Led by huge sales of Mary L. Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough and another big week for the juvenile nonfiction segment, unit sales of print book rose 11.5% last week at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
Released July 14, Too Much and Never Enough sold 337,473 print copies in its first week on sale, according to NPD BookScan, leading to a 13.9% gain in unit sales in the adult nonfiction segment over the week ended July 11, 2020. Publisher Simon & Schuster reported that the book has sold a total of more than 1.35 million copies across all formats, including pre-orders, sales of print books, e-books, and digital audiobooks, and has announced a 17th printing. Another big seller in the category was White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, which had a 30% jump in sales last week, selling nearly 49,000 copies.
The juvenile nonfiction segment had a 21.3% increase last week, as all sub-categories had double-digit increases. The biographies/autobiographies sub-category had the largest gain, with units up 40.9%. The large education/reference/language subcategory had a 28.3% jump in unit sales as the bestseller My First Learn-To-Write Workbook saw a 226% sales increase, selling nearly 40,000 copies last week. The book has sold almost 431,000 copies this year.
The juvenile fiction segment had a 11.7% increase last week helped by sales of Antiracist Baby Picture Book by Ibram X. Kendi, which sold almost 18,000 copies in its first week on sale.
The solid total unit sales posted last week was 16.6% higher than for the week ended July 20, 2019. For the year-to-date, unit sales of print books were up 3.6% over the comparable period a year ago.
