Total value of shipments for the same year were valued at approximately USD 2.8 million. Nearly seven out of ten adult Canadians are book buyers, purchasing one or more books in a six month period which means nearly one third of adult Canadians do not buy books with any regularity. Roughly one in three book buyers read more than they buy, as defined by a difference of more than three books read versus bought in a six month period, or about one book every two months. An important issue for the future prosperity of the industry is the extent to which book buying competes with lending. Approximately two out of five books recently read were obtained from cost-free sources, such as another person, a school, or a public library.
Consumers differ widely with respect to their purchasing frequency.
At one extreme, four out of ten book buyers are infrequent, buying fewer than one book per month on average. At the opposite extreme, three out of ten are frequent book buyers, buying an average of two or more books a month. In the middle are occasional book buyers who purchase from one to two books each month. These three consumer segments, frequent, occasional, and infrequent buyers are of importance to book marketers because each segment confronts the industry with a distinct set of challenges and opportunities. There are more than 110 daily newspapers published in Canada.