Organized by the French Institute in India, in partnership with France Livres and Publishing Next, this initiative offers a platform to deepen dialogue between two dynamic book ecosystems.
Building on the Publisher’s Meet professional programme held at the Kerala Literature Festival in January 2025, The Future of Books goes further by bringing together a broader spectrum of professionals from across the book industry.
It provides a space for French and Indian publishing professionals to exchange ideas, explore new models, and address shared challenges through panel discussions and B2B meetings.
The Future of Books takes place under the India–France Year of Innovation 2026, announced by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi.
Programme
- 10.00–10.50 AM: The French Connection: Snapshots from the Publishing Industry
With Gaelle Bohé, Marie-Anne Lacoma and Violaine Faucon. Moderated by Chintan Girish Mody. - 11.00–11.50 AM: The Future of Books: Re-imagining Narratives
With Maylis Vauterin, Delphine Clot and Josselin Azorin-Lara. Moderated by par Swati Chopra
Key themes
- Publishing policies & market structures
- The media and bookstores ecosystems
- Editorial innovation & translation
- Digital developments & sustainability
- The rise of book-to-screen adaptations and IPs
- Unique strengths & opportunities in each market
Registration
If you are a professional from the book industry and you are interested in participating in this programme, please register below. Participation is subject to confirmation.
French Speakers & Professionals
A curated delegation of French publishing professionals is participating in The Future of Books programme, bringing perspectives from publishing houses, rights, translation, book-to-screen adaptations and digital innovation.
For the past fifteen years, Guillaume Husson has served as the Director of the Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF), the union representing France’s independent booksellers—the country’s primary network for book sales. Under his leadership, the SLF has brought together 750 members, ranging from small independent bookshops to bookstore chains, collectively accounting for over 80% of employment and turnover in the sector.
He serves as a key public voice for independent booksellers, maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders across the book ecosystem both in France and at the European level.
Gaëlle Bohé is the Director of Fontaine O Livres, a Paris-based organization supporting independent publishers. A former journalist specializing in sustainability and a literary programmer for the Paris Book Festival (Festival du Livre de Paris) and the Reading Nights (Les Nuits de la Lecture), she created The Book Fresk (La Fresque du Livre), a workshop on the environmental challenges of publishing, and founded the Prix Hors Concours, a literary award for independent publishers that recently launched its international edition.
Maÿlis Vauterin and Delphine Clot are the co-founders of Matriochkas, a Paris-based creative bureau bridging the worlds of books and films. Drawing on Vauterin’s extensive experience in publishing and film rights at leading houses such as Éditions Stock, Grasset, and Viviane Hamy, and Clot’s two decades in the film industry at MK2 Group, Celluloid Dreams, and UBBA, the duo combines their expertise to bring powerful stories from page to screen. Together, they support authors, agents, and producers in transforming literary works into impactful audiovisual creations.
Violaine Faucon has been working in publishing since 2005, first in the editorial department before specializing in the acquisition and licensing of French and international fiction rights at Éditions de l’Olivier. In 2018 she founded the French Literary Agency Trames with three partners. As publishing specialists with different backgrounds and experiences, they wanted to bring together, within a single structure, complementary activities to provide close support for contemporary literary creation. They represent French authors in literature, children books and essays, and we work with French publishing houses, French Festivals and Literary Prizes.
Marie-Anne Lacoma began her career in publishing as a publicist in the editorial group Editis. She then moved to independent publishing houses, where she gained experience and learned a wide range of skills, from business relations with booksellers and marketing to partnerships to festival and publication strategy. She started at Editions Les Allusifs, a publishing house based in Montreal and founded by Brigitte Bouchard, when the latter decided to explore the French market. She then spent eight years in business development and promotion at Editions Gallmeister, followed by seven years at La Manufacture de livres. In 2020, the publisher Juliette Ponce offered to join forces and create a new publishing house : Editions Dalva. They work together and promote women writers since then.She has always worked as a freelancer, while also undertaking occasional consulting and commercial missions for various publishing houses.
Josselin is an author, screenwriter and webtoon producer. Based in India from 2013 to 2020, he co-founded a comic book studio called MINTE, employing local artists and produced a few successes including the top seller series “Frigiel” (Soleil Editions). In 2020, Josselin was one of the first French webtoon authors published by Naver France, with his series Samourawaii (66 episodes, 1.6 million unique reads, 33400 subscribers). A member of the ADAGP comic book commission, he contributed to the recognition of digital private copying rights for webtoon authors. From 2022 to 2025, Josselin joined Ankama Group to set up the production of webtoons, producing more than 200 episodes with some thirty artists. In 2025, he founded Akogée Studio, an independent webtoon production and transmedia IP development company whose goal is to bring powerful, socially engaged French-speaking stories to audiences worldwide.
Shashank Gupta works at Média-Participations, as the Project Manager for Business Development in India. Média-Participations is a leading publishing, media, and entertainment group in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. With publications such as Éditions De La Martinière, Seuil, Michelin, Dupuis, etc., Média-Participations is recognized as the third-largest French publishing group and the first in Europe for comics. Our diverse portfolio encompasses all creative industries, including audiovisual, media, video games, derivative products, and themed entertainment, and, above all, with a significant influence in publishing.
Over the past 27 years, Jean-Paul Hirsch has been working at the Paris-based P.O.L., a publishing house known for its high standards of literature, which is part of the Gallimard publishing group. He is in charge of relations with bookstores and distributors as commercial director and with journalists as press-attaché. He is also in charge of e-publications and P.O.L.’s presence on social media.
P.O.L publishes 50 books per year, mostly French literature (Marie Darieussecq, Emmanuel Carrère, Marguerite Duras), as well as a number of translated books and books on cinema.
Marie Darrieussecq is a major French author and translator from Basque France, with a background in psychoanalysis and a thesis on autofiction. She rose to fame with her celebrated 1996 debut novel, Truismes (Pig Tales), a critical look at body image through the surreal transformation of a female protagonist into a pig. Darrieussecq has since published over 20 works across multiple genres, earning significant accolades, including the Prix Médicis in 2013 for Il faut beaucoup aimer les hommes. Her recent non-fiction, Fabriquer une Femme, explores feminine identity and social pressures.
Neige Sinno is a French author and literary scholar who holds a PhD in contemporary North American literature. After spending years in Mexico, she now resides in the French Basque country. Her early work includes the short story collection La vie des rats (The life of rats) (2007) and the novel Le Camion (The Truck) (2018). Her critically acclaimed 2023 work, Triste Tigre (Sad Tiger), is a powerful, non-linear reflection on her child sexual abuse by her stepfather. The book, which won numerous accolades including the Prix Femina 2023 and the Strega European Prize 2024, delves into the taboos of incest and paedophilia. Using a cerebral, analytical style and literary references (like Woolf and Nabokov), the author grapples with the existence of monstrous capacity alongside innocence, referencing William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” in its title.