To get a snapshot of the market in France, PW spoke with Maggie Doyle, foreign acquisitions director at Editions Robert Laffont. A native of Ireland who’s been living in France for more than 30 years, Doyle first worked as a literary agent, representing foreign authors and publishing companies in France. She’s been with Editions Robert Laffont for the past 15 years.
Doyle says the mood in the French publishing industry is somewhat positive. “In terms of figures, it’s up 7% in comparison to last year. The mood is definitely better than it has been in a while.” She points to Ken Follett’s Edge of Eternity (Editions Robert Laffont), Anna Todd’s After (Hugo et Cie), Michel Houellebecq’s Soumisson (Flammarion), and Patrick Modiano’s Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans les quartier (Editions Gallimard) as recent books that are selling well. Books about the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo have also been popular.
E-books are still a relatively small part of the market for mainstream fiction, accounting for 3%–5% of general fiction sales, though the percentage is higher for genre fiction like romance and science fiction. Doyle expects that e-book sales will always be relatively small in comparison to the U.S. or England due to a combination of geographical differences and the support the French government gives booksellers. “The fixed price law has helped our booksellers stay around,” she notes. Still, Doyle believes that digital will grow, and observes that “publishers’ relationships with readers are changing as well, because of all things digital, including social media. Despite the changes technology has already brought to publishing, Doyle says the book fairs in Frankfurt and London remain crucial for acquiring top books. “The fairs are an absolutely essential part of our work. No matter how efficiently we can exchange information electronically, face-to-face meetings are primordial,” Doyle says. She also highly values the opinions of her colleagues throughout the world and makes time to meet with them during the fairs. She says, “One of the great pleasures of my work is meeting up with people whose taste you admire. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don’t agree, but isn’t that just great?”
