“One publishes books in which one has faith” - Françoise Nyssen from Actes Sud meets with European representatives at the FEP Publishers’ lunch

This Tuesday September 23rd, FEP invited French-speaking European political representatives to meet with Françoise Nyssen, President and CEO of the French Publishing house Actes Sud, for a “publishers’ lunch” hosted at the prestigious Brussels Stanhope. The event was informal on purpose as its aim was to get the political world closer to the publishing sector by presenting the concrete reality of a publisher’s daily work to European decision-makers. Thus, the FEP lunch was attended by some MEPs as well as MEPs’ assistants, representatives from the European Commission, the French Embassy in Brussels and the Permanent French representation to the EU. As for publishers they were represented by some SNE (Syndicat national de l’édition) members.

Françoise Nyssen, acted as chair during the whole two hours-session, sharing widely her publishing experience. For her “Publishing is a craftsman art and is often experienced as such”. As she underlined during the meeting, the work of a publisher is more than merely handing over a manuscript to the printer. Being a publisher is performing a job that is not well-known, yet it is a work encompassing many different tasks. Throughout the lunch, Françoise Nyssen succeeded at conveying her passion to her audience and her more memorable quote remains probably the following:

« I have discovered a fascinating job. It is a job that you can only perform with deep commitment, faith strongly tied to your body. We, publishers, are doing this job with a permanent idea in mind “pleasure and necessity””

Hence, under the patronage of Pierre Dutilleul, FEP President, this “Publishers’ lunch” contributed to give another dimension to the existing dialogue between European politicians and the Publishing sector.