“The authors have nothing to do with it”: in the midst of the crisis at Grasset, booksellers and readers are divided on the boycott of the publishing house

Should we stop buying and reading books published by Grasset, the publishing house in turmoil after the departure of its CEO, Olivier Nora, blamed by several authors on Vincent Bolloré? “I have just read a very good novel by Grasset called Spécimenof Pauline Clavière, Emma reacts, in her bookstore in the 16th arrondissement. Boycotting authors because they are with Grasset, I find that stupid, even if I am against the Bolloré system. The authors have nothing to do with it.” But the bookseller, who sees it as the establishment of a “counter-culture”now wishes “solidarity between the authors who leave Grasset. What would be good is for them to create their own publishing house together with Olivier Nora, because the other houses will not be able to absorb all the authors from Grasset”.

In the meantime, in this bookstore, the books with light yellow covers from Grasset remain in plain sight. Customers parade and receive advice from the bookseller. “In any case, we cannot put aside publishers, whoever they may be. The bookseller is above all a merchant,” reacts a customer, who also manages her own brand. On the shelves, readers seem divided on the issue of boycotting Grasset editions. “The reality is a business manager who gets fired because he has poor results.” slips one of them.

“I think it’s a matter of choice, judges another reader. The choice is to no longer read publishing houses that force a political conviction. Forcing the departure of a publishing director as institutional and long-standing as Olivier Nora is a form of violence for me. And so that implies a choice.”

Finally, another client, a publisher in his youth, confides having “immediately”a “réticence” to buy books published by Grasset. “When I was a publisher, for around ten years, I was already facing a big concentration of French publishing in the hands of fewer and fewer publishing houses. Many houses were bought by the same group with a perspective often more on the Excel table than on excellence.”

“I buy books from an author. I don’t buy books from a publisher.”

A reader in a bookstore in the 16th arrondissement of Paris

à franceinfo

In a column published in The Sunday Journalof which he is also the owner, Vincent Bolloré indicates that the Grasset publishing house “will continue” despite the announced departure of some 170 authors. “Those who leave will allow new authors to be published”he adds. At the same time, 300 authors signed a text in the Tribune Dimanche, including Leila Slimani, Virginie Despentes and Emmanuel Carrère to request the creation “a clause of conscience” in the publishing sector, so as not to lose everything in the event of an editorial disagreement.