[PREVIEW] The Canadian Book Market 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 7 9 12 14 16

Introduction Definitions Consumer Research French Canadian Market Total Market Canadian-Owned Publishers

18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36

Fiction

38 92 92 40 92 42 44 46 48 92 50 52 92 93 54 56 58 60 93 62 64 93 66 93 93 93 93 94 94 94 68 94 94

Non-Fiction

Fantasy General Historical Literary Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction Thrillers Women

Antiques & Collectibles Architecture Art Bibles Biography & Autobiography Body, Mind & Spirit Business & Economics Comics & Graphic Novels Computers Cooking Crafts & Hobbies Design Drama Education Family & Relationships Foreign Language Study Games Gardening Health & Fitness History House & Home Humour Language Arts & Disciplines Law Literary Collections Literary Criticism Mathematics Medical Music Nature Performing Arts Pets

94 94 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 95 95 95 88 90

Philosophy Photography Poetry Political Science Psychology Reference Religion Science Self-Help Social Science Sports & Recreation Study Aids Technology & Engineering Transportation Travel True Crime

96 98 100

Young Adult (YA)

102 104 106

Juvenile

Young Adult Fiction Young Adult Non-Fiction

Juvenile Fiction Juvenile Non-Fiction

BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

4

Introduction Welcome to the 2020 edition of The Canadian Book Market, compiled by BookNet Canada.

BookNet Canada is a non-profit organization that develops technology, standards, and education to serve the Canadian book industry. Founded in 2002 to address systemic challenges in the industry, BookNet Canada supports publishing companies, booksellers, wholesalers, distributors, sales agents, industry associations, literary agents, media, and libraries across the country.

BookNet Canada’s services and research help companies promote and sell books, streamline workflows, and analyze and adapt to a rapidly changing market. BookNet Canada sets technology standards and educates organizations about how to apply them, performs market research, and tracks 85% of all Canadian English-language print trade book sales through BNC SalesData.

Industry-led and partially funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, BookNet Canada has become, as The Globe and Mail puts it, “the book industry’s supply-chain nerve centre.”

BookNet Canada produces this annual report as part of our commitment to provide members of the Canadian book supply chain with the information they need to innovate and compete in today’s market. Annual editions of The Canadian Book Market are comprehensive guides to the Canadian print market. There is high-level quantitative analysis for more than 30 categories, along with comparative data from the prior year for quick and easy year-over-year analysis. The focus is on English-language print trade book sales at Canadian retailers; other markets, such as direct institutional sales to schools or college/university textbook sales are not included.

What’s included in The Canadian Book Market (CBM): Top-level consumer data from BookNet’s Canadian Book Consumer survey panel:

• Top 10 ways that buyers became aware of the book they bought and the top 10 reasons they decided to

purchase that book

• Purchases by channel in 2019 and 2020

• Top 10 reasons buyers chose to buy their book where they did

• Purchases by format in 2019 and 2020

• Average price paid by buyers, perceived value, and whether buyers paid full price for their books by format French Canadian trade book market sales data from the Société de gestion de la Banque de titres de langue française (BTLF):

• Top-level data: total value, volume, and a market breakdown by subject • Top-selling French-language titles in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Juvenile & YA

English Canadian trade book market sales data by subject from BNC SalesData:

• Top-level data: total value, volume, percent change, and subject share of the total market, of comparable stores, and all stores • Unit sales by week for comparable stores • Weekly sales analysis: value and volume for median and average weeks, as well as for best and slowest weeks • Market shares by volume for the top 10 ranked publishers and distributors • Top-selling titles by format (hardcover and paperback) • Median and average pricing by format • Unit sales distribution by format

BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

5

More about SalesData and included information: As of 2020, there were 2,850 store locations reporting physical book sales to BNC SalesData — chain bookstores, independent bookstores, newsstands, general retailers, online retailers, and library wholesalers. Based on publisher feedback, we estimate that BNC SalesData represents 85% of book industry sales — English-language print trade book sales; other markets, such as direct institutional sales to schools or college/university textbook sales are not included.

