After a rare week in which sales rose over 2021, unit sales of print books fell 5.9% last week compared to the week ended July 31, 2021. Every segment but adult fiction saw a decline, with adult nonfiction sales falling 12.9% at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
Last year at this time, the adult nonfiction list was led by American Marxism by Mark Levin, which sold about 94,000 copies, followed by a new release, The Authoritative Moment by Ben Shapiro, which sold approximately 37,000 copies in its first week on sale. Last week, James Clear’s Atomic Habits was #1 in the adult nonfiction category, selling over 17,000 copies, while the highest-ranking new release was The Big Lie by Jonathan Lemire, which sold just over 5,000 copies, putting it in ninth place on the category list.
Adult fiction sales rose 10.9% last week with books by Colleen Hoover and Delia Owens occupying eight of the top 10 spots on the category bestseller list. New to the top 10 for Hoover was All Your Perfects, which was in eighth place, selling nearly 20,000 copies. Altogether, Hoover’s six titles sold approximately 323,000 copies last week. Owens’a Where the Crawdads Sing was #2 on the category chart, selling about 92,000 copies, while the movie tie-in edition was #10, selling about 19,000 copies.
Young adult fiction has had a good summer thanks to Jenny Han’s titles tied to The Summer I Turned Pretty movie, but sales in the category declined 4.3% last week. Han’s books took the first four places on the category bestseller list, selling a total of about 63,000 copies. Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter was the best-selling new release landing in ninth place on the chart, selling over 6,000 copies.
With no new release among the BookScan top 50 bestsellers in children's fiction, sales in the category fell 10.2%. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle was in first place on the category list, selling over 11,000 copies.
