Bestselling Canadian books in 2020

As you might know, Canada is the guest of honour of this year’s — and next year’s — edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2020. Publishers and participants are showcasing the best of Canada and its book industry. We wanted to make our contribution by sharing with the public the 10 best-selling print books by Canadian authors in 2020 (overall and by subject category). These rankings are based on the data sent to our national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language trade book market, BNC SalesData. For these lists, we only used data from January 1 to September 26, 2020.

Scroll down to find out the rankings as well as a text version of the poster.

These are the 10 best-selling print books by Canadian authors in 2020 (overall and by subject category).
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Overall

1. From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

2. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Sheila McGraw

3. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

4. The Skin We're In by Desmond Cole

5. All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

6. The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham

7. Fraiche Food, Full Hearts by Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer

8. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

9. The End of Her by Shari Lapena

10. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson

For the Fiction category

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

2. All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

3. The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham

4. The End of Her by Shari Lapena

5. Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey

6. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

7. Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

8. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

9. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

10. The Woman Before Wallis by Bryn Turnbull

For the Non-Fiction category

1. From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

2. The Skin We're In by Desmond Cole

3. Fraiche Food, Full Hearts by Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer

4. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

5. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Pearson

6. The Answer Is ... by Alex Trebek

7. 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act by Bob Joseph

8. The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Andela Liddon

9. Successful Aging by Daniel J. Levitin

10. Mandy's Gourmet Salads by Mandy Wolfe, Rebecca Wolfe, and Meredith Erickson

For the Juvenile category

1. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Sheila McGraw

2. School Rules! by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Dave Whamond

3. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Michael Martchenko

4. Pyjama Day! by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Michael Martchenko

5. Terry Fox and Me by Mary Beth Leatherdale; illustrated by Milan Pavlovic

6. Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Hélène Desputeaux

7. Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Michael Martchenko

8. Sharon, Lois and Bram's Skinnamarink by Sharon Hampson; Lois Lillienstein; Bram Morrison; illustrated by Qin Leng

9. Andrew's Loose Tooth by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Michael Martchenko

10. Moose! by Robert Munsch; illustrated by Michael Martchenko

These great lists that make us feel proud of the wide offerings of Canadian literature are only possible thanks to publishers that identify Canadian authors in their data. Doing this is very important to the industry as a whole, but you don’t have to take my word for it, Noah Genner, BookNet Canada’s President & CEO wrote an excellent blog post about the whys and hows of identifying Canadian contributors in publisher’s data. If you’re ready to jump right into the most technical bits, I’d encourage you to review this document created by my BookNet colleagues in which they thoroughly explore Canadian authorship as it relates to book data.