The snowball effect of the Goncourt Prize on sales – Technologist

On Monday, November 4, the Goncourt Prize was awarded to French-Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud for his novel Houris, published by Gallimard, about the black decade in Algeria, while Gaël Faye, the other favorite for the Goncourt, won the Renaudot prize for his second novel, Jacaranda (Grasset), about the reconstruction of Rwanda following the 1994 genocide.

The catalytic effect on sales of the famous red banners of literary prizes is no longer in doubt. According to the GfK institute, between 2019 and 2023, the Goncourt Prize title sold an average of 577,000 copies in France the year it was awarded. The 10 best-selling Goncourt titles over the past 15 years thus represent a total of 5.7 million books purchased. In 2023, for example, Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s Veiller sur elle (“Watching Over Her“) (L’Iconoclaste) was the best-selling book of the year, selling over 627,000 copies.

For the Goncourt, the scale of sales has seen some exceptional years. Jean Carrière’s L’Épervier de Maheux (“The Hawk of Maheu“) (Goncourt 1972), now forgotten, sold almost 2 million copies, rounding off the fortunes of the author – and his publisher, Jean-Jacques Pauvert. In 1984, Marguerite Duras’s The Lover, published by Editions de Minuit, sold over 1.6 million copies. In 2020, Hervé Le Tellier, published by Gallimard, also topped the million-copy mark with The Anomaly. Even so, the Goncourt is no guarantee of success: Pascal Quignard’s collection of aphorisms The Roving Shadows (Grasset), winner of the 2002 Goncourt, saw sales plateau at 100,000 copies.

One of the most influential, but not the most prosperous

Still according to GfK, sales of the Renaudot Prize winner averaged 211,000 copies between 2019 and 2023; those of the Femina Prize, over 157,000 copies; those of the Grand Prix du Roman awarded by the Académie Française, 145,000 copies, and those of the Médicis Prize, 37,000 copies. Depending on the contract signed with his or her publisher, the author receives between 8% and 12% of the price of each book sold, rarely more. Sometimes, the ripple effect kicks in when the author has multiple awards. For example, Femina award-winner Neige Sinno’s Triste tigre (“Sad Tiger“) (P.O.L) had, by 2023, accumulated six other prizes and won 21 international Goncourt choices, so that sales of this bitter novel now stand at over 278,000 copies.

Of the 2,000 literary prizes awarded each year in France, the Goncourt may be one of the most influential, but it is by no means the most prosperous. In 1914, Edmond de Goncourt pledged an annual annuity of 6,000 francs to 10 brilliant but needy authors, but today’s prize-winners only pocket a cheque for 10 euros. Better to frame it than to cash it; the winners know full well that it will be worth more on resale.

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