The Ministry of Culture has signed a protocol which provides for a “fixed remuneration» for signing sessions, during festivals. Authors will benefit from the next Angoulême festival, which begins this Thursday.
Comic book authors will be paid for signing sessions at festivals, the Ministry of Culture announced on Friday, just before the Angoulême Festival.
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The ministry said in a statement that it had signed “a protocol for the remuneration of the dedications of the authors and authors of comic strips in the festivalswith the National Book Center (CNL), the National Publishing Union (SNE), the Union of Alternative Publishers (SEA), the French Society for the Interests of Written Authors (Sofia) and the ten largest festivals. The Angoulême International Comics Festival, which opens its doors to the general public on Thursday, is concerned from this 2022 edition. The protocol, valid for three years, provides for a “fixed remuneration“, according to terms that have not been disclosed.
The issue had divided the comics industry for years, between writers who felt the work deserved pay, skeptical publishers, and festivals who claimed to have very tight budgets. Individual initiatives in this direction had emerged, such as those of the SoBD festival or the publisher Auzou. Comics are by far the fastest growing sector in the book market. But its prosperity benefits few authors, and leaves many others in great precariousness. The latest precise figures to date, on the occasion of the Estates General of Comics in 2016, reported 36% of authors living below the poverty line, and 53% earning less than the minimum wage.