Adult Nonfiction Drives Unit Gains

The string of weekly sales gains this fall continued in the week ended Oct. 22, 2017. At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, unit sales of print books were 4% higher than in the comparable week in 2016. The largest gain came in the adult nonfiction category, in which units were up 9% from the week ended Oct. 23, 2016. The gain was sparked by solid sales debuts of four new books. The top-selling title in the category was Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci, which sold more than 52,000 copies, followed by Capital Gaines by Chip Gaines, which sold more than 42,000 copies. In fourth place on the category bestseller list was The Wisdom of Sundays by Oprah Winfrey with roughly 34,000 copies sold, and Jocko Willink’s Discipline Equals Freedom was #5 on the list with more than 26,000 copies sold. Two new titles helped unit sales in the juvenile nonfiction category, which were 8% higher than in the similar week in 2016. Harry Potter: A Journey Through a History of Magic by the British Library was #1 on the category bestseller list, selling upwards of 16,000 copies. At #3 was Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai, which sold almost 5,000 copies. Print unit sales were 5% higher than at this time last year in the juvenile fiction category, boosted by the release of Dork Diaries 12 by Rachel Renee Russell, which sold about 32,000 copies in its first week on sale to land at second place on the category bestseller list. Topping the juvenile fiction chart was the regular edition of John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down, which sold almost 36,000 copies. The signed edition sold about 24,000 copies. Unit sales were down 2% in the adult fiction segment from the comparable week in 2016. Dan Brown’s Origin remained #1, selling over 58,000 copies.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format (in thousands)