A double-digit sales increase in adult fiction sales, in combination with higher young adult sales, were not enough to offset declines in adult nonfiction and the juvenile categories, which led to a 2.1% dip in print sales last week compared to the week ended August 7, 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
As it has been for much of the year, adult fiction was the industry bright spot last week, with sales rising 13.1%. Colleen Hoover managed to place seven books among the top 10 bestselling fiction books last week, led by It Ends with Us, which was #1 in the category, selling more than 105,000 copies. Altogether, those seven books sold about 378,000 copies. Every Summer After by Carley Fortune had its best week since being released in May, selling nearly 21,000 copies, putting it in ninth place on the category chart. The top-selling new release was One Piece: Vol 100 by Eiichiro Oda, which sold more than 13,000 copies, landing it in 17th place on BookScan’s adult fiction bestseller list
Young adult fiction sales rose 12.7% in the week, and it wasn’t just due to the success of Jenny Han titles. Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw was the top-selling book in the category last week, selling close to 39,000 copies in its first week on sale. The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes was another new release that had a good week, selling over 7,000 copies, good enough for ninth place on the category list. Han’s four The Summer I Turned Pretty-related titles were 2,3,4, and 5 on the category list.
Adult nonfiction sales dropped 7.4%. Atomic Habits by James Clear was #1 again on the category list, selling over 20,000 copies. The Complete Cook’s Country TV Show Cookbook had the best showing among the new titles, selling over 10,000 copies.
Juvenile fiction sales fell 8.7% as the top sellers largely stayed the same as last week. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle remained #1, selling more than 12,000 copies.
