We’re back with another Subject spotlight and more quarterly data-driven insights into a specific corner of the Canadian book market.
Last time, we looked at the sales and library circulation of the Romance and Erotica subject categories during the second quarter of 2021. This time around, we’ll still be looking at the second quarter of the year but leaving true love far behind to explore the sales and library circulation of the True Crime subject category.
Canadian readers' fascination with True Crime is no mystery. In our 2017 podcast, we talked about the genre’s renaissance, the rise of Canadian True Crime books, and the growing increase of BISAC and Thema subject categories, modifiers, and keywords for True Crime.
True Crime has stayed top of mind for Canadian readers since then. More recently, in collecting data for our 2020 Canadian Book Consumer Study, we found that 8% of Canadian book buyers surveyed bought a True Crime book in the month prior. Most of these purchases were print books (75%) — 58% paperback and 17% hardcover. The final 25% of purchases were digital books — 21% ebooks and 4% audiobooks. While 30% of these True Crime purchases were planned, 70% of them were spontaneous to some degree — a number that is 7% higher than the total average for all the subject categories.
Just how irresistible has this subject category been for Canadians in 2021? For this analysis, we’re looking at the sales and library circulation of Non-Fiction/ True Crime print books for the second quarter of 2021, pulled from our SalesData and LibraryData services.
Without further ado, let’s get to the data!
Buying True Crime
Overall, sales of True Crime titles in the second quarter of 2021 were up 24% over the same period in 2020. April 2021 sales soared 58% over the 2020 figure, followed by a dip in May 2021, seen in the graph below. Sales increased again by June, although June 2021 sales ended up 4% behind 2020. That being said, sales of True Crime titles are trending up by the end of the second quarter at an increase of 20% from April 2021 to June 2021.
Borrowing True Crime
Comparing 2021 to 2020, loans and renewals of the True Crime subject category are up 763% and 2,042% respectively over the entire quarter. But these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt — the majority of Canadian libraries were closed from April to June 2020 due to pandemic restrictions.
Looking only at 2021, library circulation of True Crime has trended downwards over the second quarter overall. As seen in the graph below, loans and renewals are down 16% and 28% respectively from April to June 2021, but end the quarter trending upwards after a dip in library circulation in May.
Reading True Crime
Using the sales and library circulation from April to June 2021, we can see that these are the top 10 True Crime titles that Canadians are reading:
Murder Thy Neighbor by James Patterson
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid 🍁
Murder on the Inside by Catherine Fogarty 🍁
If You Tell by Gregg Olsen
Blood in the Water by Silver Donald Cameron 🍁
Don't Call It a Cult by Sarah Berman 🍁
Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
With True Crime trending up in stores and in the library by the end of the second quarter of 2021, it looks like Canadian readers' interest in the subject category isn’t dying off anytime soon!
Stay tuned for future instalments of this series or sign up to our eNews for more digestible data on the Canadian book market.
Until next time!
A deep dive into book prices in Canada from our upcoming Canadian Book Consumer Study 2023.