One off novels or a permanent series?

From 1981 to 2002, the original Bond novels came out at a yearly rate (with two exceptions during Gardner's tenure). Since Benson stepped down with The Man With The Red Tattoo we went several years without any new titles. Since then it seems the new approach to the books are one off titles by popular authors.

My question is: Which would you prefer? A permanent series released every year by one author or these one off titles?


Personally, I would like to see a return to yearly Bond adventures. Especially with the gaps in between the films growing larger and moving away from the every other year release schedule, it would be nice to get that Bond fix every year.

With that said, however, I highly doubt we'll see a return to that format anytime soon. The latter Gardner novels and Benson did not sell great. I mean, yes, they did make a profit and they always sold their print runs, but they were not making the best sellers list or anything. The printed what was necessary and always sold out the print run, but they were hardly making a huge amount of money for those involved.

These one off novels have been much more successful. Both Devil May Care and Carte Blanche both hit the Top 10 of the NYT Bestsellers list, the first time that has happened since Gardner took over the series. Furthermore, Devil May Care is one of the fastest selling fiction books in history (behind the Harry Potter books) with 44,000 or so copies sold within its first four days of release. Carte Blanche also sold pretty well.

The fact is while Bond is hugely popular, a majority of the fanbase are casual. They go and see the films and all that, but only the diehard base get into the books it seems. It's not like Star Trek/Star Wars that both have rather enormous diehard/cult fanbases. It would seem like, since that is the case, the one off books by popular authors and giving them some promotion are the best way to appeal to the casual readers as opposed to yearly books with low print runs that mostly go unnoticed by everyone but diehards. So I have the feeling this will be here to stay... but I do hope at some point in the future we'll see a new run with a new permanent author. Even if it is for 5 years and then they take a break and then pick up again, etc.

I'd definitely like a permanent yearly series by the same author.
Not having the same author is so discontinuos.

It would be nice if a time for the current continuation novels could be settled upon, returning them to a coherent series status - Devil May Care was late 60s, Carte Blanche was contemporary, and Solo is late 60s again.

Permanent series here too.

I also vote for a permanent series. However, I would like to see an author who truly understands the character come to the fore. I couldn't care less whether the series were set in the 60s or modern era, but it needs to connect with the fans of the literary canon in ways that no one outside of Kingsley Amis did. To be fair, I like a handful of the Gardner series, but was never a fan of Benson. Faulks and Deaver were just flat-out misfires in my view.