Adult Nonfiction Drives Sales Gains Once Again

At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, print unit sales were 6% higher in the week ended Feb. 4, 2018, than in the comparable week in 2017. Once again it was the adult nonfiction segment that led the increase, with unit sales up 10% from the week ended Feb. 5, 2017. Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff remained the top title in the category, selling more than 62,000 units, and a new book by Gary Vaynerchuk landed in second place. Crushing It! sold more than 34,000 copies in its first week. Another book that had a good week was Meredith Laurence’s Air Fry Genius, which was #4 on the list, selling slightly more than 24,000 copies. Print unit sales in the juvenile nonfiction category were 7% higher than in the comparable week in 2017. There was little change in the top sellers in the category from the previous week; First 100 Words by Roger Priddy stayed at #1 with more than 6,000 copies sold. Marley Dias Gets It Done by Marley Dias sold more than 3,600 copies in its first week, putting it in the seventh spot on the category bestseller list. Llama Llama I Love You by Anna Dewdney had a solid jump from the previous week, selling more than 14,000 copies to land in fourth place on the juvenile fiction bestseller list. Total unit sales in the category were 6% higher than in the similar week in 2017. Print unit sales declined by less than 1% in adult fiction as two new titles topped the category bestseller list: J.D. Robb’s Dark in Death was #1, selling more than 34,000 copies, while Still Me by Jojo Moyes was in second place, selling more than 20,000 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)