TV advertising for books is now authorized but publishers are against it, fearing that it will harm the diversity of literature. Rachida Dati defends the measure which should promote reading according to her, the sector declares itself opposed to this choice, recorded by decree on April 5.
“We are very surprised that it happened like that, suddenly,” declared Antoine Gallimard, the boss of the most prestigious French publishing house, Hachette Livre. XO, on the fringes of the cozy world of letters, asserts its vocation as a publisher of bestsellers. It launched their spot on BFMTV for a detective novel by Bernard Minier a week after the decree, and has continued to open the possibility to advertise on radio and TV. The debate should be resolved within the professional organization, the National Publishing Union, says the French Bookstore Union, which is also opposed to the measure. The government is making that of the liberal market, says a professor of literature at Bordeaux Montaigne University.