Audrey Petit to replace Béatrice Duval as head of Le Livre de Poche

Audrey Petit, Editorial Director of Le Livre de Poche, will take over as Managing Director from Béatrice Duval, who has announced her intention to retire

©Olivier Dion

Béatrice Duval, who has served as Managing Director of Le Livre de Poche since 2019, will pass on her duties to Audrey Petit on 31 March 2024, her final day at the publishing house.

Arnaud Lagardère, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Livre, commented: “Béatrice Duval did an exceptional job during her five years as head of Le Livre de Poche, drawing from all her talent and experience to develop Le Livre de Poche and expand its reach. I would like to thank her for this remarkable success. It’s a great pleasure to see Audrey Petit take the reins of a publishing house that she knows intimately, having contributed to its development in her previous roles. Working alongside the talented staff at Le Livre de Poche, she will leverage all her foresight and expertise to expand the publisher’s growth as the leader in France’s adult paperback market.”

Audrey Petit commented: “It’s a privilege and an exciting responsibility to lead Le Livre de Poche, a publishing house that has built up a wide catalogue that caters to all audiences over the past 70 years. Our mission is to continue to kindle the desire to read, to discover talented writers and propel our authors to new heights, and to rediscover the classics. I’m very pleased to take on this challenge, alongside the talented, creative teams at Le Livre de Poche.”

Béatrice Duval commented: “I would like to express my gratitude to all the teams that contributed to Le Livre de Poche’s success in recent years by continually improving the diversity and quality of our catalogue. Terrific opportunities await Le Livre de Poche in the years ahead, and I wish Audrey and the staff every success.”

Le Livre de Poche, a subsidiary of Hachette Livre and Albin Michel, is the creator and top publisher of adult paperbacks in France. The imprint has published more than 25,000 titles and sold 1.2 billion copies since its creation in 1953. In keeping with its mission to bring the joy, knowledge and fun of reading to the widest possible audience through affordable prices, Le Livre de Poche offers a broad selection of literature for all types of readers: timeless literary classics and modern-day bestsellers from France and further afield, as well as how-to books, essays and reference works.

Le Livre de Poche boasts a catalogue of more than 6,000 titles and works with 70 partner publishers to release about 400 new books each year, which are distributed in nearly every country in the world. 

Background:
Audrey Petit holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne. She began her career in 2000 at the publishing house Mnémos. She became a freelance publisher in 2007, managing a collection for Mango Jeunesse at Fleurus Editions and overseeing the launch and development of Orbit, an English-language imprint at Calmann-Lévy.
Since 2007, Petit has held key positions at Le Livre de Poche, serving as literary director of the “Literature & Documents” and “Imaginative Fiction” collections. In 2019, she was appointed editorial director for the publisher’s entire collection. Petit received the “Editor of the Year” award at the 2020 Livres Hebdo publishing awards.

Hachette Livre is a subsidiary of Lagardère SA and the world’s third-largest mainstream publishing group (trade and educational). With revenue of €2,748 million in 2022, it is the market leader in France, number two in the UK, third in Spain and fourth in the US (in trade publishing). The Group comprises over 200 imprints which together publish around 15,000 new titles each year in a dozen languages (mainly French, English and Spanish). It covers all segments of the mainstream publishing market: general fiction, nonfiction, paperbacks, children’s and YA books, illustrated books, travel guides, textbooks, study guides and partworks.
https://www.hachette.com/