A reader tipped me off to an article in last Saturday’s Globe and Mail about potential danger ahead for Canadian booksellers and publishers, at least the ones that aren’t Indigo Books and Music. “In 2006,” according to a government survey on the nation’s book retail sector, “[Indigo] accounted for 44 per cent of domestic book sales—67 per cent if one excludes online and mail-order sales and sales at university and college bookstores.” And while annual sales are over $1.5 billion, they aren’t showing any signs of progress… not even the “stable with modest growth” business we’re doing down here in the States? Some suggest the problem might be one familiar to American industry observers, the dread “too many books being published” phenomenon.
On the other hand, you won’t hear the Canadians complaining about a crisis in reading any time soon: 81 percent of the nation bought at least one book in 2006, and the average citizen read not only that book but sixteen others.