The 58-year-old former First Lady of the United States is one of the best-selling authors in the world in recent years. His 500-page autobiography translated into 50 languages, Become (2018), has sold over 17 million copies worldwide.
Editions Flammarion announced Thursday that they would publish the next book by Michelle Obama, an author who is thus leaving Fayard editions having lost several of their authors in recent weeks.
This light in us due out November 15, the same day as in English (The Light We Carry) and in 11 other languages including Chinese, Spanish or Portuguese.
The 58-year-old former First Lady of the United States is one of the best-selling authors in the world in recent years. His 500-page autobiography translated into 50 languages, Become (2018), has sold over 17 million copies worldwide.
After a renewal of its management in June, Fayard saw the departure of several disgruntled authors.
Her former boss, Sophie de Closets, had left in March a house she had run for eight years. She became CEO of Flammarion in mid-July.
Commercial success
Become has been one of Fayard’s great successes in recent years. Flammarion recalled that it had sold “more than 500,000 copies of all formats in the French language”.
Michele Obama’s new French publisher did not specify under what conditions this change of publisher took place. But Sophie de Closets had told in 2020 to L’Express how she had personally invested in obtaining the rights in French to the books of the Obama spouses.
As part of the delegation of Hachette, world number three in publishing and parent company of Fayard, during a 2017 meeting in Washington with Barack Obama, she was among those who convinced him to sign. “The fact of having spoken to Obama as a writer and not just as a former head of state certainly played a role,” she said.
Sophie de Closets had thus won for Fayard the first volume of Barack Obama’s memoirs, “A Promised Land”, published in 2020. After the millions of copies sold worldwide, the publication date of the second volume is not known. .
According to the Financial Timesat the end of their meetings with publishers in 2017, the Obamas had obtained the guarantee of receiving 65 million dollars, an amount never seen in the sector, by signing with Penguin Random House (Bertelsmann group).
Unique personal stories
In This light within us says Flammarion, “Michelle Obama offers her readers unique personal stories and relevant reflections on change, adversity and power”. She “shares with us tips, stories and effective strategies to stay optimistic and calm”, added the publisher.
Flammarion is part of the Madrigall group, controlled by the Gallimard family. Hachette Livre, the parent company of Fayard, came under the control of billionaire Vincent Bolloré in May during a public offer by his group, Vivendi, for its competitor Lagardère.