The knife fell Wednesday evening for the so-called "non-essential" businesses which will have to close their doors for at least a fortnight. This Thursday evening, the Prime Minister will specify in a press conference the rules applicable to businesses. But there is a strong likelihood that, as in the first confinement, bookshops will again be classified as non-essential businesses. This is a heavy blow for booksellers who, between literary prizes and Christmas shopping, can make up to 40% of their annual turnover during this period of the year.
Unfair competition
Booksellers may fear that customers will turn to e-commerce sites such as Amazon or Fnac to make their purchases. This is why the Académie Goncourt issued a press release this morning stating that it was making the Goncourt prize conditional on the reopening of bookshops.
The award ceremony was normally scheduled for November 10. " If we do this next week, it would benefit Amazon or mass distribution, and it would kill the bookstore network, which relies on the Goncourt every year." said in an interview on BFM-TV, the novelist and member of the Académie Goncourt Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
Pending confirmation of whether or not bookstores will be closed, the Academy reaffirmed its support for booksellers.
"The Goncourt academics reaffirm their total support for booksellers who are facing a new and difficult period as a consequence of the Covid pandemic19. In solidarity with them, they cannot envisage that the Goncourt prize that they were to announce on Tuesday 10 November would be announced at a time when their bookshops would be closed. Consequently, if that were the case, they would postpone the proclamation of the Goncourt prize to a later date which would be specified according to the evolution of the health situation and the government decisions taken"
For the time being, the other literary award organizations have not yet expressed their views.
