According to statistics, The cleaning lady by Freida McFadden is the best-selling book in France in 2024, with 603,000 copies sold. However, the book market has seen an overall decline in sales, despite some sectors, such as romance, remaining growing.
In 2024, the thriller The cleaning lady by Freida McFadden dominated the book market in France, establishing itself as the biggest success of the year. According to the ranking published by GfK (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung), a German company specializing in the collection and analysis of market data, the work, published by I readcrossed the threshold of 600,000 copies sold, a real feat for the American author. This resounding success places The cleaning lady in front The midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart, which sold 500,000 copies, also published by J’ai Lu.
General decline
These two authors are ahead of Joël Dicker, Swiss author and the only French-speaking one on the podium, with his thriller A wild animal. Although it recorded 425,000 sales, it could not compete with the popularity of the two books previously mentioned. A notable performance for Dicker, who remains an essential figure in French-speaking literature, appreciated both in France and internationally, particularly for his thrilling intrigues and his deep characters.
However, 2024 hasn’t been as booming for the book market as a whole. According to GfK’s annual barometer, the number of new book buyers fell by 10%, with only 23 million people having purchased at least one book. This reflects an overall decline of 3% in book sales, which amounted to 315 million copies. Despite this drop, the sector shows a stable turnover of 4 billion euros, a sign that book consumption remains robust, although volumes have decreased.
Sluggish market
The second-hand market retains a significant share, representing around 18% of total sales in 2024. However, digital reading is still struggling to establish itself, still representing no more than 5% of total book sales. In addition, mangas and comics, which had a record year in 2023, marked by highly anticipated releases such as the latest volumes of Asterix or Gaston Lagaffe, observed a drop in sales in 2024.
On the other hand, one sector continues to shine: romance. Faced with a more generally sluggish market, romantic novels remain one of the rare genres to show stable growth, confirming readers’ attachment to these escapist and emotional stories, which respond to a need for escape and emotion in an uncertain world. The appeal of these stories is also growing with an increasingly diverse and inclusive offering.
With AFP
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