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Sarkozy boost for French publishers

20.03.08 Barbara Casassus

French publishers boosted their annual sales by between 2% and 3% to an estimated €4bn in 2007, according to provisional figures from the French Publishers Association (Syndicat National de l'Edition, SNE). The growth compared with only 1.7% the year before.

Final figures will be published in May, but if confirmed, they will be on a par with those of the 1980's, SNE president Serge Eyrolles said. The increase has been spurred partly by the flurry of books about President Nicolas Sarkozy's current and former wives, Carla and Cecilia. Sales of illustrated books also grew, after falling back for several years.

According to GfK, which released figures are few days earlier, book sales in France shrank slightly by 0.9% in nominal terms, or 2.7% in real terms, to €4.1bn in 2007. Fiction, children's books and comic books were the strong performers, GfK said. GfK's numbers are based on retail panels, while SNE figures are based on publishers' sales figures.

According to GfK, first and second-tier independent bookshops saw their market share fall from 51% in 2003 to 47% last year, with supermarket market share also dropping from 24% to 20%. The market share captured by mass-multiples rose from 24% to 28%, whiles sales via the internet grew from 2.4% to 5%.

International Barbara Casassus France Nicolas Sarkozy

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