French bookstores are now closed until further notice, containment has been general since Tuesday March 17 and publishers have frozen all scheduled releases by the end of April. A real blow for the publishing sector when the bestsellers of the summer traditionally come out during this period.
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Readers will have to wait to discover the new novel by Swiss Joël Dicker whose release was scheduled for March 25 (March 17 in Switzerland). "Dear friends, due to the circumstances, the publication of my novel The enigma of room 622 must unfortunately be postponed," said the Swiss novelist on social networks. "The date of publication of Joël Dicker's book is postponed without a date currently set , " confirmed editions of Fallois to AFP.
Life is a novel , the next novel by Guillaume Musso, scheduled for April 28, will not be released either on the scheduled date, we learned from Calmann-Lévy. "The publication of the novel is obviously postponed, without visibility for now," said the writer to an AFP journalist. As a reminder, Guillaume Musso is the favorite author of the French with more than 1.4 million copies of his books (all formats combined) sold in 2019.
No bestsellers, no manuscripts
Other releases are offbeat including that of the next book by Bernard Minier, The Valley (XO Éditions), whose publication was expected on April 2.
But the blow is perhaps even harsher for the writers whose books came out just before the bookstores closed. This is particularly the case for Aurélie Valognes whose book Born under a good star (Mazarine / Fayard) was released on March 4. For three years, the novelist has been constantly in the Top 5 of the most read authors in France.
Most publishers including JC Lattès and Le Cherche-Midi announced Tuesday the postponement of publications scheduled from March to April (respectively The dresser with colored drawers by Olivia Ruiz and Ailleurs by Gérard Depardieu). In the Albin Michel editions, three titles which were due to be released on March 19 are rejected, namely Mémoires impublables by Pierre Péan, La vie à plein main by Grégory Cuilleron and Petits arrangements entre amis by Yvan Stéfanovitch. The works which were due to be released in April (including Ruse by Éric Naulleau) will be staggered and distributed over the months of May, June and July, said the publishing house.
We are no longer able to support manuscripts. Please do not send us any text in the future.
Grasset Publishing HouseDaughter of Camille Laurens, Last summer of Franz-Olivier Giesbert and Les cabanes du narrateur by Peter Handke, all three at Gallimard, are thus affected by the wave of reports. The 10/18 editions also gave up publishing all the works scheduled from March 26 to the end of April. These include Margaret Atwood's Witch's Seed ( The Scarlet Maid ) and Anne Perry's Eye of the Cyclone , which were originally scheduled for a release on April 2. No postponement date has yet been announced.
At Pocket, around fifty pocket books will suffer the same fate, including Corentine by Roselyne Bachelot, Les Misophones by Bruno Salomone and M, the edge of the abyss by Bernard Minier.
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The publishers also asked all the authors to "postpone the sending of the manuscripts" . “We are no longer able to take care of the manuscripts. Please do not send us any text in the future , ” asked publisher Grasset. "Your manuscripts will be welcome again when the situation returns to normal," said Le Seuil.
The manga publishing houses Ki-oon, Bamboo, Grand Angle, Doki-Doki and Drakoo were also forced to postpone all their releases.
If 2019 was a relatively good year for publishing (thanks in particular to a good fall in literary re-entry, which generated the highest sales of books in six years and the publication of the 38th opus by Asterix, the best-selling book in France last year), the book market remains very fragile. In January, before the virus appeared in France, book sales were down 1%.
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