Amazon Buys James Bond Book Rights

The name's Zon. Amazon.

Yes, the U.S. licensing rights to Ian Fleming's original 14 James Bond novels have been bought for ten years by Amazon.com, who will start reissuing them this summer, shortly before the October release of the new Bond movie Skyfall, according to a statement by the Seattle-based company.

According to the LA Times, the agreement also covers two non-fiction works by Fleming, one a series of travel essays, the other a book about diamond smugglers.

The books, which have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide since they were first published, will be published under Amazon's Thomas & Mercer thriller imprint, and, the Wall Street Journal reports, the e-books will initially only be available on Amazon's Kindle.

This is part of the company's push into content creation, including the announcement of nine new books from their New Harvest imprint, further pitching it against traditional publishers.

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