A great first. Ahead of its next edition, which will take place from April 11 to 13, 2025 at the Grand Palais, the Paris Book Festival has inaugurated a new preferential rate system. Intended for small and young publishing houses, it allows them to obtain a stand for 690 euros excluding tax for members of the National Publishing Union (SNE) and 990 euros for non-members. Interested publishers had until October 30 to register.
To benefit from the system which offers them a dedicated space on the first floor of the Grand Palais, publishing houses must produce at least five publications per year and not belong to a group.
No maximum turnover is required, the Festival believing that “sorting” would occur naturally, with publishers of intermediate size or those with sufficient means preferring to purchase larger and more visible spaces.
Some 60 places were available and 52 were taken on the evening of October 30. “Even if the end of registrations has come, the objective was to fill the gauge”indicates the festival at Weekly Books. Now led by Pierre-Yves Bérenguerthe event makes highlighting these small publishers a strong axis of its strategy. It remains possible for other small publishers to position themselves in the last eight unsold spaces.
During the last editions, many small structures had given up on taking a stand, unable to bear the high registration costs even if many of them benefited from the support of the regions to exhibit in the capital.
The return of the little ones
“We will be able to return to the festival in 2025 after our last participation in 2020rejoices Elsa Pallotdirector of Cheyne publisher, who benefited from the offer. We were present in the past thanks to the rate shared by the Regional Council, but it has been a few years since the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region has been present. » The collective space will be located on the balconies of the first floor of the Grand Palais. “I hope that the show will communicate about this space and that there will be signage”wishes the editor.
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Each publishing house will benefit from a stand floor space of 6 m2a configuration allowing the simultaneous presence of two authors at signings. Editors will have a table 1m60 long and a shelf 1m80 high and one meter long. The Paris Book Festival recommends a volume of 200 copies.
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For his part, Thierry Bodin-Hullinfrom L’oeil ébloui editions, underlines the effort for the visibility of small structures but remains cautious: “The price is preferential but it remains quite expensive compared to the prices of other festivals. I'm going to test if it's worth it and if there is good physical visibility. » “I’m delighted because last year it wasn’t accessibleaffirms Benoît Labaylefrom Synchronique Éditions. I jumped at the chance but it would be nice to have a little more space. It's nice that the profession gives us a little helping hand. »
The spaces offered nevertheless remain too small for medium-sized publishing houses, “I opted for an island because this surface is not suitable for our linearexpose Jérémy Touzet by Maho éditions. But I would have liked to have had this offer three years ago with our shelf at the time. I hope that this good initiative will extend to medium editions. »
This year's preferential rates will continue for the next few years. The 2024 edition welcomed 103,000 visitors generating a turnover of 1.37 million euros for 96,000 books sold, according to figures from the Paris Book Festival.
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