“The publishing chain is in crisis, aid has been cancelled”: the complaint from Piacenza merchants

“Everything that could come to the aid of publishing chain was deleted”. The complaint comes from Nicholas Maseratipresident of Confesercenti Piacenza and national vice-president of Sil (Italian booksellers union) Confesercenti: “Bookshops and stationery shops find themselves facing many unresolved problems in terms ofschool publishing – he explains – problems which have already contributed to rarefying the commercial network and which, in the absence of answers, will lead to a further reduction in service in the area this year too”.

THE WORD OF SMALL INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES

Confirmation also comes from the independent bookstores of Piacenza: “The risk is of becoming warehouse workers – he explains Sonia Galli of the Fahrenheit 451 library – thousands of titles are released: the only solution for us is to favor publishers who work on the catalog and focus on writers. It goes without saying that they are mainly medium-small publishing houses.”

“The abolition of the library fund is a serious problem – explains the bookseller of Pagine Libreria Lella Lezoli – also because the teacher bonus is sometimes good, sometimes less so, while the student bonus has been cut a lot. The State doesn’t provide life jackets and book presentations, which once worked so well, are not enough today.” Claudia Gobbi of the Romagnosi bookshop, specialized in school publishing (and not only), speaks of “a situation in decline that is getting worse and worse”: “In the field of school publishing we are working to have a revenue of 4 or 5 percent at most – he underlines – to have a certain lap you have to do great numbers”.

However, it is a separate case Will be Marenghiowner of the Bookbank bookshop which sells used and old books but not only: “I have always not been able to do like all the other bookshops – he explains – for this reason, ever since I opened I have tried to invent many things: it is the only solution because there are fewer and fewer people entering bookshops”.