Sales in Juvenile Categories Continued to Rise in Early March

Unit sales of print books in the week ended Mar. 12, 2018, inched ahead 1% over the comparable week in 2017, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. For the third consecutive week, the juvenile categories drove the sales gains. Unit sales in the juvenile nonfiction segment rose 8% over the week ended Mar. 11, 2017. Although children’s board books had a good week overall (unit sales were up 17%), two Chelsea Clinton titles helped lift sales in the category. She Persisted Around the World by Clinton and Alexandra Boiger sold more than 11,000 copies in its first week. The book is a follow-up to the pair’s She Persisted, which sold nearly 8,000 copies in the week, putting the titles in second and sixth place, respectively, on the category bestseller list. The release of the film A Wrinkle in Time pushed up two editions of the Madeleine L’Engle book into the first and sixth spots on the juvenile fiction bestseller list, helping raise unit sales in the segment 7%. The paperback edition sold more than 48,000 copies in the week, making it the top seller on the juvenile fiction bestseller list, while the tie-in edition sold nearly 22,000 copies, moving it up to #6. Print unit sales fell 2% in the adult nonfiction category. The #1 book in the category, I’ve Been Thinking by Maria Shriver, sold only about 19,000 copies. Sales of the top 100 adult nonfiction bestsellers in the week dropped 35% compared to 2017. Print unit sales dropped 4% in the adult fiction category. As with adult nonfiction, weakness among the top 100 bestsellers was a major factor in the decline. Sales of that group fell 10% compared 2017.

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)