At the 2025 Paris Book Market. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Eric Dupuy
By Eric Dupuy | @duperico
Approximately 3,800 Rights-Trading Meetings
As Publishing Perspectives previewed last week, the Paris Book Market is a targeted professional rights-trading fair, this year staged on Thursday and Friday (June 5 and 6), with what turned out to be welcome growth in international appeal.
Going beyond expectations, an estimated 3,800 meetings were facilitated between some 525 international rights professionals. The format, you’ll remember, brings international markets’ rights specialists to Paris to meet with participating French publishers.
The event, produced by France Livre (formerly BIEF, the Bureau International de l’Édition Française), welcomed:
- 175 non-French buyers in literature;
- 140 in the humanities and social sciences;
- 80 each in children’s books and graphic novels; and
- 50 in art books.
Organizers said French-speaking territories were well-represented, with participants from Quebec (29); Switzerland (seven); Tunisia (five); Belgium (three); Lebanon (two); Algeria (two); and Morocco (one). These numbers reflect an increase of up to 13 outside participants compared to the 2024 level of engagement. Some attendees said they see the Paris Book Market as an essential complement to traditional book fairs.
Ebba Ostberg
Ebba Ostberg, the chief publicist at Bonnier Sweden’s Bokförlaget Forum, highlighted the event’s unique value proposition.
“It’s very well organized,” Ostberg said, “with a lot of very interesting book projects and the chance to get to know new people that I usually don’t see when I go to Frankfurter Buchmesse (this year October 15 to 19) or other book fairs.”
As a first-time buyer focusing on the French market, Ostberg said she appreciated the concentrated format, which “gives you a really good overview of the market because you get to see all the best publishers and the most interesting book projects presented to you at the same time.”
‘To See New Publishers Emerge’
Yannick Dehée of Nouveau Monde Éditions at the 2025 Paris Book Market. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Eric Dupuy
Yannick Dehée, founder of Nouveau Monde Éditions, emphasized how the event can help expand professional networks beyond established contacts.
“What’s great about Paris Book Market,” Dehée said, “is that it allows you to broaden your address book and see new publishers emerge, particularly in graphic novels and genre literature.”
He noted encountering Spanish publishers previously unknown to him and meeting a Brazilian entrepreneur who launched a graphic novel company two years ago. “That enthusiastic, novel approach contrasts with some established Brazilian publishers who have dismissed certain genres as unmarketable in Brazil,” he said.
The focused nature of the event, Dehée said, is particularly valuable, given time constraints at larger fairs. “Frankfurt is really two-and-a-half days because after Friday noon, there’s hardly anyone left. The number of meetings you can fit in is limited.”
‘Nothing Better Than Human Contact’
Yacine Retani of Casablanca’s Éditions La Croisée des Chemins at the 2024 Paris Book Market. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Eric Dupuy
For publishers from francophone markets, Paris Book Market offers opportunities to address distribution challenges. Yacine Retnani, publisher and bookseller at Éditions La Croisée des Chemins in Casablanca, said he found the event important for his business plans.
“We’ve been talking about North-South and South-South book circulation problems for 40 years,” Retnani said. The direct meetings enabled him to explore co-publishing arrangements, he said, that could solve distribution challenges. “Instead of ordering through my bookstore, why not buy the rights and publish in a Moroccan edition?”
Running Morocco’s largest independent publishing house with more than 5,000 titles—and publishing approximately 80 books annually–Retnani said he particularly valued the face-to-face interactions. “There’s nothing better than human contact,” he said. “You put a face to correspondence, and it helps you better understand the stakes and think about other projects you wouldn’t have considered.”
The next step for him in rights trading events, he says, is the Sharjah Publishers Conference, November 2 to 4.
Getting Ahead of the ‘Rentrée littéraire’
Some 3,800 one-on-one rights meetings were facilitated at the 2025 Paris Book Market trading event. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Eric Dupuy
The June timing of the Paris Book Market offers a chance for international buyers to discover France’s renowned rentrée littéraire–the country’s unique annual literary season, running between the end of August and the beginning of November. This June positioning of the Paris Book Market is optimal timing for rights buyers to have access to upcoming titles that weren’t fully established during London Book Fair (March 11 to 13), while preceding Frankfurt’s focus on award-winning books from the previous season.
France’s literary landscape is particularly intense during the rentrée littéraire, with nearly 500 literary fiction titles released annually between late August and early September, many vying for awards attention. Only about 10 percent of these novels will be selected by major French prizes such as the Prix Goncourt, the Prix Renaudot, and the Prix Médicis, making early discovery important for international publishers looking for the next breakthrough French title.
“This event is becoming more competitive than London for French publishers,” according to Dorothée Cuneo, head of Éditions Denoël, and “the cost-effectiveness of exchanges is much better.” Cuneo says she estimates that since 2019, the price of participating in London Book Fair has increased by 30 percent, making Paris Book Market an increasingly attractive alternative.
France Livre’s timing allows international buyers to engage with French publishers when they’re finalizing their fall catalogues but before the competitive pressure of award season begins. The result, she says, is more open dialogue about emerging titles and greater flexibility in rights negotiations, as publishers are eager to secure international partnerships before their biggest books hit the market.
The Paris Book Market’s structure accommodates publishers of various sizes, with 45 smaller houses, 35 medium-sized publishers, and 48 larger companies, some taking multiple tables. This tiered approach ensures accessibility while maintaining the intimate atmosphere that participants say they value.
This year’s positive feedback from both buyers and sellers indicates that the event can continue to expand its role in the international publishing ecosystem.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the formerly named Bureau international de l’Édition française (BIEF), now called France Livre, is here; more on international rights markets is here; and more on the French book publishing industry is here.
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