Scholastic authors at the Salon du Livre in Paris!

• ‹ Now Available: The Book Trailers for FOREVER by Maggie Stiefvater!
• Main
• WONDERSTRUCK Cover Revealed! ›

International bestsellers R.L. Stine and Kathryn Lasky received special invitations to attend the Salon du Livre, the largest French book fair and an important cultural event in Europe, on behalf of their French publishers, Bayard, and Pocket Jeunesse respectively. This is the first year that Scholastic authors were chosen for this honor. 

Both R.L. and Kathy were absolute stars and did a terrific job of promoting their books to French readers! Here are some brief highlights from their trip as well as my own visits to our leading publishing partners in France.

Pocket Jeunesse, the French publisher of Ga’hoole and Wolves of the Beyond, is our key paperback series partner. (They are the French publisher of The Hunger Games and Dogs of the Drowned City, among others…)  Kathryn Lasky’s events kicked off at the famed Angelina Tea Room, where she was interviewed by 3 leading French newspapers and literary magazines.  You can read an excerpt of her interview with the Culture editor of Confidentielles, an online magazine for women here.

Ga’Hoole and Wolves of the Beyond took center-stage at Pocket’s stand…

Dozens of adoring French fans lined up the dozens to meet Kathy and get their books signed!

Long time partner Bayard (the French publisher of The 39 Clues, Hugo Cabret, and Skeleton Creek, among so many others) has published Goosebumps for nearly 20 years. They were thrilled to welcome R.L. Stine as their Guest of Honor and to celebrate the legendary writer who continues to attract legions of new readers.

R.L. Stine wowed generations of fans at the Salon Du Livre!

Special events included a panel on Fantasy/Horror series and the worldwide success of Goosebumps…

As well as a television interview at France 24 (France’s English language TV channel). Watch the interview here.

Merci Beaucoup to Kathy and Bob and to our wonderful publishers for all of their hard work to make this years Salon a huge success!  

Part II: Janelle’s travels in Paris…

Following the Salon du Livre, I spent five days in Paris on sales calls, meeting our key French publishers

-          Day 1: Lunch with the editorial director of Pocket Jeunesse, Natacha Derevitsky, to discuss new projects and then coffee with editors from Michel LaFon (Allyson Noel, Hillary Duff and Tunnels)

-          Day 2: I visited the bright, modern offices of La Martinere/Seuil who recently acquired Kim Harrington’s Clarity and Perception. I got a sneak peak of the cover of the French edition…then off to Châtelet to meet with Editor Glenn Tavennec who is launching a new YA list at adult publisher Robert Laffont in January 2012…

-          Day 3: The third day I saw Nathan, a leader in Nonfiction and a candidate for Discover More.

-  Day 4: One of the major highlights of Paris was my visit to the offices of Gallimard, where I was treated to a tour of their stunning courtyard gardens and lunch with the talented Theirry LaRoche, who was recently appointed head of fiction. Gallimard is one of the most prestigious French publishers: in addition to publishing greats such as Proust, Camus and Hemingway, they have published Animorphs, What I Saw and How I Lied, and Marcelo in the Real World.

-  Day 5: My final day of meetings brought me to the offices of Hachette, the publisher of Maggie Stiefvater, (they are so excited about their recent Scorpio Races acquisition, which they’ll launch on their “Black Moon” fantasy imprint). Hachette publishes bestsellers such as Twilight; they’ve recently partnered with us on The Underland Chronicles and Titanic.

My final stop was l’ecole de loisirs, the high-end picture book publisher in France. (Interestingly, just like Scholastic, they have a terrific children’s book shop just underneath their headquarters!) l’ecole is the publisher of Maurice Sendak, they’ve partnered with us on Mommy? Chicken and Cat, and Where’s Walrus? and we plan to work with them on more high-end titles in the near future.

This trip gave me invaluable insight into the publishing climate in France, which is strong and vibrant. As was evident from the crowd of thousands readers at the Salon (many of whom brought their entire family along for a day’s worth of browsing books), the clear enthusiasm and passion of the editors I met with, and our growing licensing business in this key territory, the French public is very engaged with literature. The visit helped strengthen our local publishing partnerships and will lead to increased sales in the year to come.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible!