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The annual Paris book fair, Livre Paris, will open for four days on 24th March with several new and revamped features as the organisers try to halt the slide in visitor numbers. Last year attracted 155,000 visitors, a substantial drop on 2015's 180,000, although the Paris terror attacks are thought to have been partly to blame.
This year's schedule returns to a Friday to Monday run, with a professional morning on the last day. Last year’s Wednesday to Sunday schedule, including the professional morning on the Thursday, was contested by booksellers who like to take advantage of Sunday and, in some cases, Monday closing to visit the fair.
The literary theme this year is "imagine" (last year’s was "resistance"), with debates on democracy, migrants, post-first novels, westerns, and whether organic food could feed the planet. Morocco will be the guest of honour, and for the first time there will be an Africa stand representing 12 countries, led by the Cote d’Ivoire.
The layout of the fair has been rejigged to make the route more fluid and to bring together complementary thematic spaces, such as the children’s and comic book stands. For the first time the professional stand will offer visitors a glimpse of the jobs available in publishing, including editing, marketing, sales and communications. In addition, three Franco-German events will be held as a curtain-raiser to the next Frankfurt Book Fair, where France will be guest of honour,
About 1,200 publishers will exhibit this year, a few more than in 2016, and will include houses from more than 50 foreign countries. President François Hollande will again inaugurate the fair on 23rd March, culture minister Audrey Azoulay will be present on four occasions, and all the candidates in the two-round French presidential election on 23rd April and 7th May are expected to make an appearance.
Hachette Livre, which has long been lukewarm about the fair, returns with a corporate stand, and all the publishers in the group except for Calmann Lévy, Fayard and Stock have booked space.