Print Still Rules in Canada

Earlier this week, a CBC report announced that a non-profit industry group called BookNet Canada conducted several consumer surveys during the first half of this year, and made some interesting discoveries regarding print and ebook sales in Canada.

Results show that ebook sales now represent 16.3% of total book sales, which is a huge surge in digital sales over the last two or three years. The study also showed that while book sales overall have remained fairly steady over the years, consumers are buying fewer books through traditional bookstores. In fact, 30% of book sales now come from big box stores and 27.5% came from online sources.

Compared with the United States, however, print sales are more prevalent here than in the U.S. with paperbacks making up 56.7% of the market and hard covers 23.6% Only 7% of book buyers, however, purchase both print and ebooks. I found this stat strange because many people I know buy both. According to the article, one reason Canada sells more print titles than the U.S. is because Canada entered the ebook market later than the U.S., and there are fewer Canadian ebook retailers than south of the border.

Generally speaking, consumers are paying less for books than they used to. This could be because of big box store discounts and that ebooks are generally lowered priced anyway. It will be interesting to see how quickly and how far the rise in ebook sales surges before it levels off. You can find more interesting info at http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/10/10/ebook-sales-cda.html