Bestselling books since SalesData started tracking

BookNet turned 20 this year and as part of our anniversary celebrations, we thought we’d bring you a list of the print books that have sold the most in the Canadian market since our SalesData tool started tracking.

So cast your mind back, if you can, to October 17, 2005. The week the first sales started trickling in to SalesData — which collects weekly point-of-sales data from roughly 85% of the Canadian trade print book market.

Further orient yourself in time by taking a look at the top five books that sold in Canada that week (Oct. 17-23, 2005):

1. A Series of Unfortunate Events #12: the Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket, illus. by Brett Helquist and Michael Kupperman

2. London Bridges by James Patterson

3. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

4. Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan

5. Guinness World Records 2006 by the Guinness World Records Editors

It’s been a long journey since then. The first version of SalesData was replaced by version two in 2009 and version three came along in 2015. And throughout, we’ve steadily improved our features, reports, and data insights to better serve the book industry.

Now that we’ve tooted our own horn, let’s get right to the data you’ve come for: the top 10 lists and then a breakdown of some of the notable stats from the top 100 titles.

These are the bestselling print books in the Canadian market since @BookNet_Canada's #SalesData service started tracking.
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Top 10 Fiction titles

1. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

3. Fifty Shades Darker by E. L. James

4. Fifty Shades Freed by E. L. James

5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

6. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

7. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

8. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

9. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill 🍁

10. The Shack by William P. Young

Top 10 Non-Fiction titles

1. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

2. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

3. A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

4. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

5. Becoming by Michelle Obama

6. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

7. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

8. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

9. Educated by Tara Westover

10. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Top 10 Juvenile & Young Adult titles

1. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch,🍁 illus. by Sheila McGraw

2. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

3. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

4. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

5. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

6. Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss

7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

9. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script) by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany

10. Goodnight Moon Board Book by Margaret Wise Brown, illus. by Clement Hurd

Top 10 titles by Canadian contributors

1. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch,🍁 illus. by Sheila McGraw

2. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill 🍁

3. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson 🍁

4. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda 🍁

5. The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon 🍁

6. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield 🍁

7. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur 🍁

8. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch,🍁 illus. by Michael Martchenko 🍁

9. The Looneyspoons Collection by Janet Podleski🍁 and Greta Podleski 🍁

10. Yum and Yummer by Greta Podleski 🍁

Notable facts from the top 100

We pulled the top 100 print book ISBNs that have sold in the Canadian trade market since SalesData launched (October 17, 2005). Here are some notable stats for the list.

• If we look at the years that these ISBNs were published, 2010 was the most popular with 12 of the top 100 published that year. 2012 and 2007 were the next most popular with 9 titles for each year.

• The oldest book in the top 100 was from 1957 — Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (9780394800790).

• The most recent book in the top 100 was 2020’s A Promised Land by Barak Obama (9781524763169).

• In terms of price, the most common price point was $16.95 — seven books in the top 100 were listed at that price point. The average price was $22.92 which was close to the median price, $22.97.

• The category breakdown for the top 100 titles shook out this way:

  • 31 of the top 100 were Non-Fiction titles

  • 28 were Juvenile Fiction titles

  • 27 were Fiction

  • 11 were Young Adult Fiction

  • 2 were Poetry

  • 1 was Juvenile Non-Fiction

• The most popular subjects within the categories were Biography & Autobiography, Fiction / General, and Juvenile Fiction / Humorous Stories all three of which had 10 of the 100 top titles each

• The authors who showed up on the list the most were:

  • Jeff Kinney who wrote 7 titles on the list;

  • Stephanie Meyer penned 5; and

  • with 4 titles each: E. L. James and Suzanne Collins.

• Canadian contributors made up 14 titles on the list.

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