We spoke with the deputy editorial director at Paris-based Belfond about the importance of independent booksellers in her country, and the Irish debut novel she's publishing thanks to Colum McCann.
Interestingly, your current list doesn't include any French authors.
Belfond has a long history with foreign literature. One of the first [non-French] books we published was Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. That book was an instant success, and marked the beginning of a new perspective for the house. Today, Belfond is the proud publisher of many iconic international best-selling authors: Michael Cunningham, Colum McCann, Lionel Shriver, Khaled Hosseini, Wally Lamb, Haruki Murakami, David Nicholls, Christos Tsiolkas, Herman Koch, Douglas Kennedy, to name only a few.
What are some strategies Belfond uses to market and publicize your books?
In France, thanks to fixed pricing, we’re lucky enough to still have a strong network of independent booksellers. It’s vital for us to make sure they get the books early enough so they can read and recommend them to their customers. And we publishers try as much as we can to visit [the booksellers] and share our excitation. Although things have been changing lately with the growing influence of blogs and online reviews, a great press review is still the best thing that can happen [for your book]. It’s the job of our great public relations colleagues to convince the journalists they should pick our book, and not the next one. And of course, we try to invite the authors [to France] as often as possible, so they can meet the booksellers, the journalists and the readers.
What do you look for in books that you acquire?
Of course, there’s the instant excitement, this feeling [you get when] you’re reading something fantastic--a book so good you just can’t put it down and you end up missing your metro station. But beyond that, what we’re really looking for is a new author, someone whose career we’re going to build, book after book. Of course, we’re all looking for the next big book. But a list doesn’t build itself on “coups;” in the end, it’s truly the authors who count.
Tell us about a forthcoming book that you're excited to publish.
This year is a very exciting one for Belfond--[we're publishing] a mix of titles, from great books by our regular authors, to amazing discoveries. In May, we are going to publish Us by David Nicholls, and in September [we will be releasing], Barracuda, the new novel by Christos Tsiolkas, the author of The Slap. We are especially excited about an Irish debut on our list: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air. The author, Darragh McKeon, was recommended to us by Colum McCann, and that is to me a good illustration of the family spirit within Belfond.
