How many French people seek advice to find their balance, release their emotions or get rid of their anxieties and fears! The “practical life” shelves of bookstores, gradually eaten away by the “personal development” theme, testify to this. And the GfK/Weekly Books of the best book sales for the year 2021 confirms this. In the “practical” category, this subject (and its stars) monopolizes the first four places. In the lead, Miguel Ruiz and his Four Toltec agreements. The path to personal freedom (Youth), followed by Natacha Calestrémé (The key to your energyAlbin Michel), Sharon Jones (Burn after writingCounter-sayings), then Lise Bourbeau (The 5 wounds that prevent you from being yourselfETC).
A little psychology, a zest of spirituality, health advice or shamanism, the editors understood that the segment was more than promising. Last year, sales of “health, well-being, personal development” books increased by 19.8% in value, according to the latest report from the National Publishing Union. At Albin Michel, leader in the sector, we even claim three-digit growth, driven in particular by the Natacha Calestrémé phenomenon. Only mangas, comics, beautiful books or those dealing with religion or esotericism do better. By way of comparison, the literature grew by 4% over the same period.
For a long time, the “practical life” sector was dominated by cookbooks. They were gradually replaced by health themes before a new shift towards personal development over the past ten years. The year 2019 had marked a slight slowdown in sales, the anxieties linked to Covid and confinement have given the genre all its vigor back. “It’s a theme that speaks to people and even more with the ecological and economic concerns that have emerged recently”, confirms Aurélie Starckmann, editorial director of the activity at Albin Michel.
The Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard was one of the precursors of personal development in bookstores.
afp.com/JOEL SAGET
The sector has its historical stars, such as Christophe André, Matthieu Ricard or Fabrice Midal, but regularly sees new characters emerge. So with Natacha Calestrémé who, in two books, The key to your energy and find my placeboth by Albin Michel, have sold nearly 500,000 copies since 2020. Robert Laffont has also pulled off a great coup with Léna Situations and his Always more, + = +, which helped attract a younger, more social media-focused audience. No need for scientific, medical or psychological guarantee, in both cases, the reader adheres because the subject is embodied. “Sharing the life experience of a person who is a bit like them is very important”, continues Aurélie Starckmann, at Albin Michel. Some, like Ginette Mathiot in the kitchen or Laurence Pernoud on the subject of motherhood, are already reference works.
The big winners? Pocket Editors
A few publishers have long taken a position on the market: Albin Michel, but also Marabout or Robert Laffont for generalists, Jouvence and Leduc for more specialized houses. All are now trying to take advantage of the fashion phenomenon. Other big winners? Pocket publishers, such as Pocket or J’ai lu, which, because of the low price, sell some of these books in the hundreds of thousands of copies (nearly a million for The 5 wounds by Lise Bourbeau at Pocket for example).
Everyone has their own recipe, but a few must-haves have stood out. We hardly escape the quest for happiness, the mental load in women, the hypersensitive, the Zebras and any other subject through which readers seek to know themselves better, them or their loved ones. “There was the democratization of relaxation, then anti-stress coloring and we note these last two-three years, an evolution towards spiritual development. But we are no longer in the esotericism a little ashamed as before. It is now oriented towards personal development”, adds Charlène Guinoiseau-Ferré, editorial director of Jouvence, who insists on her choice of “expert” authors. “We have to be careful because we are dealing with vulnerable people,” she adds. Way, also, to say that all the publishing houses are perhaps not so vigilant.
All publishers have seen the good vein (the practical life department alone weighs 400 million euros per year). Each goes with its format, its author or its original theme. With the risk of congestion or weariness. Workbooks, very popular yesterday, are much less so now. Conversely, sometimes all it takes is an unexpected nugget to explode a turnover. So Burn after writing by Sharon Jones, which comes in the form of a diary, a kind of personal skills assessment that should be burned once written. Published more than a decade ago, it only found success last year when an American influencer talked about it on TikTok. As a result, the young public seized it (80 million views on the social network) and the book sold nearly 200,000 copies in 2021 in France.
While the market is slowing down (-14% on the practice market in the first half of 2022), all publishers are looking for the martingale again. By betting on new concepts – everyone dreams of finding the future “mental load” that serves as a model for many – or by maintaining its stars, such as Jouvence, which will release a new book by Miguel Ruiz in the fall (overcoming adversity) and a box called the “Oracle of the Four Toltec Agreements”, with cards accompanying the book. A way to renew the genre, with the hope of once again appearing at the top of the podium in 2023.