The successful author, who left Fayard last June, finds a new home at Flammarion. She thus follows the editor Sophie de Closets, she also passed from one to the other.
The novelist Virginie Grimaldi, number two in book sales in France, is joining Flammarion, AFP learned from the publishing house on Tuesday, the day after the announcement of the author herself in the columns of the Monde.
In the GfK ranking of the best-selling authors in France, Virginie Grimaldi, 45, has occupied the place of runner-up behind Guillaume Musso for two years, with 828,000 copies in 2020 and 877,000 in 2021.
In June, she left Fayard editions, publisher of her last seven novels, from 2016 to 2022, including And only the sweet moments last or The Possible. That she opted for Flammarion was widely expected, after the arrival at the head of this house of the former boss of Fayard, Sophie de Closets. Even if “Flammarion’s offer was not the most attractive”, the novelist rented from the Monde “the project, the shared vision of the work to be done on the texts”. She also revealed that she had “met the heads of five publishing houses”.
Reimagined image
Virginie Grimaldi said she wanted to get rid of the image of “feminine books”, with “less girly covers” (designed for girls) and the need to “probably rethink the titles”.
A subsidiary of Madrigall (Gallimard, Denoël, POL, Minuit, etc.), Flammarion is the publisher of novelists such as Michel Houellebecq or Christine Angot. But he did not count among his authors any of those who sell several hundred thousand copies of their new novel each year, like Franck Thilliez, Michel Bussi or Aurélie Valognes.
With Sophie de Closets at its head, Flammarion has managed other transfers from Fayard, including that of Michelle Obama, one of the most coveted signings by publishers all over the world.