Eleven years later, the “I Buy a Quebec Book” day has once again broken all records. In 2024, sales of local fiction increased 11-fold compared to sales on previous days. This year, the rush was towards Quebec literature, whose sales were 17 times higher than usual. Sales of comics increased 7-fold and sales of children’s books increased 6-fold.
82% of all fiction books sold in independent bookstores were books from Quebec publishers. In total, 6,354 fiction titles from Quebec publishers had at least one sale, and 9,479 Quebec titles, all genres combined.
Among these books, nearly 20% were new releases and 80% were back-order books, i.e. from previous years, according to the report from the Banque de titres de langue française (BTLF), which samples around 60% of the market, but not the Renaud-Bray and Archambault bookstores.
The BTLF has however specified to the Duty that sales on Mondays preceding August 12 were lower this year. It is therefore difficult with the current calculations, which compare the gap caused by August 12 with previous Mondays, to compare the different August 12s with each other.
A day of awards
At the top of the literature charts: Asbestos (La Peuplade), by Sébastien Dulude, whose distribution had been accelerated by a few days in Quebec to benefit from the mild effect of August 12.
Suit The Ink Boy (Hurtubise), by Marie-Christine Chartier. On the third step of the podium, we find for a second consecutive year What I know about you (Alto), Eric Chacour.
The Robert-Cliche Prize, unveiled at the beginning of August, is also one of the recurring winners of August 12. This year, Escalei Street (VLB) by Laura Nicolae, benefits from it. May our joy remain (Heliotrope) by Kevin Lambert, winner of the 2023 Prix Goncourt, comes in fifth place.
Duplessis Street(Lux), by Jean-Philippe Pleau, is first in the Others category. Next The Provocation Society (Lux), by Dahlia Namian, and the autobiography of Yves P. Pelletier, Are you following me?
The impact of August 12 is particularly felt in bookstores in greater Quebec, which recorded a 1,352% increase in their sales of Quebec books compared to previous Mondays. This increase is 1,038% in Montreal and 806% in other regions of the province.
Make August 12th different
Every time August 12 returns, certain authors shine, sometimes the same ones from year to year. “There is an inevitable hierarchy of titles and names of authors that come back more frequently,” analyzes Michel Lacroix, sociologist of literature, “which goes against the grain of the desire for horizontality, for “literary camaraderie,” for attention to more discreet works, which is very strong in the Quebec literary milieu… while it is perhaps one of the least hierarchical in the world.”
This year, for the first time, various players in the book industry have expressed reservations, criticisms, or launched an invitation to think differently about August 12.
For example, author Nicholas Dawson has distanced himself from all the reading lists that spring up on social media. The day, Dawson says, ends up “feeling like a popularity contest and […] can quickly feed negative affects (feeling of imposture, of injustice, of being invisible, of not reading enough, of not being enough coolnot having enough money or time, etc.) for the authors.
Other authors, such as Pascale Cormier, have criticized the injunction to buy, pointing out that some people have little means, and that the day could also include borrowing books from the library, buying second-hand books, or… stealing a Quebec book, as suggested by the erotomaniac anarchist Anne Archet.
Still others suggested buying a Quebec book by a racialized author, or turning to less popular genres, such as poetry or theater.
For Michel Lacroix, it is normal that authors end up reacting, “to the concentration of the gaze in a single day, to the phenomenon of lists and the staging of one’s participation in the day.”
“When you read and buy Quebec books all year long — especially when it’s at the heart of your work (as an author, critic, teacher) — it becomes almost absurd to isolate books purchased on August 12 for an Instagram or Facebook post, or even to hold back in the days or weeks before, to keep something to buy and display. [cette journée-là]. »
However, notes Mr. Lacroix, also the author of Cecile and Marx (Varia), for readers, the event provokes a “guignolée” effect, “collective support for a “cause”, which has a direct consequence: everyone comes together, readers interested in Quebec books, authors, enthusiastic booksellers, around local books, which gives rise to discussions” and repositions the bookstore as a place for exchanges and entertainment.
“It’s a success for booksellers and the Quebec literary community. There has been a very clear change, which has generated enthusiasm and purchases of many more Quebec books, more diversified, both in titles and authors, in a “dead” season. It allows Quebec literature to stand out, whereas in the rest of the year, the Quebec, French and “international” releases are intermingled, and where the emphasis is placed on certain flagship titles, rather than on the whole.”
August 12, according to him, is “without doubt one of the rare cases of ‘defense of Quebec literature and culture’ which bears witness to a popular movement and has not been politicized or instrumentalized” over time.