Much like in the United States, titles published in prior years are dominating book sales in Canada so far this year.
Michelle Obama's Becoming, which was the bestselling book in Canada last year, remains the bestselling English-language print book of 2019 to date, according BookNet Canada (BNC) SalesData. Other bestselling titles included Educated by Tara Westover, Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild by Dav Pilkey, and The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris—all published in 2018—as well as The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, originally published in 2016.
Among titles by Canadian authors, titles published in 2018 account for the top three bestselling books: Yum and Yummer by Greta Podleski, 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson, and The Gown by Jennifer Robson. At #4 was Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, from 1986, followed by the only book published in 2019 by a Canadian to hit the list, The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood, which landed at #5.
So far this year, BNC, the Canadian organization that compiles sales and other data about Canadian publishing, reports that juvenile/YA sales account for 38.8% of all print book sales in the Canadian English-language trade market. That segment is followed by non-fiction, at 34.5% of sales, and fiction, at 25.2%—figures which are virtually unchanged from overall sales for 2018.
