After two weeks of minor declines, unit sales of print books rose 4.3% last week, over the week ended August 29, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
The increase was led by the juvenile fiction segment, where units rose 20.1% due in large part to the release of Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: Grime and Punishment, which sold more than 239,000 copies in its first week on sale. The category also received a boost from another new Scholastic title, as Ann M. Martin’s Logan Likes Mary Anne! sold more than 32,000 copies in its first week on sale.
Unit sales in the young adult fiction category rose 11.4% over last week. Cassandra Clare’s The Lost Book of the White, Volume 2 sold nearly 13,000 copies in its first week on sale, putting it in third place on the category bestseller list. Two other new releases added to the sales increase—Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin and American Royals II: Majesty by Katherine Mcgee each sold over 10,000 copies after hitting shelves last week.
Parents seemed to have stocked up on all the educational materials they need, at least for the moment, and sales in the high-flying juvenile nonfiction segment rose just under 1% for the week. Still, through September 5, 2020, unit sales of print titles were up 29.4% in the category over the comparable period last year.
The adult fiction category had a 3.2% sales gain in the week led by Louise Penny’s All The Devils Are Here, which sold almost 59,000 copies in its first week on sale. Total print unit sales were up 5.9% over 2019 in the year-to-date at outlets that report to BookScan.
