Mois de l'Imaginaire Celebrates 10th Edition

The 10th edition of the Mois de l'Imaginaire launched on Monday, September 21st at the Babelio offices in Paris. The event was attended by specialized publishers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, influencers, and journalists.

Organized by 29 francophone publishing houses, the Mois de l'Imaginaire takes place every October to promote science fiction, fantasy, and fantastic literature in bookstores and media. The launch served as a moment for exchange and discovery. Attendees included Éric Marcelin from Critic, who championed new novels by Louise Roullier and Étienne Cunge, and Nathalie Païno from Au Diable Vauvert, who highlighted positive reception for titles by Nicolas Martin and Thomas Gunzig.

Charlotte Volper of Pocket, focused on the release of Anouck Faure's Aatea, winner of the 2026 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, discussed acquisitions with fellow hardcover publishers. Other publishing figures present were David Meulemans of Aux Forges de Vulcain, Valentin Baillehache of Rivages, Paul-Étienne Garde of Le Livre de Poche, Pascal Godbillon of Denoël/Folio, and Jérôme Vincent of ActuSF.

Throughout October, the organizing association will run commercial operations, meetings, signings, and talks. The festival's climax will be the Utopiales festival in Nantes, running from October 29th to November 1st. The association will also distribute educational materials and thematic catalogs while organizing social media campaigns.

Spotlight on Titles

In a widely distributed catalog, each member publisher highlights two of its titles for a promotional spotlight during the entire event. A new feature for this anniversary year is a live podcast on Twitch scheduled for October 7th.

After a decade of action, there is much satisfaction for a genre whose hardcover sales grew by 76% between 2018 and 2025, according to the Observatoire de l'imaginaire. However, Brigitte Leblanc, editorial director of the Rayon Imaginaire at Hachette Heroes, conceded in an opening speech that proponents still "bump up against reality when we say the imaginary has been 'de-ghettoized'."

The Observatoire de l'imaginaire, an offshoot of the États généraux de l'imaginaire created in 2017, revealed market data showing an overall decline. The full results will be unveiled at the Utopiales festival.

According to the Observatoire, imaginary literature continues to suffer from low media exposure, despite selling 4.7 million copies. This figure excludes romantasy, which NielsenIQ BookData now categorizes separately founder of La Volte editions.

International Rights Program

A new "focus on imaginary literatures" program was presented, organized by the Institut français and the Utopiales. It will bring 15 foreign publishers from China, Korea, the United States, Spain, and Canada to Paris and Nantes. The goal is to facilitate meetings on editorial trends and challenges in imaginary literature.

The program includes visits to publishing houses, bookstores, and institutional partners. It will also arrange meetings with foreign rights holders to foster new professional collaborations.

The launch event concluded with remarks from Émilie Mathieu, associate director of digital distribution specialist eDantès. She observed that digital exploitation provides a real additional revenue stream for print publishers in many countries, which is less true in France. She suggested that as sales volumes decline and many publishers seek value in more expensive, less accessible collectors' editions, digital formats offer an alternative for finding new readers.