2023-06-29 12:16:16
After a record year in 2021 and a mixed year in 2022, the start of the new school year is decisive for the performance of the book market.
The 2023 literary season will be the least prolific of the century, publishers playing the card of moderation in the face of a hesitant book market, according to the specialized magazine Weekly Books.
For its special literary back-to-school issue to be published on Saturday, the professional magazine has identified 466 novels scheduled between mid-August and the end of October.
This is almost 5% less than the 490 of the previous year, and a third less than the high point established in 2010, when the sector had reached a record of 701 new products.
“The decline in the number of publications continues,” notes the magazine on its website. It is thus returning to levels that were those of the mid-1990s.
The literary season is a well-established French tradition, where the most renowned publishers place titles that compete for the autumn grand prizes (Goncourt, Renaudot, Femina, etc.), while the lesser known hope to benefit from the frequentation of bookstores at that time.
Amélie Nothomb featured
After a record year in 2021 and a mixed year in 2022, the start of the new school year is decisive for the performance of the book market.
According to the GfK institute, the first quarter was rather good for literature (+3% over one year). “The market is driven by sales of novels,” he said in April, at the time of the Paris Book Festival.
The start of the 2023 school year should star Éric Reinhardt, Amélie Nothomb, Sorj Chalandon, Laurent Binet, Agnès Desarthe, Maria Pourchet and Lilia Hassaine.
Livres Hebdo lists 321 French novels, including 74 first novels, and 145 translated novels.
Jérôme Lachasse with AFP
#literary #season #prolific #century #Livres #Hebdo