Support for the bookstore
Bookshops play a key role in the social and intellectual fabric of the urban fabric through their contribution to the cultural life of regions, departments, cities and neighbourhoods. Bookstores are the privileged partners of libraries and play, at their side, a very important role of animation. This role is reinforced by the participation of many bookshops in literary events organized throughout the territory and from which they are often at the origin. Given their cultural role, the maintenance and development of bookstores is one of the priorities of the book policy of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.
The maintenance, modernization and development of the bookshop network are essential to preserve the diversity of creation in the book sector and theequality in the access of all to this editorial diversity.
The economic situation of bookstores is fragilebecause these establishments have an increase in total costs, a significant burden of remuneration costs which is explained by the need for a large and qualified staff, a stagnation in net income at a particularly low level and difficulties in transmitting these businesses in the same sector of activity.
Current support measures for the bookstore include:
- Aids from the National Book Centre :
- aid to enterprises: loans without interest or grants to support creation, recovery or development projects
- aid for qualitative measures: interest-free loans or grants to support cultural activities, enlargement or the creation of thematic funds
- subsidies in favour of French-language bookstores abroad
- accompaniment of interprofessional projects
>>> See the website of the National Book Centre
- Label Independent reference library
- System created in 2007 to support and enhance the selection, advice and animation work carried out by quality bookshops that participate, through their commitment to the dissemination of the book, in the development and cultural animation of the territories. It aims to maintain a dense and diverse network of quality libraries in the centre of large cities as well as in rural areas, or in small and medium-sized municipalities.
- The fund for the transfer of bookshops of the Association for the development of the creative bookstore (ADELC)
- In order to guarantee the maintenance of quality bookshops in urban centres, where the value of these shops represents a barrier to their transmission, a specific fund to help bookshops transfer was created in 2008. Thanks to a stock carry system, this fund allows the buyer to spread its repayments over several years. The Ministry of Culture and Communication has instructed ADELC to manage and monitor this fund.
- Aid from the Regional Cultural Affairs Directorates
- the DRAC have a capacity of intervention in favor of the bookshops for their projects of development, computerization or animations
- The State-local authorities sector contract
- The Ministry of Culture and Communication initiated the launch, in May 2011, of a proposal made to local authorities, to participate in a campaign of contractualisation with the decentralized services of the State to intervene in a concerted way in favour of the sectors of the book in the region and in particular the booksellers, who constitute the most fragile link of the chain of the book. At a time when publishers and booksellers are confronted with major structural changes, particularly as a result of the development of digital distribution networks, it seems appropriate to to think in terms of the sector in order to strengthen the cohesion between the various actors and partners in the book chain, particularly at the regional level.
The mission for the future of the bookshop, conducted by Messrs. Bruno Parent and Marc Sanson during the first quarter of 2012, his report a number of proposed measures to ensure the maintenance of a dense and diversified network of quality bookstores throughout the territory. In particular, the State and its operators are encouraged to strengthen the book policy based on the structuring element of the Law of 10 August 1981. Some proposals also aim to strengthen the support of local authorities for local cultural businesses that participate in the development and animation of their territories. Finally, all the actors in the book chain (publishers, distributors, booksellers) are called to mobilize to develop inter-professional solidarity tools.
