5 ms·

There’s probably several factors, including Paris population density (highest in Europe if I remember well), 50%+ car-less families (you can see people reading

There’s probably several factors, including Paris population density (highest in Europe if I remember well), 50%+ car-less families (you can see people reading in the metro), and the fact that literary prizes are evening news worthy events (cultural effect of books and authors being important even to non-readers) But one really important structural factor is that books must be sold at the same price, by law, everywhere (+/- 5%, price fixed by the publisher. So you may pay -5% on Amazon or a retail chain like FNAC compared to a local book shop). This law dates back from the 80s, when book shop retail chain FNAC started to get very successful. Add to that a very efficient book logistics system, and it’s often as fast and nearly as cheap to order a book and get it at a book shop than with Amazon. It’s not all rosy as the system is very concentrated and vertically integrated on the publishers and distributors (wholesale) parts. These publishers+distributors combos get the major part of the revenues, and it’s in their interest to push a crazy number of new books every year (with something like 30% of the stock getting destroyed every year. Book shops can send back books easily and get refunded) Authors and book shops, at the two ends, get a very small percentage of the revenues. French authors are totally dependent on their publishers for every step, from editing to publicity, and usually license all rights from the get go. Book shop have very small margins (I read around 2%!) and even just loosing thrillers or another popular segment to ebooks might make hundreds of book shop collapse ‘suddenly and unexpectedly’…

Semaphor 4y ago
It’s actually almost the same in Germany. I don’t know the details, but we have fixed prices (no +/- wiggle room) and the rest of your post rings true. Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This is only for German books, though, foreign languages are not affected by the fixed prices.
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  > Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This isn't surprising - larger chains can get economies of scale and spend that money on hiring the best staff / more marketing / more locations / lower delivery costs / faster delivery / nicer shops. Smaller shops not being able to charge more for their books sounds detrimental to their survival.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    The lack of fixed prices would have killed them even faster. It’s not big chains killing them, it’s that only big chains manage to hold on to life vs Amazon & Co. We have had some kind of fixed book price regulation since 1888 (yes, that’s an 1800, not 1900).
badpun 4y ago
> the fact that literary prizes are evening news worthy events (cultural effect of books and authors being important even to non-readers) That's probably true in many (most) European countries? Certainly true in ones I know - UK and Poland. It stems from leftist/socialist politics on the continent - the authorities sees their role not only as a policeman/arbiter of people's affairs, but also as a force of enlightenment, promoting education, higher culture etc. Hence, things like literary awards, classical music etc. get a lot of state funding. I'm not entirely convinced it's that great, because for example my taxes are, year after year, funding the local opera in my city (requires large subsidies as ticket revenues are nowhere near enough to cover the costs), of which I will never have any use, as I'm not interested in opera.
- rospaya 4y ago
  It would be a very ugly world if only things that can make money deserve to exist.
  - badpun 4y ago
    I'm not against operas existing, I'm only against them being funded by people against their will. There are many alternative models available - funding via donations from rich people (how it's done in the US), or de-profesionalization of opera (having volunteers with day jobs sing in it, if the ticket sales are not enough to pay their salaries).
    - Tade0 4y ago
      My mother worked as an artisan in a theatre before retirement(I'm Polish BTW). Just like public transport, opera and theatre can't possibly fund itself just from tickets - the price would need to be very high to do so. At the same time donations from rich people are few, far between and wouldn't even cover 1% of the expenses - it's not the XX century anymore and even then I suppose instances of rich people funding entire such organisations were rare. Most musicians (and I've met quite a few during my time in a choir), especially singers already have a day job. In general it boils down to whether you believe a nation has culture worth preserving or should they all just shut up and produce GDP.
soco 4y ago
What you describe above is valid for first-hand bookshops right? Because on second-hand I assume all this chain doesn't exist at all.
mytailorisrich 4y ago
France is a very conservative country and works hard to preserve the status quo every time change or an innovation knocks on the door. That's actually a big cause of their economic and social problems.

Semaphor 4y ago

It’s actually almost the same in Germany. I don’t know the details, but we have fixed prices (no +/- wiggle room) and the rest of your post rings true. Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This is only for German books, though, foreign languages are not affected by the fixed prices.

robertlagrant 4y ago
> Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This isn't surprising - larger chains can get economies of scale and spend that money on hiring the best staff / more marketing / more locations / lower delivery costs / faster delivery / nicer shops. Smaller shops not being able to charge more for their books sounds detrimental to their survival.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  The lack of fixed prices would have killed them even faster. It’s not big chains killing them, it’s that only big chains manage to hold on to life vs Amazon & Co. We have had some kind of fixed book price regulation since 1888 (yes, that’s an 1800, not 1900).

badpun 4y ago

> the fact that literary prizes are evening news worthy events (cultural effect of books and authors being important even to non-readers) That's probably true in many (most) European countries? Certainly true in ones I know - UK and Poland. It stems from leftist/socialist politics on the continent - the authorities sees their role not only as a policeman/arbiter of people's affairs, but also as a force of enlightenment, promoting education, higher culture etc. Hence, things like literary awards, classical music etc. get a lot of state funding. I'm not entirely convinced it's that great, because for example my taxes are, year after year, funding the local opera in my city (requires large subsidies as ticket revenues are nowhere near enough to cover the costs), of which I will never have any use, as I'm not interested in opera.

rospaya 4y ago
It would be a very ugly world if only things that can make money deserve to exist.
- badpun 4y ago
  I'm not against operas existing, I'm only against them being funded by people against their will. There are many alternative models available - funding via donations from rich people (how it's done in the US), or de-profesionalization of opera (having volunteers with day jobs sing in it, if the ticket sales are not enough to pay their salaries).
  - Tade0 4y ago
    My mother worked as an artisan in a theatre before retirement(I'm Polish BTW). Just like public transport, opera and theatre can't possibly fund itself just from tickets - the price would need to be very high to do so. At the same time donations from rich people are few, far between and wouldn't even cover 1% of the expenses - it's not the XX century anymore and even then I suppose instances of rich people funding entire such organisations were rare. Most musicians (and I've met quite a few during my time in a choir), especially singers already have a day job. In general it boils down to whether you believe a nation has culture worth preserving or should they all just shut up and produce GDP.

soco 4y ago

What you describe above is valid for first-hand bookshops right? Because on second-hand I assume all this chain doesn't exist at all.

mytailorisrich 4y ago

France is a very conservative country and works hard to preserve the status quo every time change or an innovation knocks on the door. That's actually a big cause of their economic and social problems.