November bookstore sales fell 2.5%, to $736 million from $755 million in November 2013, according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Bookstore sales have been down in every month in 2014 compared to 2013, but the decline has slowed over the course of the year. For the first 11 months of 2014, bookstore sales were down 4.9% compared to the same period in 2013, dropping to $10.03 billion.

For the entire retail segment, November sales rose 3.0% over November 2013 and year-to-date sales were up 3.9%.