Unit sales of print books dipped 1.7% last week compared to the week ended August 1, 2020, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Once again, adult fiction and young adult fiction were the only segments to post an increase over last year, with units up 18.6% and 33%, respectively. All three nonfiction categories had declines in the week, and juvenile fiction sales were flat.
Adult nonfiction sales fell 8.8% compared to a year ago. Mark Levin’s American Marxism remained #1 on the category bestseller list (and #1 among all bestsellers), selling about 92,000 copies. Another conservative author, Ben Shapiro, was second on the list with The Authoritarian Moment, which sold more than 37,000 copies in its first week on sale. Last year at this time, Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough was #1, selling just under 155,000 copies, and she was joined by a host of social justice and political books that had solid sales. Juvenile nonfiction sales dropped 19.3% as all but one subcategory, social situations/family/health, had declines.
Adult fiction sales rose 18.6% over last year without the benefit of any major hit. Colleen Hoover’s 2016 title, It Ends with Us, edged out People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry for the top spot on the category list by six copies, selling 19,202 copies at outlets that report to BookScan. The romance category in general did well last week, with sales jumping 52% over last year, while graphic novels also remained strong sellers with units up 87% in the week.
Last week was the fourth consecutive week unit sales declined compared to 2020, but sales were still up 15.3% through July compared to last year.
