The Canadian Book Market 2021: Highlights

March 24, 2022

BookNet Canada this week released The Canadian Book Market 2021, their annual analysis of the Canadian book industry.

The book industry in 2021

In 2021, we tracked sales for 857,454 unique ISBNs, which translated to 52,827,913 physical books sold at a total value of $1,122,912,117.

Combined, the sales of Juvenile and Young Adult subjects accounted for the majority of the market share at 41.3%. In second place, Non-Fiction made up 32.7%, and Fiction occupied the third place at a 24.9%.

• The top two Juvenile & YA titles were Dog Man Mothering Heights by Dav Pilkey and They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.
• The top two Non-fiction titles were Atomic Habits by James Clear and Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown.
• The top two Fiction titles were The Midnight Library: A Novel by Matt Haig and State of Terror: A Novel by Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In the French-Canadian market, Juvenile & YA also had the biggest portion of sales thorough 2021, accounting for a 42% of the trade market. The best-selling title in this subject category was Astérix et le griffon by J-Y Ferri and D. Conrad.

Other highlights include

• 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act by Bob Joseph was the top selling title for Canadian-owned publishers in 2021.
• State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny was the top selling title by a Canadian contributor.
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, a title that was at the top of the Self-Help bestseller list from 2016 until 2020, lost its place in 2021 to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy.
• The top 10 paperback titles in the Fiction / Classics category include seven books by Frank Herbert.
• The top-selling hardcover and paperback books in the Fiction / Mystery & Detective category are both written by Canadian authors: The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (hardcover) and Find You First by Linwood Barclay (paperback).
• The top 10 paperback titles in the Young Adult category include five books by Leigh Bardugo.

(Via BookNet Canada)