literary estates

Instead of licensing the digital rights to Penguin, Ian Fleming's literary estate is making the e-book editions available directly itself. Getting the most out of the Bond brand is the estate's rationale for keeping the e-books in-house.

For more than 50 years, writer John Updike's exclusive U.S. publisher was Knopf, and he sold his writing without a literary agent. A year after his death, a particularly persistent agent has landed him as a client: Andrew Wylie, who may be signing up for a number of headaches.