Since the last edition, we’ve added retailers to the comparable stores data — an increase of 5-6%. Comparable stores are a fixed group of retailers that have reported sales consistently since 2019. When we aggregate their sales we provide a more accurate view of the year-over-year market and individual category fluctuations that is not skewed by the addition of any new reporting retailers. In 2020, the comparable stores (approximately 2,000 retailers) represent about 81% of the total market in 2020. Totals for comparable stores do not reflect totals for the whole market.

Data is drawn from the bibliographic information available at the time of production. Data, such as BISAC subject codes, contributor, and list price, that was not reported to R.R. Bowker and BNC SalesData is excluded. In those cases you will see “N/A” which indicates that bibliographic information was not supplied.

Different formats of the same book may appear under different subject categories. For example, publisher data may classify the hardcover edition as a Mystery and the mass-market edition as a Thriller.

Inside CBM:

• Where a publisher or distributor is listed more than once (e.g., HarperCollins Publishers and HarperCollins Canada), the two listings often represent divisions from different countries (in this case, the US and Canada).

• All additional publishers and distributors not ranked in the top 10 are combined in the “Other” category.

Time period: Data for this edition of CBM compares data from 2020 with 2019, or looks only at 2020 data (market share graphs and top-selling titles).

The week-ending dates for 2019 and 2020 are:

2019

2020

First week

January 6, 2019

January 5, 2020

Last week

December 29, 2019

January 3, 2021

There were 52 weeks in 2019 and 53 weeks in 2020.

COVID-19 retail closures were from the week-ending March 15, 2020 to the week-ending May 24, 2020.

Many thanks: I would be remiss not to extend my thanks to the BookNet team for numerous hours spent extracting data, compiling numbers, reviewing graphs, and finally putting it all together in a cohesive manner. I would also like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Canada Book Fund, which made this publication possible.

Sincerely, Noah Genner President & CEO, BookNet Canada BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

6

Definitions All Stores: All retailers that have reported sales to BNC SalesData.

Aggregate: Data combined from one or multiple stores.

Average: A sum of all values in a group divided by the number of values in that group.

Bibliographic information: All descriptive information on titles (e.g., author, title, publisher, subject) that publishers report to R.R. Bowker, BookNet’s primary bibliographic data provider.

Bind. / Binding Types: Different format categories for how books are physically produced.

• Hardcover books:

o HT = Hardcover Trade

• Paperback books:

o TP = Trade Paperback

o MM = Mass Market

o TK = US-Tall Rack

o DP = Digest Paperback BISAC subject codes: Are essentially genre codes. These codes are intended to guide shelving, categorization, merchandising, and marketing efforts.

Canadian-owned publishers: Publishers with their main operational office located in Canada.

Category Share of Total Market: A subject’s sales expressed as a percentage of the market as a whole.

Comparable Stores: Aggregated sales from a fixed group of retailers that have reported sales consistently since 2019.

This allows for a more accurate view of the year-over-year market and individual category fluctuations or the addition of new reporting retailers.

Contributor: A book’s author, editor, translator, and/or illustrator.

Distributor: A company responsible for distribution (sales, order fulfillment, warehousing) of books to retailers and other sales channels.

Fiction: Literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people.

Format information: Books’ binding type that publishers report to R.R. Bowker, BookNet’s primary bibliographic data provider.

• All Paper includes Mass Market, Trade Paper, and Other Paper

• Other Paper includes Digest Paperback and US-Tall Rack Paperback

• All Hardcover includes Hardcover Trade

• Other includes Audio, Bath Book, Blank Book, Board Book, Calendar, Ebook, Map, Rag Book, Analog Game,

Card, Kit, Mixed Media Product, Novelty Book, Picture Book, POS Materials, Sheet Music, Toy, Other Book

Format, Other Media, Other Merchandise, Other Printed Materials ISBN: (International Standard Book Number) is a system of numerical identification for books and other published works. Each published work is assigned a unique number.

BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

7

Definitions ISBNs Reported: The number of ISBNs sold, on hand, or on order.

Juvenile: BISAC subject codes intended for literature targeted to those aged 0 through 11 or in preschool through grade 6.

List Price: The price a publisher sets for a book. List price is used to calculate value, median pricing, and average pricing.

Median: When all data is arranged in a series from smallest to largest, the median is the value in the middle.

N/A: Information is not available.

Non-Fiction: Poetry or prose writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people, such as biography or history.

Percent Change: Difference in sales within specified category between 2020 and 2019 as a percentage. Calculated using volume.

Pricing information: The cost of the book, in Canadian currency, that publishers report to R.R. Bowker, BookNet’s primary bibliographic data provider. Median and average prices are calculated using list prices.

Publisher: A company responsible for preparing and issuing books.

Subject: BNC SalesData uses BISAC subject codes to classify books. (Filtering out records without bibliographic data filters out non-book items such as bookmarks and coffee cups.)

Total Market: The aggregate total of all books sold that have both an ISBN and a bibliographic record, as reported to and tracked in BNC SalesData.

Value: The total sum of dollars (by list price) of units sold, calculated using the list price multiplied by the number of units sold.

Volume: The total sum of units sold.

Young Adult: BISAC subject codes intended for literature targeted to those aged 12 through 18 or in grades 7 through 12.

BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

8

Subject Analysis | Non-Fiction | Comparable Stores

foreign language All Stores

Value

Volume

Value

Volume

ISBNs Reported

ISBNs with Sales

$902,607,691

43,123,143

$1,102,747,025

53,052,463

843,785

627,215

Foreign Language Study 2020

$1,831,885

75,239

$2,058,895

87,532

5,854

3,938

Foreign Language Study 2019

$3,061,857

130,782

$3,440,607

148,992

5,609

4,534

-40.2%

-42.5%

-40.2%

-41.3%

4.4%

-13.1%

0.2%

0.2%

0.2%

0.2%

0.7%

0.6%

Total Market 2020

Percent Change Category Share of Total Market

FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY represents

UNIT SALES by week - COMPARABLE STORES Volume 2019

Volume 2020

Median 2020

4,500

0.2%

4,000

of all unit sales

3,500

Weekly sales analysis

3,000

Value

Volume

2020

2,500

2,000

1,500

Median Week

$41,584

1,756

Average Week

$38,847

1,651

Best Week

$72,413

2,990

Slowest Week

$13,907

555

Median Week

$62,864

2,660

1,000

2019

500

Average Week Best Week

05 12 19 26 02 09 16 23 01 08 15 22 29 05 12 19 26 03 10 17 24 31 07 14 21 28 05 12 19 26 02 09 16 23 30 06 13 20 27 04 11 18 25 01 08 15 22 29 06 13 20 27 03

0

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Publisher Market Share - VOLUME SOLD 2019

Oct

Nov

$66,166

2,865

$143,308

5,049

$49,665

2,253

Slowest Week

Dec Jan

Distributor Market Share - VOLUME SOLD

2020

2019

McGraw-Hill Education

McGraw-Hill Education

Tuttle Publishing

Penguin Random House Canada

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Simon & Schuster Canada

Pocket Books*

Publishers Group Canada

Dorling Kindersley Publishing

HarperCollins Canada

Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press

Lonely Planet Publications

Raincoast Book Distribution

John Wiley & Sons Canada

Hachette Book Group

Diversified Publishing

John Wiley & Sons Canada

Éditions Hurtubise H M H

Éditions Hurtubise H M H*

2020

Other

Other 0 *Not present in the 2019 top 10

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

*Not present in the 2019 top 10

BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

58

foreign language study

Subject Analysis | NON-FICTION | Top 10 Hardcover Title

Contributor

ISBN

Publisher

Bind.

