Unit sales of English-language trade print books sold in Canada fell 2% in the first half of 2024 from the comparable period in 2023 at stores that report data to BookNet Canada. Units dipped to 20.8 million sold, but price increases resulted in dollar sales holding even, at about C$477.1 million
Adult fiction had the strongest six-month performance, with unit sales up 6% over 2023, while adult nonfiction sales fell 8% in the period. Unit sales were down 5% in the juvenile/young adult category, but the segment remained Canada’s largest, accounting for 40% of English-language unit sales in the first six months of 2024. Frontlist sales continued to struggle in the year, accounting for 26% of units sold, down from 28% a year ago.
Similar to six-month results found in the U.S. by Circana BookScan, BookNet Canada found that “anything fantasy romance–related continued to see strong sales” in the first half of 2024.To that end, fantasy/romance unit sales were up 235%; romance/fantasy sales increased 104%; and young adult fantasy/romance sales jumped 214%. Aside from the romantasy juggernaut, sales also increased in Indigenous fiction, by 104%, and sales of nonfiction titles on Israel and Palestine jumped 1,233%.
Bestsellers by category were similar to those in the U.S., with The Women by Kristin Hannah topping the adult fiction bestseller list for the first half of 2024 and James Clear’s Atomic Habits #1 in adult nonfiction. Dav Pilkey’s The Scarlet Shedder topped the juvenile/YA list. The top-selling bestselling adult title by a Canadian writer was This Summer Will be Different by Carley Fortune, and the bestselling juvenile/YA title by a Canadian author was Claudia and the Bad Joke (Baby-Sitters Club #15) by Ann M. Martin and illustrated by Arley Nopra.
BookNet Canada’s survey of 1,000 Canadian book buyers found that print remains by far the format of choice; the format represented 83% of sales in the first six months of 2024, followed by sales of e-books and then digital audiobooks.
