For the second consecutive week, gains in adult and young adult fiction were not enough to offset declines in all other categories, resulting in a 2.9% decline in unit sales of print books last week from the comparable week in 2022.
Once again, young adult fiction had the biggest weekly increase, with sales up 14.9% at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. The gain was led by four books by Suzanne Collins, including three tied to the film The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The original trade paperback edition topped the category, selling more than 36,000 copies; the trade paperback tie-in edition sold over 14,000 copies; and the hardcover sold over 9,000 copies. Volume one in the Hunger Games series, The Hunger Games, sold just over 15,000 copies.
There were no surprises in adult fiction, where sales increased 3.8%. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros was number one, selling over 63,000 copies, while her Iron Flame was in the second spot, selling nearly 54,000 copies. In third place was the well-reviewed The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which sold more than 52,000 copies.
Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor was once again the overall top seller in the week, selling nearly 98,000 copies in its second week—an increase of more than 20,000 copies over the memoir's first week. Still, the impressive performance was not enough to keep sales in the adult nonfiction category from falling 5.9%. Last year. The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama was number one, selling about 117,000 copies. The book in second place in both years was Jordan Moore’s Interesting Facts for Curious Minds published by Red Panda Press, which sold over 53,000 copies. The book sold 69,000 copies a year ago, and has sold a total of almost 452,000 copies at outlets that report to BookScan since its release in July 2022.
Sales of juvenile fiction and nonfiction both fell by about 4%. Books by Jeff Kinney and Dav Pilkey finished in first and second place, respectively, in juvenile fiction in both 2022 and 2023, but sales for the newer books were below that of the books released in 2022. Kinney’s No Brainer sold about 66,000 copies last week, down from the 80,000 copies sold by Diper Överlöde last year, and Pilkey’s Influencers sold just under 54,000, compared to the 65,000 copies Collaborations sold in 2022.
