Of course things seem to always simpler a posterioriI've obviously validated all its strategic choiceIn short each has a little fire all woodEach time the reorganization was in painIt is the official client of the Norwegian star Friends for life was watched by more than 11On this side of the Atlantic it is the oppositeQuickly they are shade to the large groupGérard Mestrallet Chairman of Paris Europlace was very clearThe market fell overall but bio explodesToday at 1 p.m., the Goncourt Prize will be awarded at the Drouant restaurant in Paris. Four candidates are running in the last straight line: Jean-Baptiste Del Amo "Education libertine" (Gallimard), Michel the breaks to "The beauty of the world" (Grasset), Atiq Rahimi for "Syngué Sabour" (POL, Gallimard subsidiary). Finally, also in the race, Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès whose novel "Where the Tigers are at home" published by a small publisher, Zulma, just already be crowned by the prix Médicis. It is a jury renewed with the entry of the writer Tahar Ben Jelloun and Patrick Rambaud, former winners of the Goncourt, which designate the winner.
For that which will stall the reward as well as for its editor, this will be the assurance of secure sales significantly higher than average sales on the market of general literature (best 8.591 in 2007). The Goncourt is literary award that sells the most. A "good vintage" sells best 300,000 against 500,000 twenty years ago.
Over the recent period, although there was the case of "Benevolent" of Jonathan Littell. In 2006, the jury of the prix Goncourt had chosen primer first novel already regarded as the book la rentrée littéraire lighthouse. Be distinguished, it is was already sold at approximately 250,000 best, according to figures circulating at the time, without the support of the promotional effect of a distinction. The grand prize of the Académie française and especially the Goncourt amplified its success, to cross this year Cape best 700,000 sold in large format.
The effect "red banner".
Literary awards is however reveal to the public of the little-known authors, and not to follow the curve of the sales.
Whether the novel "The Sun of Scorta", Laurent Gaudé, in 2004, and "Alabama Song", Gilles Leroy, award-winning last year, it is the most prestigious red headband literary award that has been taking off the sales of the book. In the case of "Three days with my mother", François Weyergans, prix Goncourt in 2005, the selection of the book in the first list of the Goncourt mid-September had already generated a thrill in the public interest. But once rewarded that book published by Grasset had met with success, with over 250,000 sold best.
Because, in the aftermath of the awarding of the prize, the public buys before all the "last Goncourt. The ripple effect of the famous "red banner," powered by effective marketing and good visibility of the paper on the tables, lasts until the end of the year. Because the Goncourt is a perfect Christmas gift. On the eve of the holiday season, sales go boom.
This year, the winner of the prize, whatever it is, will have opposite him a serious competitor: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Since the author of "Desert" received the Nobel Prize in literature, any work published in Gallimard and in particular "Refrain of the end", his last published novel any early October enjoys a clear enthusiasm of the public. To the point that at the end of last month, several of his novels found themselves unavailable in bookstores.
