A host of well-performing new titles wasn’t enough to stop unit sales of print books from falling 6.7% last week compared to the week ended May 7, 2022, at outlets that report to Circana BookScan.
Sales fell in all major categories, with the juvenile nonfiction segment seeing the smallest decline thanks to Taylor Swift. Wendy Loggia’s Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography sold nearly 103,000 copies in its first week on sale, making it not only the top title in the category but the bestselling book for the week. In second place on the category list was The Beginner’s Bible, which sold over 5,000 copies.
Adult fiction had a down week, with sales falling 1.1%. Emily Henry’s Happy Place stayed in first place on the category list, selling more than 53,000 copies, followed by four new releases. The 23rd Midnight by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro and Carey Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake both sold over 37,000 copies in the week, with 23rd Midnight eking out Lake for second place.
Unit sales fell 11.4% in adult nonfiction despite a good showing by a number of new books led by Magnolia Table, Volume 3 by Joanna Gaines, which sold over 67,000 copies. Jessie Inchauspé’s The Glucose Goddess Method was in second place, selling nearly 21,000 copies. Two new religious titles were in seventh and eighth place on the list: Has the Tribulation Begun? by Amir Tsarfati and Kayleigh McEnany’s Serenity in the Storm both sold nearly 12,000 copies in their first week on sale.
Juvenile fiction sales fell 4.9% despite Rick Riordan’s From the World of Percy Jackson: The Sun and the Star selling over 52,000 copies in its first week, which put it at #1 on the category list.
