Despite constant rumours of its impending demise, the book industry in Canada is not dead.
According to data released by Statistics Canada last week, the country’s book industry turned an operating profit of $261 million in 2009 (most recent statistics available), up from $237 million in 2007 — in either case, that’s a profit margin of about 11 per cent. The revenues from the industry went up from $2.16 billion in 2007 to $2.19 billion in 2009.
By province, the largest industries by far are located in Ontario and Quebec: Ontario’s operating revenue was $1.36 billion in 2009, while Quebec’s was $699 million. Their closest competitor was B.C. at $71.2 million in revenue. And while Ontario & Quebec’s revenues have climbed since 2008, B.C.’s have dropped — in 2008, this province made $78.9 million in sales.
Still, the big three still managed to turn profits from 2007-2009. In the graph below, we show the profit margins made by the book publishing industry for the three biggest provinces. So next time people tell you the book is dead, show them this graph.
