I Make the Making-of Great Again! by Paul Fournel – Liberation

On the occasion of the Paris Book Festival on April 11, 12 and 13, our journalists give way to authors for this 18th edition of the Libe of the writer. Find all the articles here.

Chouquettes, chocolate breads, croissants, grape breads, coffee, hot water. Let’s go. We are 20 writers around a round table. It is therefore easy to go around. The boss, Dov, reassures us and advises us: « Take a first sentence of the style » long I went to bed late « and then the rest of the article will follow. » I find the advice enlightened and I will therefore try with « Chouquettes, chocolate breads … » During our round, all the knights of Liberty have built behind us, a new circle of service heads that will enlighten us on the news of the day.

Pele, we learn that he is going to be bad, that the Barbie doll will revolve thanks to LeBron James, that the wars continue here and therethat Macron wants to recognize Palestinewe wonder if the authors compensate for the drop in their income by overconsumption of benzodiazepines, that AI will invent us of costumes that light up at night (Rim Battal takes care of it) and, above all, we learn that Trump releases the shower: more restriction of use in the name of water economy. He specifies that to treat his hair, he likes large showers. We wish him many.

Breaking News: Philippe Poutou leaves politics and opens a bookstore in Bordeaux. Our hearts of writers vibrate. Good luck Philippe!

Of all this we will have to make a newspaper. Our editor-in-chief of the day, Margaret Atwood, sleeps on the other side of the world, taken between the United States and Canada, but the relay is assured. It’s the methodical fair: I take that, I do that, I write on that. An assault of good will.

We go around cold pages (those that are already done and already wedged), we virtually fill the hot pages and share the driver. This should go there, unless we put it here. Will there be advertising on this page? Do we have a nice photo?

Mokhtar, after a night in Saint-Germain, regains the hair of the beast, he will take care of the Trumpist fantasies on customs duties.

Arthur will write on IC3PEAK, a stateless Russian duo that sings this weekend in Paris. He highly recommends it.

Patrick Grainville arrives late but he wrote well on Beaubourg who closes for a long time. He praised his voice as a stentor and fears that he will never see him again given his great age. It is the melancholy part of the morning.

Well, finally, we will make 3,000 signs on the Cannes Film Festival And as much for Retailleau.

The circle breaks and everyone goes to work in the four calm corners of the house, provided with a subject and a number of signs. For my « making-of » it will be 3,700. I stay to work on the round table since this is where we will serve the meal.

Meanwhile, upstairs above, real journalists apply: shoulder against shoulder, they fill screens.

12:45 pm, as if by chance, the authors return to the table. They have a little hollow. Julien, Mr. Photo, takes advantage of it.

Sausage, quiche, verrines (in cardboard), cake, they regain colors and strengths. The fastest are ready to leave after coffee, the others get back to the keyboard. Time is running out, you have to make a newspaper and when you are not a journalist you tend to look up to the sky and scratch your forehead.

On the other hand, they did not dream upstairs and we are taken off the railroad: an A4 page that looks like a comic book with the Page to page newspaper which puts order in the soft morning mess. It’s chic. I am told that I can go up to 4,400 signs for this making-of. Bombance! We await the translation of Siri Hustvedt’s paper and Bonnie Banana will have his portrait on the last page for his erotic songs.

Dov returns with the whole team of department heads to talk about the site, future paper newspapers and what we are going to put on it (or « inside »?) It is a new volley of information that must be sorted and prioritized. It is about a special couscous, but it is advisable to be wary of internal, Tunisian and Algerian lobbies, which could spoil the semolina.

6:30 p.m., it’s time for the front page and Libertythe front page is the front page. First it is the parade of possible one, Trump appears on all in various majesties, but the best is that where he threatens to fly away with a wide blow of hair. May he do it for good. It will therefore be retained for this Liberty of the 28 writers.

4,400 signs and one snack. THANKS.