Bescherelle

Contant, Chantal

9782896475872

Éditions Hurtubise H M H Limitée

HT

List Price $16.95

Living Language French, Complete Edition: Beginner Through Advanced Course, Including 3 Coursebooks, 9 Audio CDs, and Free Online Learning

Living Language

9780307478436

Diversified Publishing

HT

$57.00

Living Language French, Essential Edition: Beginner Course, Including Coursebook, 3 Audio CDs, and Free Online Learning

Living Language

9780307478429

Diversified Publishing

HT

$25.99

Les Petits Experts

Tchou, Françoise; Tranquille, Pierrette

9782891445931

Éditions Marcel Didier

HT

$12.95

Les Petits Experts

Tchou, Françoise; Tranquille, Pierrette

9782891445924

Éditions Marcel Didier

HT

$12.95

Le Français Pas à Pas

Bélisle, Anne-Marie; Tranquille, Pierrette; Tchou, Françoise

9782891445740

Éditions Marcel Didier

HT

$12.95

Les Petits Experts

Tchou, Françoise; Tranquille, Pierrette

9782891445917

Éditions Marcel Didier

HT

$12.95

Petit Guide de Conjugaison

Bescherelle, M.; Contant, Chantal; Duchesneau, Hélène

9782896472796

Éditions Hurtubise H M H Limitée

HT

$14.95

Complete Russian

Living Language Staff

9781400024223

Diversified Publishing

HT

$34.00

Les Petits Experts

Tchou, Françoise; Tranquille, Pierrette

9782891445948

Éditions Marcel Didier

HT

$12.95

Title

Contributor

ISBN

Publisher

Bind.

All New Larousse's French-English English-French Dictionary

Larousse Staff

9780671002770

Pocket Books

MM

Japanese from Zero! 1: Proven Techniques to Learn Japanese for Students and Professionals

Trombley, George; Takenaka, Yukari

9780976998129

Learn From Zero

TP

$29.40

Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French Grammar, Premium Third Edition

Heminway, Annie

9781259642371

McGraw-Hill Education

TP

$20.95

Collins First Time French Dictionary

Collins Dictionaries

9780007955084

HarperCollins Publishers Limited

TP

$16.99

Practice Makes Perfect: Basic French, Premium Second Edition

Kurbegov, Eliane

9781259836398

McGraw-Hill Education

TP

$20.95

Collins Spanish Phrasebook and Dictionary Gem Edition: Essential Phrases and Words in a Mini, Travel-Sized Format (Collins Gem)

Collins Dictionaries

9780008135942

HarperCollins Publishers Limited

TP

$7.99

Easy Learning French Grammar and Practice: Trusted Support for Learning (Collins Easy Learning)

Collins Dictionaries

9780008141639

HarperCollins Publishers Limited

TP

$18.99

Easy French Step-By-Step

Rochester, Myrna Bell

9780071453875

McGraw-Hill Education

TP

$18.95

Easy Spanish Step-By-Step

Bregstein, Barbara

9780071463386

McGraw-Hill Education

TP

$13.95

Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French All-In-One, Premium Second Edition

Heminway, Annie

9781260121032

McGraw-Hill Education

TP

$48.95

Top 10 PAPERBACK

Median and Average Pricing

Mass Market Trade Paper Hardcover Trade

Average List Price

2020

2019

2020

2019

$21.50

$19.99

$25.83

$24.73

All Paper Mass Market Trade Paper

2020

2019

81.6%

83.3%

6.3%

2.9%

75.3%

80.4%

$9.99

$9.99

$9.93

$9.67

$20.95

$19.50

$24.00

$22.66

Other Paper

N/A

N/A

$36.52

All Hardcover

9.3%

7.9%

Other

9.1%

8.8%

$25.99

$9.99

Format Distribution

Median List Price

All Formats

List Price

$26.99

$37.24

BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

59

Copyright © 2021 BookNet Canada. All rights reserved.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for this project.

BNC Research | The Canadian Book Market 2020

108