Unit sales of print books fell 5.3% last week from the comparable week in 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The drop was the smallest decline in about two months.
Once again, the adult nonfiction category struggled to keep pace with last year’s sales, with units down 9.3%. James Patterson by James Patterson, the prolific author’s memoir, was #1 in the category, selling more than 21,000 copies in its first week on sale. Another new book, Scars and Stripes by Tim Kennedy, landed in fourth place on the category list, selling just under 15,000 copies.
Adult fiction rebounded from a rare down week to post a 1.7% sales increase last week. Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us edged out Chainsaw Man: Vol. 11 by Tatsuki Fujimoto for the #1 spot on the category list, with the titles selling 47,858 and 47,396 copies, respectively. Hoover had five titles (from three different publishers) among the category’s top 10 bestsellers, with sales totaling about 140,000 copies.
Sales in the young adult fiction category inched up 0.5% over 2021. The top seller was A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, which sold over 10,000 copies. The highest-ranking new title was Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer, which sold over 3,000 copies, putting it the 26th spot on the category list.
Juvenile fiction sales dropped 5.3% in the week. Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss was in first place on the category list, selling over 25,000 copies, approximately the same number the title sold a year ago. Jonathan Graziano’s Noodle and the No Bones Day was the bestselling new release, selling more than 14,000 copies.
