Bond is back...on MySpace

The countdown to the publishing event of the year- a new James Bond novel to mark Ian Fleming’s centenary by none other than Sebastian Faulks - officially begins today at www.myspace.com/devilmaycarebook.
Devil May Care has come to MySpace, and we’re looking for someone to create the book’s theme tune. Not only will this bring the winner fame, glory and admiration, but their song will be featured on the audio book (published this May), and they’ll also receive £1000 to spend on music equipment.

The question has already been asked - why MySpace? Is Penguin ignoring Bond's original audience, in their attempt to be too down with the kids? I don't believe so. And MySpace isn't just for the kids these days, anyway. We thought long and hard about what we could offer to Bond fans and would-be Bond fans online, given that there is already so much out there. We don’t believe in building websites for the sake of it. Partnering with MySpace gives us a chance to bring Bond – the original Bond as Ian Fleming created him – to a whole new audience. Entrants to the competition must sample a Fleming Bond audio book in their track, any part of five we have provided: not only will this test their creativity, but entrants will be forced to think about who the Bond of the books is. It is this Bond who appears in Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care and, with no other detail on the content of the book available to them, they are wise to consider the Fleming backlist carefully.

And you can't really argue with MySpace’s statistics of over 10 million users in the UK. This hotbed of creativity provides an army of talented people who, lucky for us, are all in one place. These are the people who will bring the literary Bond into the twenty-first century – as far as I know, there has never been a theme tune for a book before. This is a chance for someone to make their own stamp on one of our most exciting books in a long time.

As for the hardcore Bond fans, I suspect they’ll join us anywhere to get their fix: extra content, behind-the-scenes glimpses, hints of what’s to come… and there’ll be lots of all of that as the countdown continues...

Jen Doyle

Wannabe Bond girl

Comments

[Jon Shepherd]

have tried to get into this page but it keeps coming up as a blank black page? whats going on?

[Anna Rafferty]

Sorry about that Jon - it does work well on all browsers here in Penguin Towers so I'm at a loss as to why you're getting a blank page. Could you have another go and if you're still not having any luck, drop me an email at editor@penguin.co.uk and we'll investigate further.

good luck!
Anna @ Penguin