This is the final preview of data from the Canadian Book Consumer survey, before the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2023 is released this spring.

In past posts, we’ve looked at the book buying and book borrowing habits of Canadians in 2023. With Canadian spending still in flux post-COVID, we’re going to be taking a deep dive into book prices in this blog post — how much Canadian book buyers are willing to pay, how Canadian book buyers are spending, and the value they attribute to books.

Some history about the Canadian Book Consumer survey before we get to the data: Active since 2012, it's our annual survey of Canadians and Canadian book consumers. In it, we survey Canadians quarterly about their book buying, borrowing, and other book-related behaviours. In 2023, we surveyed a total of 4,270 Canadians — 48% bought new books, 22% bought secondhand books, and 24% borrowed books from the library.

If you’re interested in the numbers behind the graphs below, you can find our source data here.

Prices are up for Canadians buying books new

In 2023, over half of Canadians buying new books spent between $1 and $49 on books in a given month (59%). Shown in the graph below, this percentage is down from 64% of new book buyers in 2022.

While 88% of Canadians who bought new books looked for sales, promotions, and coupons when they shop for books, most of them paid full price for the books they purchased in 2023, at 61%. This percentage is the highest it’s been in the last five years — up from 55% in 2022, 56% in 2021, and 55% in 2020 and 2019. The graph below shows this change in purchasing for Canadians over time.

Format by format, full price purchases were most likely to be paperback (67%) or hardcover (61%), rather than an ebook (45%) or audiobook (37%), shown in the graph below.

In 2023, Canadians buying new books spent an average of

$24.04 for a hardcover book
$17.72 for a paperback book
$12.61 for an ebook
$15.64 for an audiobook

The price paid by these Canadian book buyers has increased 14% for hardcovers, 16% for paperbacks, 21% for ebooks, and 11% for audiobooks since 2019, shown in the graph below.

Even with these increases in average prices, almost half of Canadians buying new books rated their value for money as excellent (49%), while 38% rated it as good, 12% as fair, and 1% as poor. Value for money varies format by format, shown in the graph below. Ebooks had the highest rating of value for money, with 59% rating them as excellent.

Just over half of Canadians buying new books in 2023 chose books within their budget (52%), another 42% had no limitations or restrictions on what or how many books they bought, and the rest were unsure (7%).

The majority of Canadians who bought new books compared book prices before making a purchase in 2023 (82%). And 19% of new book buyers compared the price in multiple places when deciding whether or not to buy or borrow books — this percentage has increased from 18% in 2022 and 17% in 2021 and 2020. In 2023, 14% of Canadians buying new books decided to buy a book because it on special offer or had a low price. Another 9% of Canadians bought the new book, rather than borrowed, because it was cheap.

Book prices were also a factor for Canadians who bought new when deciding where to make their purchase. In 2023, these book buyers chose to shop at one location over another because:

The book was at a good price/offer/promo — 29%
There was cheap/free delivery — 18%
They have a loyalty card/account/subscription — 12%

Overall, 69% of Canadians who bought a new book participated in book-related rewards or loyalty programs in 2023.

As stated elsewhere for all books, most book purchases by Canadians buying new books in 2023 were spontaneous to some degree (62%), with 38% being planned purchases:

26% had planned to buy a particular book, but not necessarily at that specific time
18% were not planning to buy a book at that specific time, it was an impulse purchase
16% were planning to buy a book at that specific time, but had not planned to buy a particular book

These percentages are relatively stable over time, with 36% of new book purchases in 2022 being planned, 39% in 2021, 37% in 2020, and 35% in 2019.

These new book buyers paid attention to book prices in other ways, too:

70% preferred to pay for a bundle of content more so than buying one single item
65% added books to their online cart to get free shipping
45% bought whichever book was least expensive, regardless of its format (print book, ebook, audiobook)

In 2023, 57% of new book buyers also bought books secondhand, and 45% also borrowed books from the library.

Canadians buying books secondhand spent more in 2023

In 2023, a significant 85% of Canadian secondhand book buyers compared book prices before making a purchase. And when deciding whether or not to buy or borrow books, 22% of secondhand book buyers compared book prices in multiple places in 2023. Almost half of secondhand book buyers chose to purchase books that were in their budget (48%), while the rest either had no limitations or restrictions on what or how many books they bought (36%), or were unsure (6%).

These secondhand book buyers had other price conscious habits, too:

89% looked for sales, promotions, and coupons when they shoped for books
70% preferred to pay for a bundle of content more so than buying one single item
66% added books to their online cart to get free shipping
53% bought whichever book was least expensive, regardless of its format (print book, ebook, audiobook)

The majority of Canadian secondhand book buyers also participated in book-related rewards and loyalty programs in 2023 (67%).

While most secondhand buyers spent between $1 and $49 on used book purchases in a given month in 2023 (53%), this percentage is down 31% from 2022, shown in the graph below. Instead, the percentage of secondhand book buyers spending more than $100 on used books in a given month increased 75% — up from 12% in 2022 to 21% in 2023.

Interestingly, 57% of secondhand buyers also bought new books and 24% borrowed books from the library.

Canadians borrow books from the library to avoid spending

The cost of books is also on the minds of Canadian book borrowers.

Some of the top reasons why book borrowers borrowed books from the library instead of buying them were related to book prices. In 2023:

55% borrowed books to save money
43% borrowed books because they didn’t want to spend money on it
22% borrowed books because it was expensive to buy
20% borrowed books because it’s a habit to borrow instead of buy

When deciding whether to buy or borrow a book, 39% of Canadian book borrowers checked to see if it was available at their local library in 2023. Another 17% compared the price of the book in multiple places — up from 11% in 2022, 11% in 2021, and 10% in 2020. Overall, 79% of Canadian book borrowers compared book prices in some capacity before making a purchase in 2023.

As book buyers, 46% of Canadian book borrowers bought new books in 2023 and 28% bought secondhand books.

Most borrowers who bought new books or secondhand books spent between $1 and $49 on their book purchases in a given month — 52% each. The graph below compares book spending for these two groups of book borrowers.

Overall, all Canadian book borrowers also had frugal book buying habits:

82% looked for sales, promotions, and coupons when they shopped for books
75% preferred to pay for a bundle of content more so than buying one single item
61% added books to their online cart to get free shipping
53% bought whichever book was least expensive, regardless of its format (print book, ebook, audiobook)

When buying books, more than half of book borrowers choose books within their budget (52%), while 42% had no limitations or restrictions on what or how many books they bought, and 7% were unsure.

And a significant 63% of book borrowers participated in book-related reward and loyalty programs — up from 52% in 2022, 55% in 2021, and 21% in 2020.

That’s a wrap on our preview of data from the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2023!

Stay tuned for the study’s upcoming release — and sign up for the research newsletter to be the first to know about all our upcoming research!