President Macron was at the Paris Book Festival, which opened Friday morning and is scheduled to last until Sunday. He pleaded for the establishment of a contribution on the second-hand book market, in order to prevent its players from circumventing the law providing for a single price for new books in France.
Second-hand books are in fact a serious competitor to publishing houses, which see recent titles arriving at reduced prices. In 2020, the Xerfi firm estimated this second- hand market at 888 million euros. That of the new one was 4.3 billion euros, according to the GfK firm. The president of the Republic said he was going to put in place at least one contribution which can help protect the single price and also allow our authors, publishers and translators to be better helped. The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, is going to make announcements on the subject before the end of the show, he said. The book festival runs until Sunday in Paris.