The health crisis has brought the book industry to a sudden halt and the figures for the book sector are palpable.
In a open letter to the President of the Republic 625 authors, publishers and booksellers are calling for a recovery plan for the book industry. They indicate that bookshops lost almost all their sales during the eight weeks of confinement and publishing houses by more than 80%.
Over the year 2020, a quarter of publishing houses estimate that they will lose more than 40% of their turnover according to a survey by the Syndicat national de l'édition (SNE).
72% of publishing houses have taken partial activity measures. And on average, publishers plan to cancel or postpone 18% of their new releases originally planned for 2020. These measures will have an impact on the activity of printers.
"The results of the survey confirm, with figures and percentages, that the health crisis has dealt an extremely severe blow to the publishing sector and that a number of publishing houses, despite the aid and support measures, which are considered insufficient and too restrictive, are facing serious difficulties which will, at the very least, affect their activity in the short and medium term explains the NIS.
And these results are in line with the study carried out by GFK for Weekly Books During the first four weeks of containment, book sales plunged 66% in value.
Today, however, the situation is improving: from May 11 to 17, sales increased by 233% in value compared to the last week of confinement. This represents a 2.7% increase in sales compared to the same week in 2019. But still not enough to erase the shortfall of the previous weeks.
