The Goncourt was awarded, on Monday, November 4, to the French-Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud for his novel hourispublished by Gallimard, dedicated to the “black decade” in Algeria, while Gaël Faye, Goncourt’s other great favorite, won the Renaudot prize for his second novel, jacaranda (Grasset), about the reconstruction of Rwanda after the 1994 genocide.
It is no longer necessary to demonstrate the catalytic effect on sales of the famous red banners of literary awards. According to the European research institute GfK, between 2019 and 2023, the Goncourt Prize sold an average of 577,000 copies in France in the year it was awarded. The total of the ten best-selling Goncourts in the last fifteen years represents 5.7 million books purchased. In 2023, for example, it was Jean-Baptiste Andrea who undoubtedly obtained the best sales result with take care of her (The Iconoclast) among all the award-winning books of the year, with more than 627,000 copies sold.
For Goncourt, the magnitude of sales has been exceptional years. forgotten today, Maheux Falconby Jean Carrière (Goncourt 1972), had reached almost 2 million copies sold, thus completing the fortune of the author, but also that of his editor, Jean-Jacques Pauvert. In 1984, the loverby Marguerite Duras, published by Editions de Minuit, had reached the figure of 1.6 million sales. In 2020, Hervé Le Tellier, published by Gallimard, also exceeded one million copies with The anomaly. However, the Goncourt is no guarantee of success either: the collection of aphorisms wandering shadows (Grasset), by Pascal Quignard, winner of the Goncourt 2002, reached peak sales of 100,000 copies.
One of the most influential, but not the best equipped.
Also according to GfK, sales of the Renaudot reached an average of 211,000 examples between 2019 and 2023; those of Femina more than 157,000 copies; those of the Grand Prix du Roman, awarded by the French Academy, 145,000 copies, and those of the Medici 37,000 copies. According to the contract signed with his publisher, the author recovers between 8% and 12%, rarely more, of the price of each work sold. Sometimes the domino effect begins when the author wins several awards. This is how sad tiger (POL), by Neige Sinno, winner of the Femina, won six more awards in 2023 and 21 international Goncourt awards, to the point that sales of this bitter novel exceed 278,000 copies.
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