French publishers’ book sales fell an estimated 3% after inflation in 2024, accelerating a trend that began in 2023, according to Vincent Montagne, president of the French Publishers Association (Syndicat National de l’Edition, SNE) and chair and CEO of Media Participations.
Speaking at the SNE’s traditional New Year reception on 9th January, he said 2024 had been “a difficult year”, even though foreign rights sales grew and there were exceptions to the gloom, notably in literature.
Figures released last Friday by market research firm NielsenIQ x GfK showed that 23 million French people, out of a population of more than 68 million, bought at least one book last year. Secondhand copies accounted for a stable 18% of the total and e-books under 5%. The data comes from a panel of more than 8,500 points of sale, including 1,100 independent booksellers.
Montagne regretted that neither a law to enshrine a two-year-old agreement with authors societies, nor a project to remunerate secondhand books have “progressed as expected”. This is despite culture minister Rachida Dati keeping her job in the third consecutive government since January 2024. Erratic education policy in the past few years has been bad for “textbook publishing and learning to read”, he added.
On the positive side, the new booktracker Filéas involving all players in the book industry has been launched, and measures to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint are underway, he added. Montagne dismissed the notion that artificial intelligence pits culture against innovation.
Ahead in the first half of 2025 is the creation of a mediation commission to resolve disputes between publishers and authors, and the return of the annual Festival du Livre to the Grand Palais near the Champs Elysées on 11th to 13th April. Morocco will be the guest of honour, and 450 publishers will exhibit, 100 more than in the 2024 event, he said.
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