Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder by Dav Pilkey topped the English-language print book charts in Canada last year, according to a research report released by BookNet Canada this week. The report also found that retail sales tracked by BNC SalesData, the national sales tracking service for the print English-language trade market in Canada, fell 1.9% in the year, to about C$1.1 billion, and unit sales slipped 3.7%, to just under 48 million copies sold.
Books by Canadian authors accounted for 12% of unit print sales in Canada last year, the same as in 2023, and Canadian-owned publishers made up 5.6% of the total market share in Canada, up slightly from 2023. The bestselling book by a Canadian author was The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny, while top-selling book out out by a Canadian-owned publisher was the juvenile nonfiction title To Hope and Back: The Journey of the St. Louis by Kathy Kacer, from Second Story Press.
Fantasy remained extremely popular in Canada last year, with its market share of fiction sales increasing by 32% over 2023. Sarah J. Maas had the number one fantasy title, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and her books made up half of the top 10 on both the hardcover and paperback bestseller lists. A Court of Thorns and Roses was the second bestselling fiction title in the country overall last year, trailing only The Women by Kristin Hannah—the number one bestseller in the U.S last year.
The nonfiction list generally resembled its counterpart in the U.S. as well, with Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt topping the chart. Coloring books were big sellers in Canada in 2024, and driving increases in the crafts and hobbies, games, and young adult nonfiction categories, according to the report.
For the seventh year running, two out of every five print books sold in 2024 in both the English-language and French-language markets were either juvenile or young adult titles. Juvenile books made up 50% of Canadian library circulations in 2024.
