Sales of print book got off to a slow holiday season start as units fell 3% in the Thanksgiving week ended November 26, compared to the comparable week in 2016, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Units fell 9% in the mass merchandiser channel compared to last year, while sales to retailers and clubs slipped 1%.
The top-selling title in the week was Jeff Kinney’s newest Wimpy Kid book, The Getaway, which sold over 139,000 copies. A new release, Pete the Cat, by James Dean was in second place with over 104,000 copies sold. Four “5 Minute” Disney books also had a strong first week of sales with 5 Minute Disney Snuggle Stories, 5 Minute Disney Disney Princess, 5 Minute Disney Pixar, and 5 Minute Disney Avengers selling a total of roughly 281,000 copies in their first week on sale.
Despite the the 3% decline in overall sales for the week, print units were still up 2% in the first 47 weeks of 2017, over 2016.
