The number of books sold in Quebec is holding steady, as is Quebec publishing. Foreign romance explodes in literature. Travel guides are recovering ground lost during the pandemic. And library acquisitions contribute greatly to book sales in Quebec. These are some of the features of the 2023 portrait that the Gaspard Report draws on the book market in Quebec.
If the bookstore book market is experiencing an increase in revenue of 2%, due largely to library purchases which are up 5.5%, retail sales are stagnating at +0, 1%, as noted from the outset in the annual balance sheet of the French-language securities bank management company.
But this increase in revenue is a sham: “in reality, the increase is the effect of inflation on the price of books, since the volume of copies sold is down slightly by -0.8 % over 2022,” we then read.
Quebec publishing, which last year experienced a slight return of the pendulum of the wave of pandemic love from readers, falling by 1% in 2022 after the increase of 18% in 2021, has stood still. last year. Foreign publishing, for its part, saw its sales increase by 4%.
The two heavyweight categories, according to Gaspard, children’s books and adult literature, continue to rise. Youth took 3.5%, literature 1.6%. Together, these categories represent 51% of the bookselling market.
The Bilan Gaspard notes, in literature, the 53% jump in romance, the good old sentimental literature. The best-selling books of the genre are signed by Anglo-Saxons, mainly Americans — Colleen Hoover, Danielle Steele, Shonda Rhime and Julia Quinn. Among them is Amélie Dubois, from here, in 6e position with The time when… I gave way to an elephant (Publishers united). And Sarah Rivens, Algerian whose writings were a star of Tik Tok, with Captive (HLab) whose volume 1, first born on Wattpad, is in 13e position.
Travel guides are back on track, gaining 31%. School books are increasingly purchased in bookstores, where sales have increased by 8%.
The top 10 best sellers clearly illustrate the reading interests of Quebecers. The last one sits there Asterixfollowed by Car guide. Comes next Qimmick (The Man) by Michel Jean, and Nutshinmit (Scholastic) by Melissa Mollen Dupuis, as well as Rose on the island(Watermelon), the most recent comic by Michel Rabagliati.
The very popular children’s author Élise Gravel is in 6e position with Alert: killer panties! (Scholastic). Follows Bescherelle (Hurtubise), May our joy remain by Kevin Lambert (Heliotrope), So fresh by Geneviève O’Gleman (L’Homme), and from the same publisher the biography of the herbalist-humorist Marthe Laverdière. Comics, children’s books, practical books, recipes, and a little bit of literature.
In the best-selling novels, behind those of Michel Jean and Kevin Lambert, we find Weapons of Light by Ken Follet (Laffont), Never again by Colleen Hoover (Hugo Poche) and again M. Jean, with Kukum (Free expression).
The Gaspard report mainly counts sales from independent and mass-market bookstores, and estimates that they represent 60% of French-speaking printed books in Quebec.