The growing worldwide popularity and currently enjoyed by authors from the Nordic countries is phenomenal. Stieg Larsson, Camilla Läckberg, Henning Mankell, Arnaldur Idridason, Nesbø Jo, to name a few, are beating sales records all over the planet.

The five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – represent a population base of more than 25 million people, spread over 1,258,000 square kilometres. Literary culture is very rich and active, thanks to the networks of free public libraries that extend down to the smallest villages. Reading rates in the Nordic countries have long since broken records in Europe and the world over.

Given the growing interest in this region, Livres Canada Books organized an exploratory mission to determine the potential of this market for Canadian publishers in terms of rights sales and distribution. A delegation of three publishers together with the executive director of Livres Canada Books traveled to Sweden, Norway and Denmark from 6 to 10 June 2011 where it met with key stakeholders – associations, publishers, booksellers – and collected reliable information on this market. The mission’s report looks at the publishing industry in general and focuses specifically on trade publishing, children’s books and scholarly publishing.

2011
20 pages