Print Units Had Small Gain In Mid-October

Unit sales of print books inched ahead 0.5% in the week ended Oct. 20, 2018, over the comparable week in 2017, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The nonfiction adult category posted a small rise over the week ended Oct. 21, 2017, with units up 2.2%. Tucker Carlson’s Ship of Fools moved into the top spot on the category list, selling nearly 45,000 copies. Two new books landed in the fourth and fifth spots on the adult nonfiction list. Shade by Pete Souza was #5, selling just over 35,000 copies, followed by Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonny Sun, which sold just less than 35,000 copies. Print unit sales increased 4.3% over 2017 in juvenile nonfiction, helped by the debut of Lafayette by Nathan Hale, which sold more than 6,400 copies, putting it in second place on the category list. Sales of Big PreSchool took a big jump in the week, rising to #3 on the juvenile nonfiction list, selling 4,000 copies. The adult and juvenile fiction categories both had small declines in the week, with units falling 1.5% and 0.7%, respectively. Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks led sales in adult fiction, selling more than 87,000 copies in its first week. Barbara Kingsolver’s newest book, Unsheltered, sold more than 16,000 copies in its first week, landing it in fourth place on the category list. In juvenile fiction, The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith remained in first place by a wide margin, selling nearly 97,000 copies, compared to second-place Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas by Dav Pilkey, which sold just over 28,000 copies. Sales of physical audiobooks had another tough week, with units down 22.8%.

Total Sales of Print Books

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Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

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Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

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