Led by huge numbers for two Rebecca Yarros titles, unit sales of print books rose 3.9% last week over the comparable week in 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. Some misprintings of the book notwithstanding, Iron Flame sold nearly 555,000 copies in its first week, while a special edition of Fourth Wing sold almost 241,000 copies (the original Fourth Wing sold over 53,000 copies). The strong Yarros showing helped boost sales in adult fiction by 24.4%.
Adult nonfiction sales rose 1.2%. Barbra Streisand’s memoir, My Name Is Barbra, sold more than 55,000 copies in its first week, putting it in second place on the category chart behind The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, which sold nearly 82,000 copies
The young adult segment rode the popularity of five new titles to post a 27.2% sales gain in the week. Murtagh by Christopher Paolini was number one in the category, selling almost 74,000 copies. In second place was Ali Hazelwood’s Check & Mate, which sold over 27,000 copies. In the fourth spot was Nightbane by Alex Aster, which sold just over 22,000 copies.
The two juvenile categories were the only segments to post declines, with fiction down 10.1% and nonfiction falling 5.8%. In fiction, the pattern was much the same as the last few weeks. Jeff Kinney’s newest Wimpy Kid book, No Brainer, was number one, but sales have been trailing those of Diper Overlöde, which was released last year, while the title in second place on the list has also been below last year. Last week, No Brainer sold nearly 73,000 copies compared to about 87,000 last year, while the second place The Bad Guys, Look Who’s Talking by Aaron Blabey sold over 30,000 copies; Stellarlune by Shannon Messenger sold nearly 50,000 copies a year ago.
