With sales of Prince Harry’s Spare slowing, unit sales of print books fell 4.2% last week compared to the week ended January 29, 2022, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The decline put an end to a two-week sales rally spurred by Spare.
Spare remained the top-selling book last week, selling almost 75,000 copies. The memoir has sold more than 900,000 print copies since its release at outlets that report to BookScan. Despite the solid sales of Spare and good showings by new releases, sales of adult nonfiction fell 7.5% compared to 2022. Never Give an Inch by Mike Pompeo sold nearly 35,000 copies in its first week on sales, while Start, Stay, or Leave by Trey Gowdy sold about 18,000 copies.
Juvenile fiction sales fell 6.5% in the week. The number one title in the category was Alice Schertle’s Little Blue Truck’s Valentine, which sold abut 26,000 copies. Last year, the title was also tops in the category, selling approximately 31,000 copies.
Sales in the juvenile nonfiction category dropped 11.2% despite a run on Golden Book biographies. Seven of the top 10 category bestsellers were Golden Book bios, led by two titles by Deborah Hopkinson, My Little Golden Book About Dolly Parton, and My Little Golden Book About Betty White, with both selling about 6,000 copies. Last year at this time, the biography of Betty White was at the top of the category, selling over 14,000 copies.
The best-performing category last week was young adult fiction, where sales increased 3.8%. Laura Nowlin’s If He Had Been With Me was #1, selling more than 11,000 copies.
Adult fiction sales were up 2.8% last week. Colleen Hoover titles took five of the top 10 slots, selling more than 160,000 copies. Christine Feehan’s Recovery Road was the bestselling new release, selling about 15,000 copies, which put it in seventh place on the category bestseller list.
