With Easter Over, Unit Sales Fall in Early April

Unit sales of print books in the week ended Apr. 8, 2018, were 8% lower than in the similar week in 2017 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Though the early Easter this year boosted sales comparisons in March, early April sales are likely to suffer when compared to last year, when Easter fell April 16. Indeed, the juvenile categories, which benefitted the most from Easter book buying in March, had the largest declines compared to the week ended Apr. 9, 2017. Unit sales of print books in the juvenile fiction segment fell 16% in the week. Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree had a good week: the popular backlist title jumped into third place on the category bestseller list, with 12,550 copies sold. Print unit sales fell 11% in the juvenile nonfiction category. The category had a new #1 title: The Confidence Code for Girls by Katty Kat and Claire Shipman sold more than 11,000 copies in its first week. The adult nonfiction segment had the best week, with sales down a modest 3% compared to a year ago. Four new titles landed among the top 10 bestsellers in the category, led by True Roots by Kristin Cavallari, which sold almost 25,000 copies, putting it at #1 on the category list in its first week. Other new books in the top 10 included The Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, which was #3 with nearly 15,000 copies sold, and The Rational Bible by Dennis Prager, which was #5 with more than 12,000 copies sold. Adult fiction unit sales declined 6% compared to 2017. Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, benefiting from the release of the movie adaptation, was #1 on the category bestseller list, with more than 19,000 copies sold.

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)