Readers, local stores profit as book sales rise in Quebec

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood is both a bookstore and a publisher of graphic novels.

Shoppers who pass through its doors are often searching for their next great read.

Recently, owner Tom Devlin says he’s noticed that people have started taking shopping locally seriously.

“People will order books from us, and it might take a week or two weeks to get that book, but they’ll come here and order it,” said the executive editor.

According to data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec, book sales are up in Quebec, reaching a high in 2024 - up more than four per cent from the previous year.

Numbers are also at their highest since 2010.

“I think it’s always great when we’re seeing more people buying and reading books,” said Rebecca West, executive director of the Association of English Language Publishers of Quebec. “That’s always encouraging.”

She points out that the statistics do not include some chains, like Amazon, and the numbers reflect all sales regardless of language.

She notes that English book sales in Quebec have dropped slightly in recent years.

“On the French language side, over 50 per cent of book sales are of Quebec-owned presses,” said West. “On the English language side, it’s a much smaller percentage, where around five per cent of book sales in Canada are of Canadian-owned publishers.”

Nevertheless, she says she feels privileged to live in a province with a strong book culture, as well as laws that support Quebec book sales.

West says she’s also seeing Canadian sovereignty being expressed in how and where readers choose to spend their dollars.

“A kind of, you know, elbows-out kind of sentiment,” she mused. “That is trickling down into support for these great shops like Drawn & Quarterly. I think that’s a great thing.”

Devlin agrees, saying it’s been a great time to have a small business.

“It’s really gratifying to see that people still care about books and bookstores. In some ways, it feels like more than ever,” he said. “That’s really kind of amazing.”