In a final episode of “Tax Your Problems,” the government’s new victim is the used book. President Macron announced at the Paris Book Festival, he will have his personal tax, which will be “a contribution which can help protect the single price and allow our authors, publishers and translators to also be better helped” . However, this measure will not restore vigor to the practice of reading or to the publishing sector.
If we want the publishing sector to survive and continue to create value, we must accept seeing it change. Our environment is changing in all sectors, sometimes brutally: our clothes, the media we use, and even our food are purchased differently and “business models” have had to adapt to remain relevant. The book is no exception. Purchases of second-hand books increasent while those of new books are falling. The evolution will not stop with e-books. Taxing second-hand books will only penalize the entire sector, making it impervious to the aspirations of society and technological discoveries and ultimately paralyzing it, not without first consuming public funds.
During an intervention on France Culture, the president of the National Publishing Union (SNE), Vincent Montagne, explained that this tax will hit large international platforms “which do not pay taxes in France “. Are the big platforms rightly made the scapegoats in this affair? However, they will not be the most affected, because the burden of the tax will be transferred to the consumer; after all, it was supposed to bridge the gap between the price of new and the price of second-hand. Let us also not forget that these large distribution platforms are often used by small traders and that it is they who will bear the administrative cost of the tax.
Mr. Montagne also said that because the tax will only increase the price of a used book by 20 to 30 cents, it will have little impact on the decision to buy the book. Suppose we agree on this point, but then the tax will miss its objective: to protect the publishing sector. A small tax on second-hand books – which only represent 20% of the book market – will not prevent its decline. This sector faces much greater challenges than that of second-hand books: e-books, open Source platforms, a decline in general interest in reading and undoubtedly other developments that we do not yet suspect . The saddest part of this affair is that, faced with the failure of the tax, new, more and more absurd constraints will probably be imposed on readers.
This highlights several of the problems hitting France at the moment: huge spending, lack of income and overprotection of certain industries. The publishing industry needs to ask itself how to stay relevant in today’s times, rather than making others pay for its existence. We should also reconsider the role of government in this sector. This is not a question of calling for the disappearance of paper books, this choice belongs to readers and not to the State. But, in a changing world, the best strategy for books is undoubtedly not to protect tooth and nail the principle of a single price.
