Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Canadian book sales up 11%

In its annual look at Canadian publishing, Publishers Weekly reports that print sales for the first six months of this year were up 11.2% over the same period in 2020, rising to C$463 million (A$504.3m).

‘This year, to the end of August, the market is up by 9% in units over the similar period from 2020, and just slightly above the same period in 2019,’ said Noah Genner, CEO of BookNet, which compiles sales and other data about Canadian publishing. ‘We haven’t quite had the same huge bump that we saw last summer after lockouts ended, but things have been pretty consistently okay.’

Genner added that ‘there are definitely some concerns with regards to book supply for the remainder of the year’, including printing and shipping constraints, and the impact of Covid on physical shopping for the remainder of the year.

Children’s and YA titles accounted for 42% of print book sales in the Canadian English-language trade market for the first six months of 2021, followed by nonfiction (30%) and fiction (27%). The bestselling Canadian title so far this year is Ashley Audrain’s thriller novel The Push (Michael Joseph).

 

Category: International news