Unit sales of print books fell 2% in the week ended March 23, 2014, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan, compared to the similar week (week 12) last year. The decline was due entirely to a drop in sales through the mass merchandiser channel; those sales fell 9% in week 12 of this year, compared to the week ended March 24, 2013. Juvenile fiction had the best showing among the segments, with sales up 5%. The increase was due to the bestselling Divergent trilogy, which received a bump in the week from the release of the film adaptation of the first installment (Divergent) on Mar. 21. Four of the top seven spots on the overall bestseller list in week 12 were held by books in the series, including the movie tie-in edition, which landed at #7. In all, the four books sold over 250,000 copies in week 12 of 2014. The adult fiction segment continues to look for a spark, and units were down 11%. The two top-selling titles in the category made their debuts in the week; the mass market paperback edition of Mary Higgins Clark’s Daddy’s Gone A Hunting sold 32,000 copies at outlets that report to BookScan, and Harlan Coben’s new hardcover, Missing You, sold about 29,000 copies.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

Mar. 24, 2013 Mar. 23, 2014 % Chge Week % Chge YTD
Total 11,118 10,892 -2% -3%
Mass Merch./Other 2,510 2,288 -9 -9
Retail & Club 8,608 8,605 0 -1

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

Mar. 24, 2013 Mar. 23, 2014 % Chge Week % Chge YTD
Adult Nonfiction 4,072 4,019 -1% -2%
Adult Fiction 2,604 2,326 -11 -14
Juvenile Nonfiction 876 821 -6 3
Juvenile Fiction 3,141 3,287 5 5

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

Mar. 24, 2013 Mar. 23, 2014 % Chge Week % Chge YTD
Hardcover 2,819 2,796 -0.8% -1%
Trade Paperback 5,932 5,938 0 -2
Mass Market Paperback 1,496 1,322 -12 -12
Board Books 600 551 -8 1
Audio 95 108 14 5