The 31-year-old young woman, noticed four years ago on a self-publishing platform, confides in BFMTV about her new life as a successful author.
She is one of the most read authors in France and yet she was still unknown not so long ago. Mélissa Da Costa sold 614,000 books last year, which earned her eighth place in the ranking of the most read French people that year behind Guillaume Musso, Virginie Grimaldi or Franck Thilliez. And The Phantom Pains (published by ALbin Michel), his latest novel, published last March, and sold 60,000 copies in two months, confirms his popularity.
Success came thanks to the web: four years ago, Mélissa Da Costa was working as a communications officer when she self-published on a platform what was to become her first novel, entitled All the blue of the sky. His future publisher spots the manuscript, and this is how it all begins:
“It got carried away very quickly,” recalls Mélissa Da Costa for BFMTV. “Author unknown, first novel… for me I was going to sell a hundred copies, and that was already not bad. And in fact, I had a very good TV, radio and paper press (… ) And then word of mouth – that’s what works the most – has been very strong.”
Back in bookstores at the start of the school year
So that 700,000 copies of All the blue of the sky were sold, well above the average Goncourt price. So in 2020, Mélissa Da Costa quit her job to devote herself fully to this passion, which has occupied her since childhood:
“I have been writing since I was 7”, says the one who is now 31. “I never asked myself the question, I never asked myself if I wanted to write, I simply wrote . Because it was a game, as much as hide-and-seek. I went through middle school, high school… and still.”
Her bibliography already includes four novels in which she deals with construction and redemption. Themes carried by simple characters to which we attach ourselves. His fifth book, Liningis expected in October.