To Plot or Not to Plot? Reflections on French Publishing

Last November I went on a three day business trip to Paris to meet with smaller and/or independent French publishers that my agency does not usually work with but with whom we thought there was potential for business. This opportunity to meet passionate and selective editors was invigorating. It was particularly heartening to see how well they were faring despite the economical crisis in Europe and the so-called death of publishing that some seem to announce every year now.

To give a bit of context, France has made some smart choices when it comes to publishing and this has helped ensure that smaller businesses get a decent chance even during difficult times. The Lang law on fixed pricing, reliable and strong networks formed by independent publishers and booksellers as well as reduced VAT on books has helped to protect smaller and more specialized booksellers and publishers.

During one meeting, an editor told me while discussing fiction titles that she was looking for literary titles that were plot-driven and not too introspective or intellectual. “We don’t publish a lot of French fiction for this reason,” she concluded. I must have looked slightly disconcerted because she then added “But I’m sure most of your fiction titles will have strong plots because it’s the case of most English and American fiction titles anyway.”

This reminded me of a discussion I had with a colleague of mine a few weeks before about Siri Hustvedt who does amazingly well in France. Her latest novel, The Summer Without Men, is short but dense and while I would not go as far as to say that plot is neglected, I feel like it could also read as a feminist essay because it includes so many philosophical and scientific elements that open up a discussion on the role and position of women in Western societies nowadays. My colleague said that this was the reason she found the book a bit cold and of-putting whereas I felt the complete opposite. I love Siri Hustvedt’s work because it includes all these reflections that in turn challenge her readers. To which my colleague responded: “that’s the French in you speaking”… which might be partially true but then Siri Hustvedt does extremely well in a lot of countries, not just France. However, for better or for worse, French publishing does have this image of being a bit snobby and intellectual that often translates as plot is secondary. French cinema used to have this image as well in the past although it feels that it has grown out of it over the past few years.

I have read all but one of the titles that was on this year’s Goncourt (France’s most prestigious literary prize) shortlist and while I enjoyed all of them, there was one that came as a complete surprise not because I had not heard of it before, but rather because it is just not your typical French literary novel. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to call Joël Dicker’s La Vérité sur l’Affaire Harry Québert a literary novel at all. The book was this year’s book of the fair in Frankfurt and it’s already been sold in a large number of languages, including English which is a real coup! I can however see the appeal. The book reads like an American thriller, the writing is straight-forward, including enough clichés that the reader feels at ease but also enough of an edge that despite its nearly 700 pages, it’s difficult to put down. It has an interesting structure though and it’s really well done, just not Goncourt material, at least not Goncourt material you would expect.

Compared to the rest of the shortlist (I have not yet read Linda Lê’s Lame de Fond but it’s received some very positive reviews) which includes Patrick Deville’s fascinating and intense account of the life of Alexandre Yersin in Peste & Choléra and Jérôme Ferrari’s enchanting prose in Le Sermon sur la Chute de Rome (winner of the Goncourt 2012 which will also be translated into English), Joël Dicker’s novel is not in the same league. In fact, when it was later announced that his novel was also nominated for the Goncourt des Lycéens (whose jury is made up of high school students), the author claimed that this nomination pleased him more than the previous one and I can understand why. The book went on to win the Goncourt des Lycéens after having previously won the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie Française.

While Deville and Ferrari’s books have fallen down the bestsellers list, Dicker’s book has been at the number 1 spot for weeks now, in front of E.L. James (thank goodness for that!) and J.K. Rowling! Bestsellers are impossible to predict of course and while this is Dicker’s second novel, it was published by a small French publisher. However, sales in France have been spectacular and with all the buzz, they are bound to be in other countries as well.

Does this mean that French publishers will try and reproduce this success? There are of course other more commercial French novels that favor plot and are inspired by American thrillers but none have made it on the Goncourt list so far. Is the process of prize nominations and to a lesser extent French publishing in general evolving and becoming somewhat less elitist and highbrow? Unlikely, but then again that might be the French in me speaking.