Book Publishing Statistics:

New titles released by Canada’s publishers increased steadily between 1991 and 1997, with 9,152 new titles published in 1991-92 and 11,400 in 1996-97. During this same period, the total number of books in print increased from 62,115 to 87,949. With respect to total revenue, Canadian publishers experienced steady growth, with revenues rising from $1.5 billion in

1991-92 to nearly $2 billion in 1996-97.

The fastest growing book retailer in Canada in 1999, however, was not Chapters, but Amazon [a U.S.-based electronic commerce Web site]. Yet Amazon does not collect GST, does not employ one person in Canada, does not pay a dollar of taxes in Canada, and does not pay Canadian agencies for their books sold to Canadian consumers.

Many studies have been done over the past ten years on the size of the Canadian consumer book industry. In no study has the market size been shown to be less than $1.3 billion, and that was back in 1990. We believe that the Canadian consumer book market in 1999 was somewhere between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion.

(Source: Government Report; The Challenge of Change: A Consideration of the Canadian Book Industry http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/heri01-e.html February 10, 2003)

Publishing Industry in the US generates approximately 19 billion dollars annually. Approximately 63,000 titles published each year with 1.35 million titles and over 700,000 books in print.

The following data is recent statistics from the Association of American Publishers.

March 1, 2002. New York, NY: US book sales totaled $25,356,500,000 billion in 2001, a meager 0.1 percent increase over 2000, according to figures just released by the Association of American Publishers. Overall, trade sales dropped 2.6 percent with sales totaling $6.37 billion. Adult trade hardbound sales dropped 2.2 percent ($2.63 billion) while paperbound sales rose a slight 1.4 percent ($1.93 billion). Juvenile hardbound experienced the largest drop in the trade category, falling 22.7 percent in 2001, ($928.6 million), however, juvenile paperbound sales exhibited the exact opposite trend: sales rose 17.9 percent ($887.6 million).

Elhi sales were up 7.8 percent for the year ($4.18 billion), followed closely by higher education sales which rose 7.2 percent ($3.47 billion). Standardized test sales continued their steady rise, up 6.8 percent with sales of $250.1 million in 2001. Professional and scholarly books experienced a dramatic drop in sales from last year, with sales falling 7.6 percent in 2001 ($4.74 billion). University press sales showed a small increase over last year, up 1.5 percent with sales of $408.2 million. Sales of mail order publications fell 18 percent ($353.9 million), a significant drop from 2000. On the plus side, sales of religious publications were up 4.7 percent ($1.31 billion), some of which may be attributable to the increased interest in religious works following 9-11.

Book clubs (up 3.3 percent, with sales of $1.33 billion) and subscription reference (up 1.3 percent, with sales of $819.4 million) showed moderate increases for 2001. Mass market paperback sales dropped a slight .8 percent with, sales totaling $1.55 billion. The sales figures in this preliminary release are prepared by the Statistical Service Center, using essentially the same statistical procedures used to prepare Table S1 of the Industry Statistics Report.

(Source: Association of American Publishers http://www.publishers.org/industry/index.cfm February 9, 2003)

US Book production totals; 

1999 = 119,357 (final)  

2000 = 122,108 (final)

2001 = 114,487 (preliminary)

(Source: American Book Production, 1999-2001 compiled by Andrew Grabois, Senior Director of Publisher Relations for R.R. Bowker BookWire™ http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/americanbookproduction.htm)

Canadian Book production totals; 

1999 = 51,224 (final)  

2000 = 53,077 (final)

2001 = 43,536 (preliminary)

(Source: American Book Production, 1999-2001 compiled by Andrew Grabois, Senior Director of Publisher Relations for R.R. Bowker BookWire™ http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/canadianbookproduction.htm)