Indie bookstores alive and well in Paris

PARIS — The death of books and bookselling has been predicted for years. But this year in particular has witnessed a barrage of newspaper and magazine articles about the decline of the American bookstore. The conversation takes place on many fronts: Americans don’t read, as the World Culture Index suggests, or the bookstore has been undercut by Amazon, or, as The New York Times wrote in March, bookstores aren’t economically viable because of rising rents.

In France, in spite of rent, corporate competition and the economic crisis, large numbers of independent bookstores continue to exist — roughly 3,000, which is double the amount in countries like the U.S., Spain, the U.K. and Germany. Still, things are changing quite rapidly, and according to the voices from within France, the book business here is not as good as the outside world may think.

Like so many things French, much of the media coverage has been in line with the cultural exclusivity that many ascribe to France (women don’t get fat, children don’t throw food, and nobody emails after 6 p.m.). France is misleadingly familiar, and the bookstore is talked about as if it were an economic anomaly — that despite the ongoing disappearance of cultural fabric in cities like New York or London, Paris is somehow immune.

Chain bookstores have faced challenges here, just like in the U.S., and with Virgin, France’s equivalent to Borders, shutting down all of its stores, book buying seems poised to go to one of two extremes: cyber or local. This last year has also witnessed the dissolution of Chapitre, another large chain, which shut down 23 of its 57 stores after it filed for bankruptcy in December 2013. This is good news for the 3,000 independent bookstores of France. (According to a 2012 study, Paris alone has 370 — that’s one bookstore for every 4,000 inhabitants.) These numbers don’t even include all the used-book shops, stationery stores and newsstands, or the ubiquitous emerald-colored “bouquinistes” that have bordered the Seine since the 16th century.

Like France’s national health care, largely financed by taxes, bookstores have a support system to keep them economically and structurally sustainable. (In 2014 alone, Paris plans to invest 9 million euros into the book industry.) But book sales represent 53 percent of cultural products nationwide, and reports say independent bookstores are estimated to account for a 19 percent share of all sales channels in France. Figures such as these are reason enough for the state to continue maintaining a support system for bookstores.

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The first major government initiative to help bookstores started in the 1980s, when then cultural minister Jack Lang proposed the Lang Law in an effort to protect independent bookstores from corporate chains. The law, which passed unanimously, introduced a fixed rate for books that prohibited vendors from selling books at more than 5 percent below the cover price. Though the regulation was controversial at the time for obstructing free competition, today it is a big part of what keeps independent bookstores financially stable.

Of course, there’s still the problem of competition with corporations, primarily the growing impact of online retailers such as Amazon (which is accused of dodging taxes, and as a result is under scrutiny by six European countries).

In 2003, online sales made up just 3 percent of sales here, but data shows that now 18 percent of all book purchases are online (compared to 26 percent in the U.S.). To combat this, the French government extended the Lang Law to online sales in 2011. (In the U.S., Amazon offers up to a 40 percent discount off the cover price.) Despite the lower-than-average numbers, online book buying is still considered a threat. So in January of this year, another law to protect the bookstore was passed, banning online services from offering free delivery. It’s known as the “anti-Amazon” law.

Independent booksellers are also aware of the limits of online book buying. In Paris, even specialty bookstores such as Shakespeare and Company, which caters to Anglophone crowds, look for ways to tailor personal relationships with their customers in order to counter the system of online sales.

In the U.S. the e-book market represents a billion-dollar industry, but the digital book remains marginal in France, where it accounts for a mere 1 percent of annual book sales. Still, in 2011, the government decided to extend the Lang Law to impose restrictions on e-books as well.

With all the caveats of uncertainty, of government support and the timid arrival of the e-book, the bookstore here, like everywhere in the world, is indeed facing its share of problems. The overall French book market has been in a slow, continuous decline, with sales shrinking each year.