Sales Recover from Potter Curse, Hold Even in the Week

At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, unit sales of print books were 0.1% higher in the week ended Aug. 13, 2017, than in the similar week in 2016. The minor increase was a major improvement over the previous week, when unit sales down 17% frin the comparable week in 2016, due to the release last August of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which sold 2.5 million copies in its first week on sale. But Cursed Child still resulted in some negative comparisons: sales through the mass merchandiser channel, which did very well with the hardcover edition of Cursed Child, and hardcover sales were both 9% lower than in the week ended Aug. 14, 2016. Sales in the juvenile fiction category, which were down 46% in the previous week, were only 7% lower than in the comparable week in 2016. The juvenile nonfiction category, on the other hand, was 16% higher than in the similar week in 2016. As has been the case for a good part of the summer, educational titles dominated the top 10 bestseller list in the category, including two titles in the Everything You Need To series and three flash card packs. The adult nonfiction segment also helped offset the declines in juvenile fiction, with unit sales 4% higher than in the comparable week in 2016. The segment benefited from the debut of Jen Hatmaker’s Of Mess and Moxie, which sold more than 19,000 copies in its first week on sale, landing it in second place on the category bestseller list. In first was Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, which sold more than 20,000 copies. Print unit sales in adult fiction were 1% lower than in the similar week in 2016. Debbie Macomber’s latest novel, Any Dream Will Do, had the strongest debut, selling more than 17,000 copies to land in fourth place on the category bestseller list.

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