Release and Reception
Casino Royale was first released on 13 April 1953 in the UK as a hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape, priced at 10s, 6d each, with a cover devised by Fleming himself. 4,728 copies of Casino Royale were printed, selling out in less than a month; a second print run the same month also sold out, as did a third run of more than 8,000 books published in May 1954. In the US three publishers had turned the book down before Al Hart of Macmillan Publishing Co offered Fleming a deal. Casino Royale was published in 23 March 1954 in the US, but sales in the territory were poor, totalling only 4,000 copies across the entire US during the course of the year. When the novel was released as a paperback in 1955, it was re-titled by publisher American Popular Library; Fleming's suggestions for a new title, The Double-O Agent and The Deadly Gamble, were disregarded in favour of You Asked for It, but this marketing ploy failed to raise the interest. The Popular Library version also changed Bond's name, calling him "Jimmy Bond".
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