French Sales Top $2 Billion

With sales of nearly 15 billion francs—or 17 billion including clubs ($2.1 billion and $2.5 billion)—French book sales increased more than 4% in 2000, making it a very good year indeed from the perspective of French Publishing Association director Jean Sarzana, who noted that the trade is the country's number one cultural industry. Title production rose 2% to 51,877, of which 25,832 were new. Average printings continued their slow but steady decline and are now at 8,151 copies.

The statistics are based on responses of 331 publishers with "significant" activity and representing 95% of total trade revenue. (France counts up to 7,000 publishers, of which 800 show "regular" but not necessarily significant activity.) One surprise last year was the 6% rise in sales in general literature, which is seen as a sign of renewed vitality in the market. Unlike other major publishing countries, France does not calculate the number of translations in the aggregate or by language; one only knows that there are a considerable number of Anglo-American books at the top end of bestseller lists.

Electronic publishing, said the Publishers Association, remains marginal—the statistics too insignificant to report. Although online book sales represent less than 1% of total trade sales, a survey organization reports that 40% of Internet users have already purchased books through e-tailers, but 82% of users say they are not ready to download books. CD-ROM sales in the year were 273 million francs ($39.5 million), with about 2.7 million copies sold.