Print Units Rose 2.1% In Late June

Gains in three of the four major publishing categories led to a 2.1% increase in print unit sales in the week ended June 22, 2019. over the comparable week in 2018. The adult fiction category, which has had soft sales so far this year, posted a 2.3% unit increase over the week ended June 23, 2018. While Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens remained #1 on the category bestseller list, two new books posted solid sales in their first week. Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand was #2 on the category list, selling more than 42,000 copies, while the mass market paperback edition of John Grisham’s The Reckoning sold over 20,000 copies. The Hidden Power of F*cking Up by the Try Guys sold nearly 22,000 copies in its first week, helping to lift unit sales in adult nonfiction 4.7% over 2018. Hidden Power just edged out Unfreedom of the Press by Mark Levin for the top spot in the category; Unfreedom has sold more than 254,000 copies since its release in late May. Unit sales rose 8.7% in the juvenile nonfiction segment over 2018. Summertime activity books continued to dominate the category bestseller list with seven Carson-Dellosa Publishing Summer Bridge Activities titles among the top 10 bestsellers, selling about 48,000 copies. Print unit sales dipped 0.7% in juvenile fiction compared to 2018. Jeff Kinney’s Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid was the top seller in the category, selling nearly 19,000 copies. Since its release in early April, the title has sold more than 476,000 copies at outlets that report to BookScan.

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