Being in the running for prestigious literary awards or being a winner doesn’t change the world, except that… it allows you to sell a lot of books!
This was noted with pleasure by publishers Kevin Lambert and Éric Chacour, who have recently published award-winning Quebec writers in French-speaking countries.
The first won the prestigious Medici Prize in France for his novel “Let Our Joy Remain.” The second was found in the first selection of the Femina Prize and the Renaudot.
“We are on the sixth reprint and we have a stock problem at the moment,” admits Antoine Tanguay, founding president and editorial and artistic director of Éditions Alto, where Éric Chacour is published.
“People come to us and specifically ask us about this novel. Readers are heavily influenced by current events. We expect 50,000 copies sold,” adds the man who bought Crowd Cords in anticipation of the large influx of readers who will meet the charismatic author at the Montreal Book Fair this week.
Marie-France Bornais
Marie-France Bornais
The same goes for Éditions Héliotrope, where Kevin Lambert, winner of the prestigious Médicis Prize in France, publishes his novel “Que Notre Joie Stay”, a homage to Marie-Claire Blais (who, incidentally, was the first Quebec writer to win ). this prize in 1966).
“The novel came out last year and we have already had very good sales. We are in the tenth edition in Quebec. “We are trying not to run out of books, but the demand is even greater as there is certainly a very positive “Kevin Lambert effect” at the moment,” explain Olga Duhamel Noyer, literary director of Héliotrope, and Florence Noyer, managing director .
“We talked about him a lot and the Medici Prize really attracts people. They want this novel, but they also want to read his other books. “It has the effect of illuminating our entire production,” continue those who speak of raw talent when it comes to Kevin Lambert.
Kevin Lambert made headlines in particular after publicly declaring (using a long text published on his social networks) that he did not like at all that Prime Minister François Legault highlighted his work on Twitter, especially in the current context of the Real estate crisis.
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Small houses, big demands
For Alto and Héliotrope, which describe themselves as publishers run by small teams, managing such success is a daunting task.
We must ensure that the book is widely available (at book fairs and in bookstores), respond to the increasing requests from publishers from all over the world interested in translating and publishing the book, and manage auctions of audiovisual rights adaptations, which are also numerous are.
“We are in the emancipation of Quebec literature and we feel this in the sales of books at the book fair,” says the general director of the Montreal Book Fair, Olivier Gougeon. The proof? Quebec will be guest of honor at the prestigious Paris Book Festival in April 2024.