A Deeper Dive into the Cookbook Buyer: An Analysis of BookNet Canada Data and the Cookbook Industry

Publishers rely on accurate sales data to make informed decisions about the books they publish, but how useful can that data be when the reporting systems that create it are incomplete? This report takes a granular look at the Canadian cookbook industry through the sales reporting and consumer surveys provided by BookNet Canada to see how accurately those systems reflect the reality of cookbook sales in Canada. Cookbooks are one of many specialty genres in the publishing spectrum that have unique sales channel distributions, which makes it difficult to make sweeping generalizations about their consumers. By transposing information from BookNet Canada’s SalesData and Deep Dive reports with Penguin Random House’s internal data to illuminate discrepancies, this report provides a more holistic snapshot of the genre and its consumers. It is a direct response to a 2016 report from BookNet Canada called The Deep Dive: The Cookbook Buyer.