France: the literary re-entry so far little affected by the coronavirus

For the 2020 literary start in France, nearly 20% of the publications scheduled since spring had to be postponed in order to avoid traffic jams. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

Text by: Sarah Tisseyre

2 min

New products are appearing in bookstores in France. It's the literary re-entry. With a little over 500 new French and foreign novels. Almost as much as last year. And a lot of great signings. The health crisis did not impact the number of publications; it just changed the publishing house program somewhat.

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511 new novels by the end of September, that's only 13 titles less than last year. The health crisis will not have succeeded in imposing a slimming cure at the start of the literary school year. She, however, pushed the editors to make some adjustments, in their plans stalled at the beginning of the year.

About 20% of the publications scheduled since the spring had to be postponed to avoid traffic jams. In this fall, there will be fewer first novels than last year: 65 against more than 80. Some major publishers like Gallimard have chosen to postpone their publications until next January. Others have made the opposite choice, such as Hugues Jallon, the boss of Le Seuil.

"  We made a commitment vis-à-vis an author to publish it in the literary re-entry," he maintains, " and to announce that such and such a book will ultimately not be there because the Covid ... it seemed to me all the same very difficult to make this kind of decision. If it was a question of privileging the works of very good sales, I find that it is a bad blow which is given to the editorial diversity of the sector.  "

Safe values

This 2020 vintage aligns many sure values. From Emmanuel Carrère to Amélie Nothomb, via Eric Reinhardt, Laurent Mauvignier, Camille Laurens, Serge Joncour or Philippe Claudel, it is a rich literary comeback that is shaping up. Even if we will have to be satisfied, to bring it to life and boost sales, exhibitions and signatures in a lighter version.

► To listen to: “Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or” by Nathacha Appanah

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