Paris’ annual book fair, also known as Livre Salon de Paris supposed to take place later this month from 20 to 23 March, has been canceled due to measures taken by the French government to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the French publishers’ union said in a statement.
“Following the government’s decision to forbid any gathering of more than 5,000 people in a closed space, it is with regret that we have taken the decision to cancel the 2020 edition of the Paris’ book fair,” the union said.
There will be no attempt to shift the event back, as happened with Bologna Children’s’ Book Fair. The next edition of the Paris Book Fair will now take place in 2021. To date, the coronavirus has killed two people in France and infected some 130.
London Book Fair 10 to 12 March is the next question mark
Apart from this, over a dozen book fairs across the globe on the danger mark over the next six weeks. Amazon too recently pulled out of the London Book Fair along with US businesses of HarperCollins and Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Macmillian and Penguin Random House who withdrew a number of rights staff from the fair amid coronavirus outbreak. Hachette Book Group has also confirmed that none of its staff will attend LBF.
In fact, both HarperCollins and Hachette Group in the UK are also reviewing the attendance of their teams ahead of the trade fair scheduled to begin on 10 March 2020.
The UK government is expected to announce its action plan later today (3 March 2020) that will likely have to be taken cognizance of by the organizers of the LBF.
Among the Indians planning to attend, we spoke to one of the printers who made travel plans to attend and was planning to leave by 8 March 2020.
