Despite three books posting sales of more than 100,000 copies last week, unit sales of print books fell 14.2% compared to the week ended October 30, 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
Jeff Kinney’s newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Diper Överlöde, sold more than 173,000 copies in its first week on sale, far ahead of the roughly 30,000 copies J.K. Rowling’s Christmas Pig sold a year ago, which had earned it the top spot in the children's category. Even with Diper’s strong showing, however, unit sales in the category fell 20% from a year ago. Every subcategory had declines with science fiction/fantasy sales tumbling 27.3%.
Adult nonfiction saw similar dips. Ina Garten’s Go-to Dinners sold more than 112,000 copies in its first week, but sales in the category fell 18.3%. Last year at this time, the #1 seller in the category was David Venable’s Half Homemade, Fully Delicious, which sold over 58,000 copies. Other new releases that were high on the category charts last week were Waypoints by Sam Heughan, which sold over 14,000 copies, and Justice Corrupted by Ted Cruz, which sold more than 13,000 copies.
The third title that sold more than 100,000 copies last week was Colleen Hoover’s It Starts with Us, which sold over 190,000 copies in its second week on sale. The novel has sold more than 1 million copies since its October 18 release. Total unit sales of adult fiction books increased 6.3% over 2021. No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child sold almost 40,000 copies in its first week and The Passenger by Corman McCarthy sold nearly 28,000 copies in its first week.
The children's nonfiction segment had the largest decline in the week with sales down by 23.5%. Sales were down in all subcategories, although the segment did have a new #1 bestseller, Why Thanksgiving? by Steve Deace, which sold over 5,600 copies.
