INTERVIEW
Like many small businesses, bookstores are suffering from the coronavirus crisis. Publisher Antoine Gallimard, one of the giants of the book industry, said he feared "a wave of bankruptcies" of booksellers and publishing houses last week. Guillaume Husson, general delegate of the union of the French bookshop, estimates that it will be necessary to find "between 20 and 30 million euros" to compensate for the losses.
"We consider that the losses of bookstores over a month are between 10 and 15 million euros. If they are closed for two months, it will be necessary to find between 20 and 30 million euros", he calculated, Wednesday on Europe 1.
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A fund to help booksellers
If the public authorities have already announced aid for the book sector, including an envelope of 5 million euros from the Ministry of Culture, Guillaume Husson believes that the account is not there at all. "We have launched a call for the creation of a solidarity fund on the part of the public authorities, private partners and the regions. We are working on the constitution of this fund. We already have nearly 10 million euros from the part of the national book center and an association of publishers, "he says. "Now we are mainly working with the regions to complete the fund."
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"We had a surge of solidarity from the big publishing houses"
While waiting to find the necessary money, the booksellers were able to limit the damage thanks to the help of the big publishing houses, but they could not last much longer. "The urgency is to postpone the payments due to publishers at the end of March / beginning of April. We had a surge of solidarity from publishers, especially large groups. The deadlines are postponed to June", welcomes Guillaume Husson.
"We must now replenish the booksellers' cash so that they can face the debt wall looming in the summer," he feared.
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"A call for customer solidarity"
The delegate of the general union of the French bookshop also called for the solidarity of the readers. "Several bookstores have set up a pre-order system. Some cities have also taken initiatives to order from bookstores. It is a call for customer solidarity that will be necessary during the takeover," he said. "Every day that passes weakens the booksellers. Obviously all the booksellers are looking forward to the reopening of their businesses."