“Don’t worry, I don’t think I’m Elon Musk!” Manuel Carcassonne does not lack self-mockery. The director of Stock readily defines himself as an inveterate technophobe, “unable to turn on a TV”. This year, the same man should overcome his phobias. On June 26, he will present, as he does every year, the works of his house planned for the literary season in September. But it will be from the metaverse.
These presentations are traditionally reserved for professionals, booksellers and journalists in mind. This foray into the metaverse promises to be open to everyone. A simple connection link provides access to the “digital park”, designed by the French start-up Power Z. “This will take the form of a park that can be visited, with kiosks in which it will be possible to discover books to be published and leaf through them”, explains Emmanuel Freund, the company’s founder.
The Power Z teams have also erected a museum in this virtual universe, which it will be possible to visit alongside Andrea Marcolongo, author of Moving the Moon and its Orbit, a book devoted to the looting of the Greek Parthenon friezes by the English. “It’s a way to bring the public back to what happened, but also to make them want to read the book,” argues Emmanuel Freund.
The idea of this virtual immersion was born from the collaboration between Hachette and Power Z editions. Manuel Carcassonne is offered to take advantage of the experiment. A way for the publisher to bring a breath of fresh air to this house that is more than three centuries old, and to establish new means of communication with the booksellers, whom he meets every year while crisscrossing France for a long time. wide. “The interest is to try everything. Besides, I found it amusing that a technophobic editor from the oldest publishing house was trying to communicate using a new medium, explains the person concerned. I even asked for my avatar to look like Tom Cruise, but that’s not going to be done.”
“It’s a way to bring people closer to books, wants to believe Emmanuel Freund. If this kind of event happened in a bookstore, not everyone would be able to access it. There, even people who are not familiar with literature and Stock can wander from one stand to another, open books and leaf through them, chat with authors.”
“I have no idea what it can be used for, if people will connect or if it will bring new readers,” tempers Manuel Carcassonne. If the experience lends a smile, Manuel Carcassonne ensures that it will never replace the experience in bookstores. “I don’t think I’m Elon Musk yet!” he jokes. In the virtual park, it will not be possible to buy the works presented. Visitors will only be able to leaf through and discover the texts of the authors.
The experiment could create more links with booksellers. “Each year, I visit between five hundred and eight hundred bookstores to present our books to them, explains the editor. I see it as an additional attempt to establish a link with them, and why not to interest new people. In short, a “new” medium to “propagate a classic material” and “spread the good word”. And ultimately, back to the books. And Manuel Carcassonne adds: “Anyway, as Umberto Eco said, there are two things that never go out of style: the wheel and the book.”
