Literature –
Five women in the top 10 best-selling French authors
Virginie Grimaldi, Melissa Da Costa, Valérie Perrin… these authors were a hit in terms of book sales in 2021. Review of the queens of a sector that is doing well, even very well!
Published today at 10:00 a.m.
Second in the hit parade for the second year in a row, Virginie Grimaldi published her first novel in 2015, The first day of the rest of my life. Each of his Books is a success, especially in paperback.
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- Virginie Grimaldi is second in the ranking of best-selling French authors.
- Book sales in France increased by 20% in 2021.
- Guillaume Musso remains number one with 1.278 million copies sold.
- The comic book market has seen an increase of 50% thanks to manga.
This article from February 16, 2022 was imported from Femina.ch and republished on our site on January 7, 2025.
Le Figaro and the GfK firm published the top 10 best-selling French writers in 2021 (pockets included). Good news, the book is doing well, with a 20% increase in sales. We also see a sort of parity, to the extent that half of these authors, very lucrative for their publishing house, are female authors.
This ranking established each year does not change much. Guillaume Musso has been in pole position for 11 years, and although he sold a little less in 2021 than in 2020, he is far ahead, with 1.278 million copies! For the second year in a row, it is followed by Virginie Grimaldi and its 877,000 copies, revealed in 2015 with The first day of the rest of my life. Each Bordelaise novel has been a bestseller, especially in paperback (80% of its sales according to Le Figaro). Accustomed to the top three, Marc Levy was robbed of the bronze medal and relegated to fifth place by the king of crime fiction, Franck Thilliez. Michel Bussi is in fourth place. The noir genre is also popularized by Bernard Minier, number 6.
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Then, four women occupy places 7 to 10. Valérie Perrin (companion of Claude Lelouch and author of three novels, Change the flower water, The forgotten Sundayset… Three!) enters this club. Born in 1990, Melissa Da Costa represents the new generation and finally shakes up this expected listing, thanks to the success of All the blue of the sky et I was coming back from the others. Finally come the queen of family sagas Marie-Bernadette Dupuy and Aurélie Valognes, present in this ranking since 2016. These six writers are in fact neck and neck, with 600,000 to 656,000 copies sold.
Influence of Goncourt
Note this year the absence of Joël Dicker, who has not published anything new in 2021, as well as that of Michel Houellebecq whose latest publication, Annihilate was released on January 7 (300,000 copies printed, 75,000 sold the first weekend according to GfK). Goncourt Prize 2020 with The AnomalyHervé Le Tellier does not appear in this ranking either, nor does his successor Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.
France can’t help but make a fuss because if this hit parade lists French novelists, it would hardly be any different if it included foreign authors. Only Lucinda Riley, who died in June, appears there. Harlan Coben or Stephen King would be 12th and 14th respectively.
Last fun fact, the best-selling work in bookstores in 2021 is in fact a comic book, the 39th Asterix, Asterix and the Griffinreleased in October and already sold 1.5 million, knowing that each album by the friendly Gaulois sells around 5 million copies! The comics sector jumped by 50% in 2021, in particular thanks to the craze for manga.
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Valérie Fournier has been responsible for publishing for Femina since 2023. After completing her internship and first professional experience at the daily Le Temps, she specialized in society topics and the women’s press, at the monthly edelweiss then at Femina since 2008.More info
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