France: the publishing sector in difficulty

From this Saturday, November 28, bookstores can reopen their doors.

Here in Lille.

AP - Michel Spingler

Text by: Isabelle Chenu Follow

2 min

Bookstores have reopened since Saturday in France and it is this Monday, November 30 that the prestigious literary prizes Goncourt and Renaudot will be awarded.

The strikes of January 2020 and the three months of confinement put the book sector in difficulty.

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The name of the Prix Goncourt winner this year will be displayed on a zoom meeting screen.

Not very glamorous, but assured sales and a happy exception in a black year for the book sector.

I'm not too worried about sales in bookstores,"

says Vincent Montagne, president of the National Publishing Union.

But you also have to keep in mind, it's a little difficult to say, that the book is also a fresh product.

And so yes, for publishers and a lot of authors, the year is going to be very difficult.

 "

Register the books in the long term

Independent editor, Emmanuelle Collas has made the choice forced to publish only 5 books this year to better defend them.

“ 

It's super difficult,

” she says. 

Especially when you're a small publishing house and what's more, it's recent.

I felt like I was going to put books up for sale that wouldn't have a life.

While it is the opposite of my work, because I do not write many books to try to fit them into a much longer time.

 "

And the method paid off: the latest book by editor Emmanuelle Collas,

Les impatientes,

by Cameroonian author Djaïli Amadou Amal is on the list of finalists for the Goncourt Prize

But we must also be part of the economy.

And for many of the actors in the book, it will be a battle for survival.

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