By Edward Nawotka France’s L’express newspaper rounds up 2009 sales for a variety of titles and dubs the holiday season in France the “Millionaire’s Christmas.” Dan Brown topped the list, moving 565,000 copies of The Lost Symbol. He was followed by Marie Ndiaye’s Trois femmes puissantes, which sold 450,000 copies and Anna Gavalda’s L’Echappée belle (Le Dilettante), which sold 350,000 …
Google Forced to Pay €300,000 Fine to French Pubs
By Siobhan O’Leary As reported by the Associated Press (via the LA Times), a Paris court has ruled against Google in a copyright infringement case brought by French publisher La Martinière on behalf of itself and the French Publishers Association (FPA), representing 400 publishing companies. Google was ordered to pay €300,000 in damages to La Martinière for making excerpts of …
Why Smart Publishers Care About Tech Conferences
By Hannah Johnson PARIS: Last week’s LeWeb, the largest technology conference in Europe, attracted nearly nearly 2,400 attendees from 50 countries. Started in 2005 by Loic Le Meur (founder and CEO of Seesmic) and his wife Geraldine, it has become perhaps the premier Internet related conference in Europe and a key venue for the launch of new products and initiatives …
French Literary Agents Stage a Quiet Revolution
By Olivia Snaije PARIS: Until very recently, literary agents have been viewed in France with suspicion and the very topic seen as taboo. Traditionally, authors would submit and sell books directly to publishers. Agents were viewed as mere interlopers, interfering with a privileged relationship between author and publisher and introducing a mercenary, Anglo-Saxon element into the closed publishing circuit. But …
Are French Authors Better Off With or Without Agents?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s feature story about the increasing influence of literary agents in French publishing, author Jonathan Littell is quoted as saying that, as an American (albeit one writing in French), getting an agent was second nature to him. “In the Anglo-Saxon literary world if you want to publish a book, you look for an agent first,” he …
The Literary Life of the French Foreign Legion
By Robert Girardi I was drawn to the French Foreign Legion—the subject of my new novel, Gorgeous East—for a variety of reasons. Chief among them has to do with a foolish weakness for old things: old books full of dust, old cars barely running, old chairs that you can barely sit in, old apartment buildings (hopefully without roaches) and most …
Bonus Material: Join the French Foreign Legion, Oui or Non?
By Edward Nawotka As discussed in our lead story today, one of the benefits—perhaps the main benefit—of joining the French Foreign Legion is the privilege of l’anonymat. It allows you to enlist under a fake name and, after five years of service, retire with a new identity and French citizenship, thus totally erasing your past. What’s interesting to note is …
Publishing for Les Petits Parisiens
By Olivia Snaije The French children’s book fair—the Salon du Livre et de la Presse—celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, with Italy as the guest of honor. Held in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, it’s the biggest fair of its kind in Europe that caters to the general public; and is immensely popular with parents and children, as well as …
France Rates Top Indie Bookshops Like Wine
By Olivia Snaije Independent bookstores in France—much like the country’s wine—can now qualify for a label indicating high quality. The long-awaited “Librairie Indépendante de Référence” (“Recommended Independent Bookshop”) label, which was part of a 2007 “plan livre” launched by former culture minister Christine Albanel, is now a reality and, as of September, 406 of France’s 3,000 independent bookstores qualified for the …
Bonus Material: France’s 406 Top Indies
By Edward Nawotka A total of 640 bookstores applied to be designated as a “Librairie Indépendante de Référence” (“Recommended Independent Bookshop”), but only 406 made the cut. The stores come from 234 municipalities, representing the full geographical range of French bookselling. (Read more about independent booksellers in France here.) DOWNLOAD: The full list of stores (in PDF format).