It is a thick, expensive work, on very serious and quite technical subjects: energy, climate. And yet… The endless world (Dargaud), this comic strip in which engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici and designer Christophe Blain explain why we will not avoid degrowth, was the best-selling book in France in 2022, largely outclassing the novels of Guillaume Musso or Michel Houellebecq. Some 514,000 copies have been sold in one year, according to the GfK-Weekly books. “And, with the sales made in 2021, we are at more than 750,000 books leaving the warehouse”rejoices Claude de Saint-Vincent, managing director of the Media-Participations group, owner, among others, of Dargaud. “To say that in the fall of 2021 we hesitated to set up 45,000… But the book encountered a real concern from society. » The success of this album was such that before the holidays, activists targeted it. Presenting themselves as sent by Dargaud, they deposited errata with many booksellers to slip into the pages. Forgeries, aimed at denouncing the ” propaganda “ in favor of nuclear power that Jean-Marc Jancovici is accused of propagating. The publisher filed a complaint.
Can we escape degrowth? The subject of endless world is also the one that teases book professionals. Because the unexpected success of this clever album, in which the polytechnician Jancovici crosses paths with Clint Eastwood and Master Yoda, must not hide the reality: after an exceptional increase in 2021, book sales returned to their downward trend in 2022. Around 335 million copies have been sold in one year, or 5% less than in 2021, according to the analysis company GfK. In value, the market fell by 3%, to 4 billion euros. “Elections, war in Ukraine, problems with purchasing power, the year saw an accumulation of negative factors, and the market proved to be very difficult”, notes Michèle Benbunan, of Editis, number two in France behind Hachette. Bookstores were less frequented, online sales fell by around 20%, those in supermarkets by 11%.
“The book market held up very well”
Is this the resumption of an inexorable decline? Not so sure. In 2020 and 2021, the publishing world benefited from a surprise upturn linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel prohibited, theatres, cinemas and museums closed: the French had fallen back on books, one of the rare cultural goods that remained available. Therefore The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier (Gallimard, 2020), broke all Goncourt Prize records, and exceeded one million copies. Competition having returned to the cultural world, it was logical for the book market to settle down a bit.
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