The last pages arrived on April 24 as soon as the results of the presidential elections were known: in La Flèche (Sarthe), the Brodard and Taupin printing press (CPI group) worked all night from Sunday to Monday to produce 16,000 copies in record time from the book “Macron 2. The secrets of a re-electionby Dominique Albertini and Charlotte Chaffanjon (L’Archipel editions).
To stay as current as possible and allow the book to be offered in bookstores from Wednesday, April 27, the Sarthe printing house, normally closed on weekends, worked with volunteer employees. In publishing parlance, this type of political book is called a “fast book.” These works, written almost day by day, are marked by a very high level of responsiveness.
– Cover photo credit: Stéphane Rébillon
Race against the clock
This impression in the form of a race against the clock was well prepared. Two imagined covers had been made in advance for each possible scenario, so half went to hell. For the text itself, “the publisher sent us at 8:10 p.m. on Sunday night the last pages of the book“says Virginie Hamm-Boulard, director of the Brodard and Taupin plant, “to complete the story of this presidential election with the latest events of the last days of the campaign“. It’s time to stop the rotary presses, “the first rounds of machines take place around 10:00 p.m. and the first copies are released around 10:30 p.m.“.
The first copies quickly left Sarthe, “the publisher wanted to distribute press services to journalists in Paris from Monday morning“continues Virginie Hamm-Boulard. The entire production should have been delivered before 10 am on Monday.”It is very little time since, normally, between the arrival at the distribution center and the sale of a novelty, there are about ten days and only 48 hours will have passed there.“.
The Fléchoise printing house is well versed in the exercise. “It is a custom, a habit that we have at Brodard and Taupin with the Archipelago editions“, specifies Virginie Hamm-Bulard. “We do it every five years since the 2002 presidential election“.