The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending August 10, 2014

The streak of year-over-year unit sales gains hit five in week 32 of 2014. Total unit sales of print books rose 2% in the week ended Aug. 10, 2014, compared to the similar week in 2013 at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. As has been the case during the five-week upward streak, it was the retail & club channel that drove the gain, with units up 3% over week 32 of 2013, offsetting a 4% decline in sales through the mass merchandiser channel. The juvenile fiction category had the largest gain in the week, posting a 14% increase over the week ended Aug. 11, 2013. While no big juvenile fiction titles had a strong debut in the week, a number of titles in the top 10 had notable increases over the prior week including the trade paperback edition of If I Stay, whose sales rose 16% to just under 26,000 copies sold. Insurgent and Divergent had sales increases of 24% and 27%, respectively. The strongest-selling new book in the week was the mass market paperback edition of Sue Grafton’s W Is for Wasted, which sold about 26,000 copies. For the week, the adult fiction category was down 7% compared to week 32 of 2013, a decline that was less than the 11% drop the category has had so far this year.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

Source: Nielsen BookScan and Publishers Weekly. Nielsen BookScan’s U.S. Consumer Market Panel covers approximately 80% of the print book market and continues to grow.