Last week’s sales pattern looked a lot like the previous week—a modest sales decline compared to a year ago with higher sales of adult fiction and young adult titles offset by lower adult nonfiction and juvenile sales. In the week, print unit sales were down 2.9% from the week ended August 14, 2021 (sales in the previous week were off 2.1%).
The 7.5% decline in adult nonfiction sales came despite a good first week of sales for I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, which sold more than 41,000 copies, landing it in first place on the category list. Last year, American Marxism by Mark Levine was #1, selling about 43,000 copies. The highest-debuting title a year ago was Woke, Inc. by Vivek Ramaswamy, which sold over 21,000 copies.
Colleen Hoover managed to place seven books among the top 10 adult fiction titles on the category bestseller list, helping to boost segment sales 13.2% over last year. It Ends with Us was #1, selling more than 89,000 copies and her seven books sold about 320,000 copies.
Sales of young adult fiction increased 1.5% in the week. For the second consecutive week, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw was the category’s bestseller, selling more than 22,000 copies. It’s Not Summer Without You was #2, selling over 13,000 copies and was the highest-ranking of Jenny Han’s four books on the category list.
Sales of juvenile nonfiction had the largest decline, falling 15%. Every subcategory had a drop in the week with the two largest-education/reference/language and history/sports/people/places-down 24.3% and 17.2%, respectively.
