In the big cities, the majority of booksellers have been able to save furniture thanks to "click and collect".

Those in the smallest towns, on the other hand, are more in difficulty.

On the publisher side, the best-known writers saved the market, but the little-known writers couldn't really emerge. 

Since Saturday, to the relief of a large part of the sector, bookstores can finally reopen their doors to the public, after several weeks of closure to fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

But how do booksellers come out of this period of confinement? 

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There are those for whom the "click and collect" has been an unexpected success, such as this bookseller in the Paris region who has doubled his turnover.

In the big cities, and in Paris in particular, most of them saved the furniture.

They are at 30-40% of their usual figure.

On the other hand, it was much harder in the smaller towns.

Loyal customers 

What has helped a lot is the activism of some customers who wanted to save bookstores and reconnect with their neighborhood bookstore rather than ordering on Amazon.

And this weekend, the customers came back.

At the booksellers surveyed by Europe 1, it is full box.

The difficulty was simply to maintain the sanitary gauge.

Same good record on the FNAC side.

This is the deconfinement effect coupled with the urgency of Christmas gifts.

For all that, have we witnessed a comeback of the book object?

Most observers agree that, during the first confinement in particular, many regained a taste for reading, for lack of cinema, theater, outings.

We can therefore hope that this return to grace will take hold over time.

The publishing market saved by heavyweights

For their part, publishers also save furniture.

On average, they made -7% over the year.

Digital, especially in the spring, has increased by 20%.

Professionals in the sector expected much worse, especially with the closure of book shelves in mass distribution.

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What saved the market were the heavyweights.

Because inevitably, if you do not stroll in bookstores, you will not find the unknown nugget.

So Olivia Ruiz, John Grisham, Amélie Nothomb, Carrère, Obama… all these books sold very well.

But little-known writers haven't really been able to emerge.

Especially since all bookstore meetings have been canceled.

And for the edition, the month of December should be intense with the arrival of the prizes and, from this Monday, the Goncourt delivery.