This year again, many French people will find at the foot of the tree the Goncourt Prize, “The Most Secret Memory of Men” by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, the Renaudot, “Premier Sang” by Amélie Nothomb, or even the last “Mortelle Adèle”. »Or Asterix.
The book remains the number 1 gift!
But less than two months before the end of the year celebrations, and while booksellers achieve on average a quarter of their turnover between November and December, a wind of panic is blowing through the publishing world: there will be does he have books at Christmas?
The guilty ? The paper ! Confronted with a historic shortage, its price continues to rise and it takes more and more time to obtain it. If you add to it the Covid which never ceases to shake up the economy, an ocean liner stuck in the Suez Canal which blocks 10% of world trade, you arrive at an unprecedented crisis for the book. And words that thrill the entire publishing industry: out of stock! Because it is the whole chain that is affected, from the felling of the tree to its transformation into paper, up to the manufacture of the book, its printing and its distribution in bookstores.
But do not panic, the professionals that "the Parisian" was able to question are categorical: the French will find practically all the books they want, because the majority of players in the sector have anticipated this crisis for months.
Starting with booksellers whose orders have jumped 30% for the end of the year.
"Outings have been postponed"
"We have never been so full in stock and we have more than 40,000 references", testifies Anne-Laure Vidal, manager and co-founder of the bookstore "Ici" in Paris. “We must not close our eyes to the crisis, illustrated books and comics with cardboard covers can be difficult to find, outings have been postponed, but we have organized ourselves. Above all, we will be able to play our advisory role to our customers more than ever and no one will leave our bookstore without a book they like! She smiles.
At BDnet, a bookstore in eastern Paris, we also want to be very reassuring. “Yes, a few books cannot be found, but there is such a choice. There will be no problem with the classics like Largo Winch or Blake and Mortimer or the new One Piece manga, ”promises Baptiste, one of the sellers. Still, all booksellers advise not to wait until December 24 to make your gifts. Books like “Cook well accompanied with my Mentor method” by chef Philippe Etchebest, “The endless world” by Christophe Blain and Jean-Marc Jancovici or even “Goldorak” by Xavier Dorison and Denis BajramKana are already missing in some bookstores.
“We will never have had as many stock-outs as in 2021 and reprint times have never been so long.
There is a real concern for long-term visibility, ”laments Stéphanie Laurent, director of cultural products at Fnac.
According to her, the shortage of paper is only part of the iceberg because the entire book chain is aging.
"If books are reprinted, it is often to the detriment of others and lesser-known authors," continues the head of the first bookstore in France.
While the book has never been so visible in the media, that it is in an excellent dynamic, it is annoying and frustrating to have to tell our client that we do not have the book they are looking for.
"
"The lead times have gone from 4 to 12 weeks"
On the side of the editors, if we do not minimize the crisis, we refuse an alarmist speech. "There will be no shortage of books at Christmas," insists Pascal Lenoir, Mr. Papier of the Madrigall group (Gallimard, Flammarion ...) and chairman of the environment and manufacturing committee of the National Syndicate of Publishers (SNE). With the paper crisis, lead times have dropped from 4 to 12 weeks and this has created widespread stress in publishing. But most publishers prepared for this crisis last May ”. Like Bamboo, comic book publisher whose last volume of “Sisters”, one of the big hits in the youth sector “will not be out of stock”.
As for manga, if titles have seen their release shifted and if some numbers are difficult to find, it is not the only fault of the paper.
"We were a victim of our success," explains Vincent Tixier, production director of Glénat, publisher of manga, comics and comics (
One Piece
,
Titeuf, etc.
).
With confinement, culture and cartoons, the manga market that was already in good shape exploded and we were all overwhelmed.
But for this publisher, the crisis is here, and the rise in the price of paper could well have repercussions on that of the price of the book.
But not before Christmas!
