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The French Booksellers Association (Syndicat de la Librairie Française, SLF) is launching France’s first national publicity campaign for independent bookshops.
The campaign is three-pronged: it features a logo that aims to foster recognition of the network of indies and bolster their attractiveness; posters inviting existing customers and the others members of the public to take advantage of an off-the-beaten-track experience; and an internet site that will present the campaign, identify the booksellers and provide an internet tool to locate them. The campaign carries the slogan "entrez ailleurs", which literally translates as "enter elsewhere", meaning "enter another world".
The initiative, launched just before the end-of-year peak sales season, will last until the end of 2015 and will take in the Paris Book Fair in March and the next biennial national booksellers conference to be held in Lille in June, where topics on the agenda will include selling humanities books, distribution, access to public procurement contracts, and small neighbourhood booksellers, SLF director Guillaume Husson told The Bookseller.
The campaign is explained in detail in the French trade magazine Livres Hebdo. Depending on the size of each retail outlet, one or two kits of posters and bookmarks will be delivered to all participants on 26th November, while the campaign site www.librairiesindependantes.com and a Facebook page will launch on 1st December. Booksellers will be asked to send their comments and those of their customers to the SLF in January, and to add any ideas for further publicity.
Initially 1,500 booksellers, including the SLF’s 600 members, will receive the kits, Husson said. Other outlets among the estimated 2,500 to 3,000 around the country selling mainly books will also be able to order the kits. More supplies will be available to the initial recipients if necessary.
Husson declined to disclose the cost of the campaign, but Livres Hebdo reported that the budget totals some €200,000 and will be financed by a number of partners, including trade organisation Cercle de la Librairie. Other partners include the National Book Centre (Centre National du Livre, CNL), public lending rights collection agency Sofia, the Commission Copie Privée, which sets the private copying tariffs, health insurer Humanis, and life insurer OCIRP.