Online retailers make it cheap and easy for consumers to ship books right to their doors, so how is the Toronto book market surviving?

By Ayla Maxwell

Toronto is a bastion for the local book retailer, but it is not immune to the changes made by large corporations and their dominance in the industry. This has left both retail bookstores and independent publishers having to adapt quickly to changes not only in demand but also in distribution.

A 2024 report by Booknet Canada found that 54 per cent of book purchases in Canada were made online, and by 2014, Amazon accounted for 35 times as much online market share as Canadian competitor Chapters Indigo.

In a written statement to CanCulture, Andrew Wooldridge, a publisher at Orca Book Publishers, said the rise in online sales is in part due to readers in rural communities having easier access to titles they may not be able to find locally. However, in Toronto, industry insiders like publicist James Lindsay for Coach House Books say there is strong demand for in-person shopping in the city, especially as retailers like Indigo have begun to shift their focus away from the book market. He stated that demand is strong enough for the city to sustain book stores specializing in a single genre.

“I am seeing a huge return to in-person shopping and it’s easy to see really great bookstores in Toronto like Type Books, Flying Books, Queen Books doing really great work, getting customers in and hosting great events,” said Lindsay. “It is a very exciting time for publishing. The industry is obviously in turmoil, but there are still a lot of enthusiastic readers.”

Chris Krawczyk, owner and editor-in-chief at Little Ghosts Books, a local horror-focused bookstore & publisher, said that there has been a change in the market, stating that Toronto is spoiled with great options for local bookstores. Krawczyk said the downfall of the algorithm-centred online book retailers is that they lack nuance when giving recommendations. He explains that no two readers are alike and it is impossible to give a blanket recommendation based on a single book a reader has enjoyed.

“You could have the same book and learn something different about that reader and recommend a completely different book based on that,” said Krawczk. “Without that conversation, you aren’t going to get those recommendations.”

Krawczyk also notes the brand loyalty factor that happens with a smaller space, especially with an outlet like Little Ghosts which focuses on stocking Queer horror. Customers are enthusiastic and excited to pick up what’s new on the shelves.

Shelly Zev., manager at Hopeless Romantic Books, has heard from customers that they go out of their way to buy in-store rather than online out of a personal desire to support local small businesses.

Zev. also highlights many in-person features that their bookstore offers, like their “blind date with a book,” which is one of their most popular in-store events. Zev. also points to punch cards as a driving force keeping customers coming back time and time again. 

Lindsey says that local events and markets, like Toronto’s annual The Word On The Street festival, are among their best-selling days of the year, which is encouraging for book sellers. Lindsey also points to their annual Wayzgoose — a printing celebration that showcases their newest books — as a day with large sales numbers, demonstrating the demand for in-person shopping.

Lauren Perruzza is the Literary Press Group of Canada’s executive director. Much like the bond between publishers and the retail market in Toronto, Perruzza says local presses have managed to stave off foreign influence through strong relationships with Canadian authors, which she says are driven toward the independent stream.

“As multinational publishers consolidate, they take fewer risks, meaning that lesser-known or first-time authors depend on Canadian independent publishers to take chances on their books,” said Perruzza. “This means the majority of Canadian voices are nurtured and developed by independent businesses.”

Amazon’s methods and ethics are also disincentivizing a certain class of readers from engaging with their business. Perruzza explained that Amazon’s print-on-demand business model makes it extremely easy for AI-written books to exist on the platform, as well as dupes for already existing works, which she claims is a big issue in the current market.

Additionally, it’s important to point out that because Amazon’s storefront runs with an algorithm, popular, better-selling books will be pushed over more niche works. This type of algorithmic ranking is something that in-person book stores avoid altogether, making it much easier to find lesser-known authors.

“People are tired of the algorithms, the screens and the AI-generated readalikes,” says Krawczyk. The connections and interactions at bookstores are not things that can be replicated online.

With the majority of book sales facilitated online, publishers have had to adapt to these market changes, including the rise of e-books and audiobooks. A large source of income for Amazon is its e-book sales, especially with its e-reader, the Kindle. The number is disputed, but Amazon accounts for at least 67 per cent of all e-book sales. Because of the rise in sales for online books, many publishers have started incorporating them into their book roll-outs as well. Lindsay says that they are trying to participate in publishing more e-books and audiobooks and that their popularity has helped to address a void in accessibility concerns.

Although Toronto is a big city, it features a tight-knit community of book sellers and readers who support one another and champion the importance of the independent scene. This city has one of the most diverse and vibrant ecosystems of book selling and publishing; the citizens make it clear that the industry will not be going anywhere.