After two months of dormancy, the approximately 3,300 bookshops in France are preparing to reopen their doors carefully on May 11.
"After all this lost time, May 11 will be that of time regained," says Marie-Rose Guarnieri, director of the Abbesses bookstore in Paris. Conversely, Maya Flandin, director of the Vivement dimanche bookstore in Lyon, told Livres Hebdo that she was planning to reopen her "fear in the belly " shop .
Read also: The perilous reopening of independent bookstores
During confinement, Marie-Rose Guarnieri kept her bookstore open two to three hours a day "in sanitary conditions as good as at the pharmacist next door," she said to an AFP journalist. She is delighted with the official reopening of May 11 and has planned to make a "somewhat funny showcase" by putting the book " We must live dangerously" by Friedrich Nietzsche in front of it.
Monday, she will wear a mask and put hydroalcoholic gel at the disposal of her customers who cannot be more than three at a time in her bookstore. "We will do what is necessary for security but no need to make it a circus, " she said.
Since the announcement of our probable reopening, I have fear in my stomach. Sacred responsibility to have to protect my team and my clients.
Maya FlandinMaya Flandin is more reserved. “ Since the announcement of our probable reopening, I have fear in my stomach. Sacred responsibility to have to protect my team and my customers ”, explains the bookseller of Lyon, in addition vice-president of the Syndicate of the French bookstore (SLF). For the reopening of her bookstore, Maya Flandin specifies that she will rely on "the health benchmarks published by the SLF" .
Available on the union's website, these “benchmarks” are quite restrictive. The SLF recommends in particular to ensure compliance with barrier gestures and distance (1 to 1.5 meters between each person), to encourage or even make it mandatory to wear a mask for customers and employees, not to accept more of one person per 10 m2 of library space ...
Strolling out of the question
In these conditions, out of the question of strolling, taking the time to touch and leaf through books, to exchange with his bookseller, in short, to do everything that contributes to the pleasure of going to a bookstore. In an attempt to maintain the link with their customers, bookstores will adjust their schedules. Thus, the Parisian bookstore Le Divan will open earlier in the morning and close later in the evening.
On the initiative of the professional magazine Livres Hebdo, authors like Nina Bouraoui, Jul, Maylis de Kerangal, Marc Levy, Victoria Mas, Nicolas Mathieu, Leïla Slimani, Michel Bussi or Aurélie Valognes launched the #TousEnLibrairie movement to encourage readers come back to the shops and share the love of books and reading.
The book is going through one of the most serious crises in its history
The first cultural asset in France, the book is going through one of the most serious crises in its history. Book sales fell 33% in March. The situation could be worse in April with "a turnover down from 80% to 100%" , alarmed Vincent Monadé, president of the National Book Center (CNL).
Bookstores are part of the "disaster sectors " and must receive " specific support" , recognized Wednesday the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire. Bookstores with very low margins are still on the cutting edge regarding their cash flow. The SLF calls for the creation of an emergency support fund of 20 to 26 million euros to compensate for the fixed costs (rents, taxation ...) which remained the responsibility of the booksellers during the two months of closure .
The publication programs have been reduced from 25% to 50%.
As for the books that will be offered, customers should not expect to find piles of novelties on Monday. The entire book chain was interrupted with the appearance of the Covid-19. Of the more than 5,000 titles that were due to be released between March and June, many, notably early novels, will not finally be released until 2021. The publication programs have been reduced from 25% to 50%. To attract readers, publishers and bookstores rely on a handful of bestsellers.
At the end of the month, readers will discover the new novels by Guillaume Musso (May 26), Joël Dicker (May 27) and John le Carré (May 28). The publishing world hopes that these authors will be powerful enough to revive a sector on the verge of suffocation.
