The Sans-Culottes of the Digital Revolution and What We Can Learn From Them
By Steffen • Nov 2nd, 2009 • Category: 26th Story, Book News and Publishing
From the left: Eli Horowitz/ McSweeny’s, Todd Zuniga/ Opium, Maja Thomas/ Hachette, Chad Post/ Open Letter, Molly Barton/ Penguin, Julia Cheiffetz/ HarperStudio, Paul Morris/ Bomb
In France literature is practically a form of religion, and the “droit auteur” or copyright is sacrosanct. We have our Founding Fathers. They have Victor Hugo, Flaubert, Zola, and Balzac. The extent to which the French are ready to defend the rights of authors and publishers came into sharp focus for me this past week on the Courants Study Tour hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Cultures in Paris and the French American Foundation. Seven American publishers of varying sizes – including Penguin and Hachette- were invited to participate in a week-long exchange about the future of e-books and digital publishing. We met with publishers large and small (as well as the mega chain Fnac). We engaged in passionate debate about Amazon and Google- often disagreeing amongst ourselves, but also with our French counterparts. We ate.
If you are vaguely familiar with the French book market you probably already know that writers in France are not typically represented by literary agents. Book advances are usually small or nonexistent. One thing I didn’t realize before last week was that the French government passed legislation to fix the price of books in 1981. This is why French independent booksellers have been able to thrive in the wake of superstores; one figure cited 800 independently owned bookstores in France – 800! Of course, to put things in perspective, the French have unions for writers, publishers, literary reviews, and the notion of publishing a book solely to turn a profit is, well, foreign. (On the other hand Oliver Cohen was quick to remind me that French publishers want to make money, too. And that their publishing ethos is not based on lofty socialist ideals, but rather on a strong sense of individual taste; they simply publish what they like.)
Despite the radically different playing fields it was heartening to hear that publishers across the pond are having the same conversations about the state of the book business – and to see that we are all experimenting in similar ways (see Léo Scheer, also Francois Bon) But really, unless the US government steps in to regulate the price of books and support the arts in a more European fashion, the business challenges will eclipse the philosophical ones.
Oh, and the word for pie chart in French? Camembert.
Steffen
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