While the government says it is working on a "support plan", more than 600 publishers, authors and booksellers publish this Saturday a forum addressed to the head of state with a single watchword: "save" the industry of the book put endangered by the Covid-19 epidemic.
“The State must prevent the collapse of this vital sector for our whole society. […] Many bookstores and publishing houses, known and recognized, and the authors, illustrators, translators, like all the creators of the book, will not recover if the entire sector does not benefit from a rapid recovery plan and ambitious ”, plead the signatories, including the Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano, the publisher Antoine Gallimard and the novelist Guillaume Musso.
The complete closure of bookstores has led to a loss of almost all of their turnover for these stores and of more than 80% for publishing houses, remind the signatories of the forum published by Le Monde .
Aid worth several hundred million euros?
“Distributors, distributors and printers have therefore been severely affected. The authors, deprived of book sales and paid meetings, are experiencing an unprecedented loss of income, ”they point out. "There is now an absolute urgency to intervene before the summer," insist the signatories who want "aid of several hundred million euros" for the sector.
"If an ambitious recovery plan in favor of books and reading is not triggered, many actors will disappear, others will have to fight to just survive," said the National Union of Publishing ( SNE), the Syndicat de la librairie française (SLF) and the Permanent Council of Writers (CPE) in a joint press release sent to AFP.
"The book is a big forgotten," regret the SNE, SLF and the CPE who believe that "the amount of five million euros provided by the National Book Center is entirely insufficient" to save the industry.
The Minister of Culture, Franck Riester announced Friday on his Twitter account that he was working with the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire "on a plan to support the book chain in consultation with all professionals in the Faculty ". He promised action "at the end of next week. "
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- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
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- Gallimard