J'ai lu

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J'ai lu is a French Paperback - Verlag . It was founded in 1958 by Jacques Gervais and Frédéric Ditis .

history

J'ai lu was initially a joint venture between the publishers Flammarion , Robert Laffont and Éditions du Seuil . The latter withdrew from the company after a short time. In the first few months, J'ai lu sold its titles exclusively through the supermarket chains Monoprix and Prisunic . After protests by the booksellers, the books finally appeared in bookshops in August 1958. In 1959 Flammarion took over sales.

In 1968 Jacques Sadoul became the literary publishing director. Jacques Gervais, one of the two founders, died in January 1972. After Robert Laffont had withdrawn from the joint venture, J'ai lu were only secondary releases of Flammarion titles. Folio and Pocket overtook J'ai lu. A number of important authors switched to the large publishing groups, so they lost Danielle Steel , Frédérique Hébrard , Françoise Dorin and Henri Troyat . As a countermeasure, young authors were recruited from independent small publishers.

In October 1972, then Minister of Economics and Finance, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing , lowered the prices of paperbacks by decree. In addition to J'ai lu, the series Folio, Le Livre de poche , Pocket and Marabout were also affected . In July 1982, Frédéric Ditis resigned from his position as President-directeur général . He was succeeded by Charles-Henri Flammarion. In October 1983, this was replaced by Jacques Goupil.

In 1986 the first comics were published by J'ai lu. Two years later, Le Livre de poche gave up its independent comic production and produced comics together with J'ai lu in a joint venture company. In April 1996, Frédéric Morel succeeded Jacques Goupil as General Manager. In 1998 the then literary publishing director Marion Mazauric founded the Nouvelle génération series , in which young authors such as Michel Houellebecq , Virginie Despentes and Vincent Ravalec were published. Even Anna Gavalda and Fred Vargas could to bind. Abroad, authors were actively acquired, for example John Gray , whose Mars & Venus series achieved a circulation of millions. In January 1999, Jacques Sadoul retired.

Since the 1990s, J'ai lu has seen a significant part of his core business in the first publications of entertaining literature.

Economic key data

J'ai lu is owned by the Flammarion publishing group. Legally, J'ai lu is a Société anonyme with equity of 420,000 euros. The turnover in 2014 was around 29 million euros. The current managing director is Gilles Haeri (as of 2015).

Publishing program

The publishing program is wide-ranging. It includes literary novels, science fiction, fantasy, comics, crime fiction, and romance novels. Mangas were also published for a while. J'ai lu mainly publishes paperbacks, but occasionally also hardcover . The now discontinued Millénaires series was published with 53 titles in the format 130 × 200. The cycle La Tour sombre by Stephen King and the 2011 series Nouveaux Millénaires are published in large format .

J'ai lu's bestsellers were:

  • From Bernard Clavel : Malataverne with 2.4 million copies;
  • by Henri Troyat : La Neige en deuil
  • A whole series of titles by Guy des Cars : La Brute , l'Impure , La Tricheuse , Le Château de la Juive , Les Filles de joie , La Corruptrice , Cette étrange tendresse , La Maudite , Les Sept Femmes , L'Habitude d ' amour , La Demoiselle d'Opéra , La Dame du cirque ;
  • by Gilbert Cesbron: Chiens perdus sans collier , Jules Renard and Poil de carotte .

The top authors were Barbara Cartland with 32 million book copies, followed by Guy des Cars with 31 million.

References and comments

  1. ↑ German: I've read
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g La collection J'ai lu. In: PochesSF.com. Retrieved November 2, 2015 (French).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f J'ai lu. In: Bibliomonde biography. Retrieved November 2, 2015 (French).
  4. ↑ Accueil. In: Website of the publishing group. Retrieved November 2, 2015 (in French, see the small print at the bottom of the page).
  5. ^ Editions J ai lu. Fiche entreprise: chiffres d'affaires, bilan et résultat. In: Societe.com. Retrieved November 2, 2015 (French).

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