Goncourt, Renaudot… literary prizes fight against “sentimental corruption”

Every year, at the same time, a small troop made up of journalists and onlookers gathers, at midday, in front of the facade of the Parisian restaurant Drouant, in the II^e borough. A ritual. This Monday, November 4, behind its walls, the ten members of the Goncourt Prize jury, chaired by Didier Decoin, will meet for several hours to designate the winner of the 2024 edition. Regardless of the often lively debates within the circle, the jurors will have to publicly display great unanimity during the announcement. The scores will be settled later in the form of a few indiscretions in the press, more rarely in front of a microphone or a camera. Because matter is sensitive.

Goncourt, Médicis, Renaudot or Femina, the autumn literary prizes are based on a selection of a few hundred works – 459 this year – which represent only 5 to 10% of the year’s publications. And the winners benefit from extraordinary media coverage which will have a strong impact on the success of the book in bookstores, particularly during end-of-year sales. The Goncourt itself does not bring much to the author, nor to the publisher: a check for 10 euros, a pittance compared to the 900,000 euros distributed to the Nobel Prize for Literature. On the other hand, it is the assurance of exceeding the symbolic bar of 100,000 sales and of confirming this success by the purchase of significant rights for the translation of the book abroad.

Millions of euros are at stake and the tension that animates publishing houses during the weeks preceding the awards ceremony explains the fables and controversies that surround these ceremonies. “In the past, juries were corruptible, but they were competent; today they have become incorruptible, but they are incompetent”exclaims a big name in the sector. Alternately accused of being bribed by their own publishing house or accused of ineptitude, the jurors are caught in the crossfire of authors, publishers and literary critics.

For a long time, things were simple. Gallimard, Grasset and Le Seuil shared the trophies, effectively excluding the smaller houses. This oligopolistic situation was even given the name Galligrasseuil, the authorship of which is attributed to the journalist and writer Bernard Frank. But times have changed, assures Laurent Laffont, former general director of Lattès, today publisher at Libella, whose father Robert Laffont had offered himself a full page in Liberationin 1986, to denounce the collusion between the three houses. “Juries today constitute the barometer of the spirit of the times and book lists are more open”he judges. Actes Sud had broken the codes over the last ten years by managing to place its authors at the top of the list, thus opening the door to smaller houses, like L’Iconoclaste last year or Philippe Rey editions in 2021.

The literature of reality, or narrative non-fiction, has taken over: the personal pain of the author is shared by the majority. “It’s a French slopedeplores a publisher, but it is not enough to have suffered to have talent. » In this category, we can find the best, like the novel by Neige Sinno, sad tiger (ed. POL), awarded the Goncourt prize for high school students in 2023, as the worst, the literary selfie.

It is therefore difficult for the publisher to anticipate the tastes and judgments of juries and to court their members. “Courting is the wrong word. It was true at one timesays Muriel Beyer, director of Editions de l’Observatoire, and deputy general director of the Humensis group. In recent years, Goncourt has become more virtuous. » In general opinion, this 2024 school year is rather balanced, in a peaceful climate. We are far from the tragicomic scene which has just taken place on the other side of the Rhine, on the occasion of the presentation of the prestigious Deutscher Buchpreis at the Frankfurt Book Fair. When the name of the winner was announced, which was not his, the writer Clemens Meyer jumped from his seat, screaming scandal: “It’s a shame for literature that my book did not receive the prize! »

A more serene atmosphere in Paris where the Goncourt jurors seem to have once again favored balance and parity. To preempt any criticism, the list of four finalists includes two men and two women, and two independent publishing houses. Some, like Olivier Nora, CEO of Grasset, have given up all attempts to approach the jurors. Good extended lunches are becoming rarer in publishing, because the maneuvers can turn out to be counterproductive: It has happened that authors, members of the jury, show signs of independence after having been a little too stuck by their editor. Increasingly rare are these « corruptions sentimentales », as Michel Tournier, long-time Goncourt jury, called them.

“Jurors who are published by Gallimard are always encouraged to view an in-house book with indulgence”however, believes a regular on juries. Here again a page has been turned. “Last year, none of the jurors were at L’Iconoclaste, which did not prevent Jean-Baptiste Andrea from winning the Goncourt”facing a Gallimard author, observes Muriel Beyer. The boss of the Observatory still enlisted the services of a big name in the publishing world in 2019 to liaise between the house and the literary prize jurors: Pierre Gestède, historic press secretary of Gallimard.

It’s all in the way you do it. “I am not speaking to jurors, but to writersnuance for her part Maud Simonnot, director of French fiction at Editions du Seuil and writer. It would be inappropriate to only meet them at the start of the literary year. » Because the juror’s mission is a strong commitment, with no time limit: dozens of works to read in a few weeks, a titanic, unpaid job, which has recently caused failures. In 2019, Bernard Pivot resigned at the age of 84 from the Académie Goncourt, to “enjoy your family, vacations and the sea”. He would be followed a few months later by Virginie Despentes. Voices have been raised for some time to “re-oxygenate the juries every five years”. It’s not easy to destroy a ritual.