Pre-orders for Charlie Higson’s fifth Young Bond novel, By Royal Command, showed a dramatic surge during the first 48 hours of being listed on Amazon.co.uk. Despite an anemic information page (which didn’t even contain the author’s name) and the only publicity coming from fansites, the Amazon sales rank leapt into the low 1000s, shooting past all the other Young Bond novels and even topping pre-orders for the much-hyped centenary Bond novel, Devil May Care.
Sales have now settled back, but are still impressive, topping pre-orders for other upcoming Young Bond books (Hurricane Gold paperback and SilverFin graphic novel) and still surpassing Devil May Care.
By Royal Command sees Young Bond in action from England to the chilling heights of the Austrian Alps. The book will be released in hardcover by Puffin in the UK on September 4, 2008.
Official announcement:
