Canadian authors, booksellers say COVID-19 has both helped and hurt their industry

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Booksellers encouraged as in-person events resume

When Christopher DiRaddo’s second book was published last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Montreal author was disappointed he wouldn’t be able to mark the achievement with a glitzy in-person book launch.

Several authors and publishers interviewed by The Canadian Press said the pandemic was hard on brick-and-mortar stores, which had to contend with weeks or months of forced closures, capacity limits and cancellations of book launches and meet-and-greets. “After a couple of months, there’s only so much Netflix you can watch,” he said in a recent phone interview.

Data from BookNet Canada, a non-profit that serves the country’s book industry, indicated that sales of physical books increased 1.6 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020, though they remained below 2019 levels. Sruti Islam, a bookseller and creator of the online literary space Weird Era, took part in a discussion on Friday hosted by DiRaddo on how book promotion has evolved.

 

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