Prince Harry's memoir Spare was the top-selling English-language print book and the most borrowed library book in Canada in 2023, according to new research released by BookNet Canada, the organization that compiles sales and other data about Canadian publishing. The book's success contributed to a 16% increase in sales for the biography and autobiography category compared to the previous year. The Canadian Book Market 2023 report, which now includes data on library book circulation, showed that in 2023, the Canadian book market sold 48,791,765 units at a total value of C$1.1 billion ($810 million) across 847,477 unique ISBNs.
Canadian authors accounted for 12% of print book sales in Canada, BookNet Canada reported, with Carley Fortune's romance novel Meet Me at the Lake the top-selling book by a Canadian author. The top-selling title from a Canadian-owned publisher was Kate Beaton's graphic memoir Ducks, published by Drawn & Quarterly, which also won Canada Reads, a television book-based reality show, in 2023.
Fiction, particularly fantasy and romance titles, gained market share, with Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas dominating the former category. Maas in particular proved popular, with her titles appearing nine times across the top 10 hardcover and top 10 paperback lists, while Colleen Hoover's novels, including her novels It Starts with Us and It Ends With Us, dominating in the romance category.
Children’s and young adult books comprised 40% of all print books sold in both the English and French-language markets in Canada. Children’s nonfiction titles saw a 25% increase in sales compared to 2022, with Guinness World Records 2024 taking the top spot in the category. Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder was the best-selling young adult book for the second year in a row, while Dav Pilkey's Dog Man 11: Twenty Thousand Fleas under the Sea led the children's category for the fourth consecutive year.
Earlier this month, BookNet reported that in 2023, consumers purchased more books online than in person, with 55% of all book purchases made by Canadian book buyers made online and 45% made in person. During a given month in 2023, 79% of Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore online, up from 73% in 2022. Another 70% of Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore in-person, up from 64% in 2022. 61% of online book buyers and 63% of in-person book buyers in Canada visited bookstores of either type between one and four times in a given month.
As in previous years, majority of purchases were for print books—53% paperback and 25% hardcover, with 14% of books purchases by book buyers being e-books and 4% audiobooks.
