Hello everyone!
The 22nd of September is going to be a big day for me.
It'll be the launch of my first book published by a major publishing house.
You may think: 16 is a young age to be releasing a book,
when I am taking my French exams in July.
But in fact, this story started long ago!
I was 11 years old and I was given seven books
which I'm sure you all know: the Harry Potter saga.
I spent ten days and nights reading the series,
hiding the books under my bed
so that my parents wouldn't confiscate them.
You know how it goes, "It's bed time, you have school tomorrow."
And when I turned the last page,
my passion for literature was born.
Then I got through an astronomical amount
of best-selling children's books.
I even started to write a bit in private.
But what really changed my life was an ad
that I found in "Le Journal de Mickey," a comic I was an avid reader of.
It was to become a jury member
for the reader's choice of 'Le Journal de Mickey.'
The idea was simple:
write some reviews that would appear in the comic,
and then eventually, choose the Children's Book of the Year
alongside seven other jurors.
The day before the deadline,
I wrote a review, as requested, which I posted the next day
on my way to school, dated as per postmark.
Two months later, I was in the car with my mom
when she received a call and asked me to listen to it
on her voice mail.
That's how I learnt I had been selected.
And so started my work as a book critic.
Four months reading books, four months giving my opinion on them,
and four months during which I met Camille
who also loved literature, and would become my best friend.
Then, when the competition came to an end,
we realised that everything was about come to an end.
Imagine the thing at the center of your life -
and I'm not talking about school - stopped just like that.
So, we thought, why not keep writing reviews together?
We no longer had 'Le Journal de Mickey'
and didn't want to start a blog like everyone else ....
We decided to launch an online magazine
like 'Le Journal de Mickey' but a digital one.
But we needed a name.
Then, I remembered a magazine
I had launched with some of my classmates in year five.
Our teacher had asked us to produce the front page for a magazine.
We had so much fun doing it
that we decided to go on with the magazine
and we got it published with around 30 copies.
It was about six pages long and it came out every week.
Eventually, we published 17 issues.
We were nine years old and our magazine was called "L'Petit Mardi"
So when it came to launching our online magazine,
Camille and I thought, why not have a bit of nostalgia and re-use that name?
That's how "L'Petit Mardi" was born.
But we also needed some structure, something concrete,
to surpass the digital.
So we thought - well, I thought -
let's set up our own publishing house.
The idea seemed complicated at the time.
Especially because I was 14 years old: still a minor!
It made things a bit complicated.
I thought, why not use my parents as figureheads?
It was as simple as that!
In a few days, the company was set up
with a modest start-up capital:
100 euros of savings from my piggybank,
most of which came from my grandparent's wallet,
L'Petit Mardi lasted four years.
In total, there were 60 issues,
all of which were written by teenagers from around the world.
L'Petit Mardi continued to grow and since January 2016, even spread to paper
with a run of 15,000 copies, distributed through 500 points of sale in Normandy,
with the belief that paper and digital could coexist.
We wanted to do things differently than other magazinesgoing digital today.
We wanted to show the opposite,
that a digital magazine coming offline, was possible.
With our magazine, all you need to do is take your phone and scan the pages.
Then you have an online version thanks to virtual reality.
We brought the two together and our goal is to, within five years,
make our magazine the number one free French language-culture magazine
entirely written by teenagers.
But you may think, the essence of a publisher is to publish novels.
Earlier, I told you I had started to write
while on the Reader's Choice competition.
I said to myself, "I need to publish something."
But what could I publish?
That novel I had written, a real imperfection,
because it was 40 pages full of mistakes.
But I might as well seize the opportunity,
I never found a publisher, so I just went for it.
Three weeks later, I was taking part in a small exhibition in my town.
And ... at the end of the day, I realized I'd sold 25 copies of my book.
25 copies, it's nothing really, just 0.001% of what Marc Levy,
or Guillaume Musso would sell in a year.
But to me it meant the world.
And then someone asked me, "Where's book number three?"
"Is there going to be a sequel?" etc.
Someone even pre-ordered a copy online.
So ...
I thought I would continue despite the first book's modest success.
I finished book three, book two sorry, which I published three just months later.
Come release day, to tell the truth, everything was a bit rushed.
I was doing my year ten internship at France Bleu Normandie,
and I had to call a local journalist.
All the editing team heard my conversation ...
I had foolishly called with everyone around.
Anyway, a journalist, intrigued, came to see me and asked me a few questions.
At the end of the day, I had two interviews booked.
And so it began!
The following months were the most intense of my life.
BFM TV, France 2,
Canal +, Europe 1, to name but a few.
All that helped me to sell around 1,500 copies of my books
which is huge for a self-published book in France.
Then, at this point I thought,
why not try and make my dream a reality?
Which was to be published by a famous publisher.
And there, I must admit it was a bit complicated.
I was faced with closed doors and emails shooting me down:
"You're too young. Your book is rubbish."
In fact, I almost gave up on the idea.
Then one day, when I had just given up hope,
I had an extraordinary encounter.
I'd been invited to the yearly Reader's Choice Award ceremony
for Le Journal de Mickey.
(Laughter)
What's funny? The Journal is great!
Well, I was at Fnac des Ternes and I was browsing the library section
when I saw a man, standing all alone.
That man ... I thought I recognized him.
I Googled his face, did some research,
I realized that this man was Michel Lafon,
the founder and CEO of Michel Lafon publishing
and I had seen his face on a video advertising Natou's book -
she's a Youtuber - a few months earlier.
So, I went to see him, I introduced myself.
I explained to him what I was doing, etc.
He looked at me and in a very formal way he said, "Call me tomorrow."
So, I called him the next day and he he gave me an appointment
a week later near Neuilly-Sur-Seine.
I went there, to his office, with my dad.
I have to admit, the meeting was fruitful
and I'm really happy to tell you that my next book,
the sequel to the adventures, in fact the first in a new saga,
is being published by Michel Lafon in exactly nine days.
They haven't printed 25 copies, but 9,000.
(Applause)
Thank you!
Thank you very much.
Thank you!
Today I'm happy to be able to say
that I'm part of the small group of teenage authors.
Because I'm not the only one!
There's about a good thirty of us in France,
as well as a good number abroad.
We all share the conviction of wanting to inspire young people to read.
Because, at school they give us the Odyssey and Le Cid to read,
you all must have read them,
and I'll admit they made me want to sleep rather than read, personally.
But, I think we need to encourage young people to start with teenage books
you can find in bookshops, like Harry Potter.
but also the Hunger Games, Divergent and so on.
Then, once they've developed the necessary maturity in high school,
they can start to read the classics.
Today, I think I can say that I've always believed in the opportunites I've had
and as a result, I've tried to create my own path.
Age will never change that, whether you are 16, 20, 30,40, 50 or even older.
as long as you are passionate about what you are doing,
as long as what you're doing excites you and feels important,
then you must seize your opportunities.
Marcel Proust said:
"Boldness rewards those who know how to seize their opportunites."
I have only one message this evening.
Make the most of it! Thank you!
(Applause)