French Sales Flat In '97
Herbert R. Lottman -- 7/13/98
Despite a strong retail structure, the French book trade continues to come up with negatives. Final returns for 1997 showed a 0.5% fall in sales despite a slight rise in title production, the result of a trend toward cheaper books. Indeed, in order to live with retail price maintenance, which publishers continue to support and which creates a built-in handicap in marketing, some traditional houses are aping the strategy of maverick imprints that do slim but provocative paperback originals priced as low as 10 francs ($1.65) or in a 10-to-40-franc range. Meanwhile, club sales via mail and bookshop outlets, promotional books and even specially priced school and reference books produced by major publishers willing to cannibalize their more prestigious lines seem to have convinced many book buyers that books don't have to be costly. Title production rose 2% (to 47,206) last year, as average printings declined. Reference and art books were the weak sisters, while current affairs, religion, children's and comic books did best. Sales of fiction and general nonfiction were stable, but with a 5% increase in title output. While book sales are up by 0.5% in the first half of the current year, as reported in the trade journal Livres Hebdo, for the first time in six years book sales are performing slower than the retail sector as a whole. Back To News---> |
