French Bookstores Flourish With Government Aid

靠政府力撐 法國書市不倒

By Elaine Sciolino

PARIS – As independent bookstores close in the United States and Britain, the market in France is doing fine. France boasts 2,500 bookstores, and for every neighborhood bookstore that closes, another seems to open. From 2003 to 2011 book sales in France increased by 6.5 percent.
美國和英國的獨立書店相繼關門大吉，然而法國的書店市場卻景況良好。法國誇稱擁有2500家書店，街坊上每有一家書店歇業，就有另一張開張。2003年到2011年間，法國的書籍銷售額增長了6.5%。

E-books account for only 1.8 percent of the general consumer publishing market here, compared with 6.4 percent in the United States. The French have a centuries-old reverence for the printed page.
法國的電子圖書僅占一般消費者出版市場的1.8%，美國則為6.4%。從古到今，法國人始終對印刷的書頁尊敬有加。

“There are two things you don’t throw out in France – bread and books,” said Bernard Fixot, owner and publisher of XO, a small publishing house dedicated to producing best sellers.
XO是專出暢銷書的小型出版社，老闆兼發行人費克索說：「有兩樣東西法國人從不丟棄 ─ 麵包和書籍。」

A more compelling explanation is state intervention. In the Anglophone book world the free market reigns; here it is trumped by price fixing.
更令人信服的一個解釋則是國家的干預。英文圖書世界向來是自由市場掛帥，此間則是鼓吹價格管制。

Since 1981 a law has fixed prices for French-language books. Booksellers – even Amazon – may not discount books more than 5 percent below the publisher’s list price, although Amazon fought for and won the right to provide free delivery.
打從1981年起，一項法令已對法文圖書進行價格管制。所有書商皆不可將書籍打折超過書籍定價的5%，就連亞馬遜公司也不能例外，不過亞馬遜經全力爭取，總算爭到了可提供消費者免運費的權利。

Last year French publishers successfully lobbied the government to fix prices for e-books too. Now publishers decide the price of e-books; any other discounting is forbidden.
去年，法國出版商成功遊說政府對電子圖書也實施價格管制。現在，法國的電子書是由出版商決定價格；任何其他折扣都在禁止之列。

There are also government-financed institutions that offer grants and interest-free loans to would-be bookstore owners.
法國還有由政府出資的機構提供補助和無息貸款，幫助準備開書店的人。

There are predictions that France is only delaying the inevitable, and that market forces will prevail. Thirteen percent of French books were bought on the Internet in 2011.
有人預測，法國只是讓無可避免的結果晚一些到來，最終市場力量必將獲勝。2011年，法國書籍有13%是從網路上購買的。

An agreement that Google announced in June should allow publishers to offer digital versions of their works for Google to sell. Until now sales of e-books have lagged in France and much of the rest of Europe in part because of disputes over rights.
Google今年6月宣布的一項協議，讓出版社提供他們的數位版本作品供Google銷售。迄今，電子圖書的銷售在法國與歐洲的大部分國家仍然落後，著作權爭議是部分原因。

A 59-page study by the Culture Ministry in March made recommendations to delay the decline of print sales, including limiting rent increases for bookstores, emergency funds for booksellers from the book industry and increased cooperation between the industry and government.
法國文化部今年3月發表了一份長達59頁的研究報告，針對如何延緩印刷書籍銷售下降提出若干建議，包括限制書店租金上漲，由圖書業界對書商提供緊急資金，以及加強圖書業與政府的合作等。

On the third Sunday of every month an operation called Circul’Livre takes over a corner of the Rue des Martyrs south of Montmartre. A small band of retirees classifies used books by subject and displays them in open crates.
每個月的第三個星期天，蒙馬特以南烈士宮街的一個角落會有一個名叫「書籍流通」的活動。一小群的退休人員將他們的二手書根據主題分類，展示在開放的板條箱中。

The books are not for sale. Customers just take as many as they want as long as they adhere to an informal code of honor neither to sell nor destroy them. They are encouraged to drop off their old books, keeping the stock replenished.
這些二手書是不賣的。顧客愛拿多少就拿多少，只要他們遵守非正式的一項榮譽規定，既不出售也不毀掉這些書籍。他們也鼓勵他人留下舊書，讓「書庫」得以獲得補充。

“Books are living things,” said Andrée Le Faou, an organizer. “They need to be respected, to be loved. We are giving them many lives.”
主辦人之一勒富說：「書本是有生命的東西，他們需要受到尊重與疼愛。我們正賦予他們無數的生命。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/books/french-bookstores-are-still-prospering.html

2012-07-03聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報十二版下