know I won't overpay for one. In fact, I might not even go for one as I like to get my books inscribed to me by Charlie in person (or proxy). Unless they are numbered. Then I'm calling on Mauro for help.

Fair comments, Zen.

I've never got that much of a buzz out of signed firsts - sadly Mr Fleming is dead - but having got Charlie's first two UK hardcover firsts signed it seem silly not to get this one in its geniune UK first, hardcover signed, style. Unless there's a Limited Edition UK signed hardcover first

As to my point about distributing via UK independents, I maintain it seems a very odd - and extremely limited and specıalıst - distributing channel for 2007.

Yeah, is a bit odd, but I do think this might be about aggressive/specialized marketing inside children's bookstores (which I think are probably mostly independent -- I don't know of a children's chain). Also, I noticed Charlie's last book tour focused largely on indie bookstores and not chains (unlike his SF/BF tours). In fact, the last time he was in CA his appearance was at an indie store. I guess they've discovered a successful balance here. Blast 100,000 to the chains and hand sell 1000 in indies. Whatever they are doing, you can't argue with success. It's working.

I think it is wonderful that Mr. Higson has chosen to support the independent Mom and Pop bookshops! Those neighborhood businesses are the fabric of our society and are going the way of the dinosaur! There was a time when bookstores and the people who worked in them were "book people" meaning that they were extremely well-read and knowledgeable about what they had on the their shelves. There was a great honor in selling books. Today's booksellers in the large corporate chains are by and large, in my most humble opinion and experience, people merely working a job, looking everything up on a computer. Of the four independent bookstores that I frequented and worked at over the years, only one remains in business as the others were over-run by the chain stores.

Go, Charlie! Go!

This post has been edited by Solex Agitator: 11 May 2007 - 01:47

Well said, Solex.

Looks like a "must have" to me...

Hey zen...any word if Charlie will be doing any tours of the US in not to distant future?

Nothing. And seeing how DoD isn't coming out in the US until April '08, might be a while before we see Charlie back in the USSA.