August 12 is Quebec's biggest book-buying day—here's why two authors started it in 2014

August 12 has become Quebec's second major summer celebration for books—after July 25, the unofficial camper's Christmas when Quebec campers string up lights and decorations. On August 12, Quebec bookstores multiply displays, activate special events, and newsrooms suddenly remember books exist.

The initiative began in 2014 when two children's authors, Amélie Dubé and Patrice Cazeault, created a Facebook event inviting people to buy Quebec-authored books as "a good action." The timing was deliberate: the book market was struggling, and August is traditionally a literary dead zone. The goal was to encourage people to purchase Quebec authors' work during a slow season.

In the first edition, sales of Quebec books surged 23 percent above a normal day, capturing seven percentage points of market share in 24 hours. The following year, fiction sales jumped 223 percent. What proved most remarkable: 80 percent of the books purchased were backlist titles—books already published, not new releases—suggesting that readers came with curiosity rather than a shopping list, and bookstore staff guided them toward hidden gems.

At a Chicoutimi bookstore, one librarian recalls customers arriving with genuine curiosity rather than specific titles, and staff recommending overlooked novels. In 2015, Michel Tremblay's "Un ange cornu avec des ailes de tôle," published 19 years earlier, became the second-most-sold novel on August 12.

Publishers quickly recognized the pattern. Editors began releasing fall titles earlier to capture August 12 momentum. In 2023, Michel Rabagliati's graphic novel "Rose à l'île" launched on August 10 and dominated sales that day—at one Quebec City bookstore, three out of every four books sold were Rabagliati's. In 2024, La Peuplade moved up the release of Sébastien Dulude's "Amiante" specifically for August 12, giving the book a significant sales boost at launch.