Book publishing industry, 2014

May 19, 2016

Statistics Canada released data on the book publishing industry in Canada for 2014.

The book publishers industry generated operating revenue of $1.7 billion in 2014. Operating expenses were $1.5 billion, which resulted in an operating profit margin of 11.7%.

Salaries, wages, commissions and benefits totalled $345.5 million, representing 23.3% of total operating expenses. The largest contributor to operating expenses was the cost of goods sold (33.9%).

Book publishers in Ontario (66.7%) accounted for the largest share of the industry’s operating revenues, followed by Quebec (26.6%) and British Columbia (3.5%).

Total sales of own and exclusive agency titles amounted to $1.4 billion, of which 81.8% were domestic sales in Canada and the remaining 18.2% were exports. Most domestic sales came from publishers’ own titles (72.4%), with the two top contributing commercial categories being educational titles ($366.1 million) and other trade titles ($331.3 million), which include fiction and non-fiction mass market books.

Because of the restructuring of book publishers over the past two years, foreign-owned companies contributed a larger portion of publishers’ own titles sales in Canada ($472.9 million) than Canadian-owned companies ($335.4 million).

The largest customer category for book publishers’ sales of own and exclusive agency titles in Canada was bookstores and other trade sales ($517.3 million), such as department stores, followed by educational institutions ($190.0 million) and exclusive agents, distributors and wholesalers ($179.5 million).

Sales of Canadian authors ($681.3 million) and foreign authors ($683.5 million) continued to be relatively even. Publishers’ sales of own titles in Canada accounted for the majority of sales of Canadian authors ($528.3 million).

English-language books accounted for 79.2% of sales, while French-language and other languages represented the remaining 20.8%. Of total sales of own and exclusive agency titles, 13.1% were e-book sales. In total, 14,218 new titles were published, 10,433 of which were titles by Canadian authors.