Subject spotlight: Historical Fiction

Welcome back to Subject spotlight, the blog series where we give you quarterly data-driven insights into a specific corner of the Canadian book market. In our previous post, we shared sales and library circulation data for the Fiction / True Crime BISAC subject. This time, we’re diving into the world of historical fiction.

First, a quick highlight from the Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2023. In this study, we discovered that Historical Fiction was the fourth most popular Adult Fiction subject among Canadian print book readers in 2023 (30%), and the fifth most popular among ebook (27%) and audiobook (30%) readers.

How did Historical Fiction titles perform during the fourth quarter of 2024? We find out with the help of our SalesData and LibraryData services!

Buying Fiction / Historical

As shown in the graph below, year-over-year sales of Historical titles were up by 6% in October. However, sales decreased by 42% in November and 16% in December.

In 2023, sales increased by 53% from October to November and continued to grow by 24% in December. Overall, Historical title sales saw a 91% increase during the fourth quarter of 2023.

In 2024, sales dropped by 16% from October to November but then rebounded from November to December by 81%. Overall, Historical title sales saw a 51% increase during the fourth quarter of 2024.

These are the BISAC subcategories with the highest year-over-year increase in sales:

• Fiction / Historical / Medieval — up 530%

• Fiction / Historical / 19th Century — up 26%

From October to December, the most purchased Historical subcategories were:

• Fiction / Historical / General — 61% of all Fiction / Historical sales;

• Fiction / Historical / 20th Century — 26% of all Fiction / Historical sales; and

• Fiction / Historical / Ancient — 7% of all Fiction / Historical sales.

Borrowing Fiction / Historical

Year-over-year, Historical loans increased by 31% in October. In November loans decreased by 1%, but in December loans went back up by 19%. Overall loans decreased by 24% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and by 31% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Year-over-year renewals increased by 40% in October, 8% in November, and 28% in December. Overall, renewals decreased by 22% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and decreased by 28% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Which Historical subcategories were the most popular in Canadian libraries? From October to December 2024, these subcategories saw the greatest increases in library circulation compared to 2023:

• Fiction / Historical / Medieval — loans up 37% and renewals up 23%;

• Fiction / Historical / 20th Century — loans up 19% and renewals up 39%; and

• Fiction / Historical / General — loans up 14% and renewals up 18%.

During the fourth quarter of 2024, the most circulated Historical subcategories were:

• Fiction / Historical / General — 58% of all loans of Fiction / Historical and 56% of all renewals of Fiction / Historical;

• Fiction / Historical / 20th Century — 36% of all loans of Fiction / Historical and 37% of all renewals of Fiction / Historical; and

• Fiction / Historical / Ancient — 2% of all loans of Fiction / Historical and 2% of all renewals of Fiction / Historical.

Reading Fiction / Historical

Here are the top selling and top borrowed Fiction / Historical titles from the fourth quarter of 2024.

Top borrowed

1. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

2. Long Island by Colm Toibin

3. James by Percival Everett

4. The Armor of Light by Ken Follett

5. Only the Brave by Danielle Steel

Top selling

1. James by Percival Everett

2. When the World Fell Silent by Donna Jones Alward 🍁

3. The Armor of Light by Ken Follett

4. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

5. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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!