200 authors are expected this weekend in Saint-Etienne, Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, Place Chavanelle and Place Jean Jaurès, to meet their audience. There 38th edition of the book festival is particularly awaited by one of the people responsible for the Paris bookstore, Alexandra Charroin-Spanbenger, appointed President of the French bookstore union last September 30.
“For us, once a year it’s a party. That means we receive lots of different authors, authors we like to defend, lots of publishers and above all lots of readers. Readers who sometimes come only once a year at our meeting So it’s already a very great moment of joy and celebration And then, economically, it’s an extremely important moment for all the bookstores in the city, because obviously we. sells books. So it’s interesting for our turnover for the year. A bad book festival could put some of us in danger.she warns.
“Whatever their size, bookstores will experience danger within 2 years”
It is with great pessimism that Alexandra Charroin-Spanbenger sees her future and that of her fellow booksellers: “The profession published a study at the end of June which shows that with inflation and therefore the inflation of our charges, the cost of transport, the cost of electricity, the cost of salaries, etc… in bookstores, It had a very strong impact, especially since we cannot increase the price of books since it is not us who set it, but the publishers. Today, bookstores are very fragile and will not. not strong.
It is obvious that today, if the public authorities, our institutional partners and publishers, broadcasters and distributors do not make a gesture in our direction, bookstores, whatever their size, in the next two years will experience dangerssome with risks of very pronounced closure“.
According to her, even the Librairie de Paris, an institution in Saint-Etienne, is in danger if nothing changes: “What I see is that over the last two years, while our turnover is stable, our result at the end of the year is decreasing. So it’s worrying because it means that it will prevent us from making necessary investments, such as buying furniture, computers and then continuing to increase employee salaries. There, it’s certain that we’re going to start getting stuck very seriously.”.
Let’s bet that the 2024 Saint-Etienne book festival, with Philippe Besson as godfather and Loire chef Pierre Gagnaire as guest of honorallows booksellers to get their heads out of the water a little: “In any case, I am a born optimist, so I continue to believe in the beauty of my profession,” concludes Alexandra Charroin-Spanbenger.
