Canadian pride: LGBTQ+ books in Canada

Happy pride month! We wanted to celebrate with data about book sales and circulation of LGBTQ+ titles by Canadian contributors in Canada. We’ve put together a look at sales trends for titles with LGBTQ+ BISAC codes, as well as the top ten bestselling and most circulated titles for each Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Juvenile & Young Adult.

The following bestseller and top loaned lists are from December 30, 2024, to June 15, 2025 using SalesData, our national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language print trade book market, and LibraryData, BookNet’s national library collection and circulation analysis tool.

A quick note about the lists: LibraryData uses ISBN clusters to track circulation, holds, etc. in the system. (This differs from SalesData, which reports data at a per-ISBN level.) We do this because of how libraries report their collection data to us — their data is broken out by their Catalog ID or record. Each record can contain multiple ISBNs, often all of the editions of a single work. When you use the library, you put a hold on a copy of Pride and Prejudice, for example, and you usually don't mind which particular edition or ISBN you receive — just that you get the first available copy! Some clusters may contain ISBNs for different but related works. For example, occasionally all of the titles in a series or set may be clustered as a single work.

Canadian LGBTQ+ Fiction titles

Looking at the sales of books using the available LGBTQ+ BISAC codes in the Fiction category, we can see an overall increase of 140% from 2018 to 2024. When we looked into the data for 2021, we found that the spike in sales was mostly driven by one top-selling title in that year.

But what Canadian-authored books are top of the charts in the Fiction LGBTQ+ categories so far this year? Here are the top 10 most sold and most loaned, year to date.

Top 10 bestselling Canadian Fiction LGBTQ+ titles, year to date

1. We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin 🍁

2. The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid 🍁

3. What I Know About You by Éric Chacour,🍁 translated by Pablo Strauss 🍁

4. The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor 🍁

5. Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira 🍁

6. The Legend of Meneka by Kritika H. Rao 🍁

7. Interesting Facts about Space by Emily Austin 🍁

8. All Hookers Go to Heaven by Angel B.H. 🍁

9. I Remember Lights by Ben Ladouceur 🍁

10. A Different Hurricane by H. Nigel Thomas 🍁

View all of these titles in this CataList catalogue.

Top 10 most loaned Canadian Fiction LGBTQ+ titles, year to date

1. What I Know About You by Éric Chacour,🍁 translated by Pablo Strauss 🍁

2. We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin 🍁

3. Interesting Facts about Space by Emily Austin 🍁

4. The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor 🍁

5. Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead 🍁

6. Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira 🍁

7. The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid 🍁

8. The Long Game by Rachel Reid 🍁

9. The Legend of Meneka by Kritika H. Rao 🍁

10. Time to Shine by Rachel Reid 🍁

View all of these titles in this CataList catalogue.

Canadian LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction titles

Though the sales trend for Canadian Non-Fiction LGBTQ+ titles is on the decline in recent years, sales are still up overall 258% since 2018. The decline is following a similar trajectory for the decline in unit sales for all Non-Fiction as well.

Here are the top 10 most sold and most loaned Non-Fiction LGBTQ+ titles, year to date.

Top 10 bestselling Canadian Non-Fiction LGBTQ+ titles, year to date

1. All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari 🍁

2. Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom 🍁

3. The Vinyl Diaries by Pete Crighton 🍁

4. a body more tolerable by jaye simpson 🍁

5. Crooked Teeth by Danny Ramadan 🍁

6. Buzzkill Clamshell by Amber Dawn 🍁

7. Something, Not Nothing by Sarah Leavitt 🍁

8. Let Us Play by Harrison Browne 🍁 and Rachel Browne 🍁

9. Vantage Points by Chase Joynt 🍁

10. Len & Cub by Meredith Batt 🍁 and Dusty Green 🍁

View all of these titles in this CataList catalogue.

Top 10 most loaned Canadian Non-Fiction LGBTQ+ titles, year to date

1. We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib 🍁

2. Something, Not Nothing by Sarah Leavitt 🍁

3. All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari 🍁

4. Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom 🍁

5. Crooked Teeth by Danny Ramadan 🍁

6. Special Topics in Being a Parent by S. Bear Bergman 🍁, illustrated by Saul Freedman-Lawson 🍁

7. Missing from the Village by Justin Ling 🍁

8. The Jellyfish by Boum, 🍁 translated by Helge Dascher and Robin Lang 🍁

9. Love Lives Here by Rowan Jette Knox 🍁

10. The Out Side: Trans and Nonbinary Comics by The Kao, Min Christensen, and David Daneman 🍁

View all of these titles in this CataList catalogue.

Canadian LGBTQ+ Juvenile & YA titles

Again, looking at the trend in sales for Canadian LGBTQ+ titles from 2018 to 2024, we can see an increase of 226% when looking at all available LGBTQ+ BISAC codes in the Juvenile and Young Adult categories.

And the top-selling and most-loaned titles for Canadian LGBTQ+ Juvenile and YA titles can also be found below.

Top 10 bestselling Canadian Juvenile & YA LGBTQ+ titles, year to date

1. Tegan and Sara: Crush by Tegan Quin, 🍁 Sara Quin, 🍁 and Tillie Walden

2. Asking for a Friend by Ronnie Riley 🍁

3. Pride Puppy! by Robin Stevenson, 🍁 illustrated by Julie McLaughlin 🍁 (Board book)

4. Who We Are in Real Life by Victoria Koops 🍁

5. The Fabulous Edweena by Edwin Dumont, 🍁 illustrated by Melissa Cho 🍁

6. Between the Pipes by Albert McLeod, 🍁 Elaine Mordoch, 🍁 Sonya Ballantyne, 🍁 illustrated by Alice RL 🍁

7. Pride Puppy! by Robin Stevenson, 🍁 illustrated by Julie McLaughlin 🍁 (Trade paperback)

8. Randy Rainbow and the Marvelously Magical Pink Glasses by Randy Rainbow, illustrated by Jaimie MacGibbon 🍁

9. Pink, Blue, and You! by Elise Gravel 🍁 and Mykaell Blais

10. Zombie Apocalypse Running Club by Carrie Mac 🍁

View all of these titles in this CataList catalogue.

Top 10 most loaned Canadian Juvenile & YA LGBTQ+ titles, year to date

1. Tegan and Sara: Crush by Tegan Quin, 🍁 Sara Quin, 🍁 and Tillie Walden

2. Pride Puppy! by by Robin Stevenson, 🍁 illustrated by Julie McLaughlin 🍁

3. Pink, Blue, and You! by Elise Gravel 🍁 and Mykaell Blais

4. Asking for a Friend by Ronnie Riley 🍁

5. Love, Violet by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, 🍁 illustrated by Charlene Chua

6. Getting Glam at Gram's by Sara Weed, 🍁 illustrated by Erin Hawryluk 🍁

7. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with Me by Mariko Tamaki, 🍁 illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

8. The Name I Call Myself by Hasan Namir, 🍁 illustrated by Cathryn John 🍁

9. Over the Shop by JonArno Lawson, 🍁 illustrated by Qin Leng 🍁

10. From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea by Kai Cheng Thom, 🍁 illustrated by Kai YunChing, 🍁 and Wai-Yant Li 🍁

View all of these titles in this CataList catalogue.

Read this blog post to learn how to pull your own Canadian-specific title-level reports in SalesData and LibraryData. Do you have questions about any of our products, services, or this list? Contact us!