James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me since "Colonel Sun" nearly a decade earlier. Christopher Wood, himself a novelist, and who co-authored the screenplay with Richard Maibaum, was commissioned to write the book, which was given the title "James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me". Wood would also novelize the screenplay for the next Bond film, "Moonraker" in 1979. The novelization and the screenplay, although both written by Wood, are somewhat different. In the novelization SMERSH has been reactivated some time before the start of the novel, and is still after James Bond. Their part in the novelization begins during the "pre-title credits" sequence, in which Bond
The James Bond Dossier of Bond's correct designation: 'It's inaccurate, of course, to describe James Bond as a "spy", in the strict sense of one who steals or buys or smuggles the secrets of foreign powers ... Bond's claims to be considered a "counter-spy", one who operates against the agents of unfriendly powers, are rather more substantial'. Although, as noted elsewhere, Amis wrote three books related to the James Bond franchise, and may or may not have contributed to one of Fleming's novels, "The James Bond Dossier" would end up being the only book of this type to be published under Amis's own name.