A renowned publisher of general literature, the Robert Laffont Group comprises four publishing houses and covers various literary genres, from novels and poetry to essays and non-fiction, with 200 new releases and 4 million copies sold annually. The Robert Laffont Group also has a Canadian subsidiary, Robert Laffont Ltd.
Robert Laffont
Established in 1941, Editions Robert Laffont covers all genres, from literary fiction to non-fiction, and features a prestigious catalogue distributed over several collections. Some of its well-established collections include: "Best-Sellers" (the name speaks for itself) and "Pavillons", created in 1945 and extended in 1979 to include "literature from the East", a collection that has consistently brought France the best in world literature, from Primo Levi and Margaret Atwood to Dino Buzzati and recently, Margaret Mazzantini. Created in 1967, "Réponses" is a collection dedicated to making a wide range of "self-help" publications available to readers (including the works of Bruno Bettelheim and Françoise Dolto). "Ailleurs et demain" publishes top-notch science fiction, while the collection "Bouquins", created twenty years ago by Guy Schoeller, has become the must-have library of the “honest man”, the reader who yearns to stray away from the beaten track of our civilisation, an explorer who hungers for new discoveries.
Robert Laffont publishes popular French authors, including Marc Levy, Marek Halter, David Servan-Schreiber, Jean d’Ormesson and Jean Vautrin, as well as English and American authors such as John Grisham, Stephen King and Ken Follett, to name but a few. Robert Laffont has never faltered in its ambition: to remain open onto the world and to continue to surprise, move, amuse and provoke its readers!
NiL Editions
Founded in 1993, NiL Editions became part of the Group in 1999. An eclectic grouping of works, the collection features novels, memoirs, and essays on philosophy, religion, economy, and the sciences, and publishes prestigious authors such as André Glucksmann, Axel Kahn, Jean-François Revel, Jacques Laccarière, Jean d’Ormesson and Matthieu Ricard, who penned Plaidoyer pour le Bonheur (120,000 copies sold in 2004). In 2003, NiL Editions distinguished itself with the success of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones (over 200,000 copies sold) and in 2004, with Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (over 55,000 copies sold), thus ushering high-quality foreign authors into its catalogue of publications.
Julliard
Founded in 1948 by René Julliard, this publishing house rapidly rose to success after discovering Françoise Sagan. Julliard, which joined the Group in 1996, champions young, contemporary French literature and has drawn attention to itself by discovering young authors such as Philippe Besson (5 novels translated into 12 languages); Yasmina Khadra (5 novels translated into 10 languages), Jean Teulé and Jean-Marie Gourio.
Seghers
Established in 1944 and acquired by Robert Laffont in 1960, this publishing house languished for a while before coming back to life under the impetus of Leonello Brandolini and Bruno Doucey, the collection’s director. Seghers focuses mainly on poetry and publishes poets such as Paul Eluard and Louis Aragon, as well as Roger Bernard and Guillevic. 2004 was an important year for Seghers, with the launch of "Seghers Jeunesse", a poetry collection for children.
Robert Laffont also publishes the Quid, France’s leading modern encyclopaedia that makes information accessible to all and provides facts that can only be found elsewhere after extensive research.
