A good showing by the adult fiction category was not enough to prevent unit sales of print books from falling 3.6% last week from the week ended June 17, 2022, at outlets that report to Circana BookScan.
A couple of new releases helped to lift unit sales of adult fiction 5.9% over 2022. Elin Hilderbrand’s The Five-Star Weekend was #1, selling almost 70,000 copies in its first week. The trade paperback edition of Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood sold over 26,000 copies in its first week, while its hardcover version sold over 15,000 copies.
The young adult segment was the only other category to see a sales increase last week, with units up 1.7%. As usual, backlist titles drove the increase, with If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin at #1, selling over 19,000 copies.
Adult nonfiction sales tumbled 8.5% from 2022 despite three new books landing among the segment’s top 10 bestsellers. The number one title in the category was Knife Drop by Nick DiGiovanni, which sold about 19,000 copies. (Last year at this time, Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth was number one, selling approximately 68,000 copies.) In third place was The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos, which sold just over 18,000 copies, while 1964 by Paul McCartney sold over 12,000 copies in its first week.
The juvenile fiction category had a bad week, with sales off 9%. Why a Daughter Needs a Dad by Gregory Lang moved into the top spot in the category, selling about 24,000 copies. That same title was the top seller during last year’s Father’s Day week, selling over 34,000 copies.
Despite a new number one title, sales in the juvenile nonfiction segment fell 8.9%. Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars by Steven Rinella sold nearly 19,000 copies in it first week.
