Last week was a relatively quiet one in the book world, with unit sales of print books falling 0.9% from the week ended August 15 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
The decline was due in part to the cooling of sales of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun after an explosive start three weeks ago. Last week, sales of the YA novel fell 58%, but that was still good enough to keep Midnight Sun the top-selling title in the country, with almost 59,000 copies sold. Since its release on August 4, it has sold more than 722,000 copies at outlets that report to BookScan.
The adult nonfiction segment was the only category to post a gain last week, with unit sales up 2.4%. Though sales of the #1 book in the segment, Sean Hannity’s Live Free or Die, had a 47% sales drop, several other titles rallied. Untamed by Glennon Doyle saw sales jump 226% in the week, putting the title #2 on the category list, with nearly 55,000 copies sold. Two new books had solid debuts: Live in Love by Lauren Akins sold nearly 25,000 copies, followed by Lose Weight Like Crazy Even If You Have a Crazy Life by Autumn Calabrese, which sold over 18,000 copies.
The hot juvenile nonfiction category had a 1.4% decline in sales last week, although sales in the segment are still up nearly 29% in the year-to-date period. Last week, only the large education/reference/language subcategory had a sales increase, with units rising 0.9%.
Sales in the juvenile fiction category were flat in the week, while the adult fiction segment fell 5.1%. Only one new title, Royal by Danielle Steel, made an impact on the adult fiction bestseller list, selling almost 22,000 copies in its first week, which landed it in second place on the category bestseller list.
Through August 22, 2020, print unit sales were up 5.6% over the comparable period a year ago.
