Québec Édition and the 2011 Salon du livre de Paris

Leaving for the City of Lights in mid-March, fleeing the late winter gray of our supposedly temperate climate for the patios of Paris, sporting a scarf and working on your accent, what a great program! That is, unless you catch a bug on the plane on the way, forget the obligatory scarf on the first night and put in four consecutive days of standing on a carpet that absorbs nothing but dust, shaking every hand offered and abusing your vocal chords ... well, some people are always complaining. But despite these inconveniences, the 31st edition of the Salon du livre de Paris was a very rewarding experience for publishers from Quebec and French-speaking Canada on the Québec Édition stand.

First, QÉ inaugurated a new booth for the occasion. Gone are the IKEA-style furnishings of recent years, the log cabin look that evoked pioneer days, the wobbly bookcases and the blue carpet.

Designed by Expositions TCD of Montreal, the new stand combines noble and strong materials such as wood and steel, favours open space and allows a smooth flow of visitors while maintaining a degree of freedom for presentations. Designed with the assistance of the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec (SODEC), the new Québec Édition stand was unveiled in Paris under the honorary patronage of québecois author Dany Laferrière, winner of the 2009 Prix Médicis. In addition to participating in numerous meeting sessions with his readers and visitors to the stand, the author of L’Énigme du retour also took part in a presentation with authors Mélanie Vincelette and Michèle Plomer. Among the many novelists and poets on the stand throughout the four day event, let us also note the presence of Marie-Claire Blais, Jacques Côté, Lise Gauvin, Francine Allard, Claude Beausoleil, Joël Des Rosiers, Madeleine Monette, Élise Turcotte, and Louise Warren. To host events, Québec Édition relied on Quebec bookseller Manon Trépanier a commentator on La librairie francophone, which is hosted by Emmanuel Kherad and broadcast by Radio Canada, RTBF, Radio Suisse Romande, and France Inter. Several Quebec booksellers were also called in to help advise visitors on the stand.

But giving credit where credit is due, there were nearly sixty publishers from back home on the stand using it as a hub for meetings with French, European, and other business partners.
Although the Salon du livre de Paris is first and foremost a consumer show (180,000 visitors in four days this year), it remains a key event for meetings with foreign agents and publishers, conducive to negotiating rights and other agreements. For Canadian visitors, it serves primarily to raise awareness of the importance of Canadian literature and books to our French cousins and readers. Beyond the clichés of acres of snow, great adventure in wide open spaces, and harsh climate, French readers and men of letters are becoming increasingly aware that Quebec and French Canada offer an undeniably modern, mixed, hybrid, and innovative literature, always captivating and resolutely outward-looking. No wonder the Québec Édition booth feels increasingly at home at the Salon du livre de Paris and that lovers of French books feel at home on the stand too!

Québec Édition will return to Paris in 2012, scarf in hand, with an even bigger contingent of publishers, authors, and booksellers from home. Québec Édition is a committee of the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres dedicated to the promotion of French-language publishing from Quebec and Canada internationally. It supports the export activities of publishers by organizing collective stands at nearly a dozen fairs worldwide. The committee also focuses on the development of a network of contacts to help publishing professionals advertise their products on international markets by, for example, participating in trade missions abroad and hosting partners from various countries. Québec Édition has a close working relationship with Livres Canada Books.

Richard Prieur | 03/31/2011 | Export

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