Despite panic among many publishers and booksellers about the state of the business, figures compiled by Nielsen BookScan show that unit sales fell only 0.2% in 2008, to 756.1 million. The juvenile category had the strongest year, with unit sales ahead 6.2%; Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series was strong enough to help offset the roughly 10 million units sold in 2007 of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Unit sales of adult nonfiction were off the most in 2008, down 3.9%. The “other” category, which includes such items as calendars and maps, fell 2.0%. BookScan tracks about 70% of all book sales.
The figures also show a shift in consumers' format preference. Unit sales of trade paperbacks rose 2.0% last year, and sales of mass market paperbacks, a format that has struggled in recent years, had a 2.4% unit gain. Hardcover sales, meanwhile, fell 3.6%.
| 2007 | 2008 | % Change | |
| Source: Nielsen BookScan | |||
| Total | 757,641,000 | 756,070,000 | -0.2% |
| Subject Group | |||
| Adult Nonfiction | 311,429,000 | 299,364,000 | -3.9% |
| Adult Fiction | 202,881,000 | 203,678,000 | 0.4 |
| Juvenile | 177,976,000 | 188,966,000 | 6.2 |
| Other | 65,355,000 | 64,062,000 | -2.0 |
| By Format | |||
| Hardcover | 191,963,000 | 184,948,000 | -3.6 |
| Mass Market Paper | 120,176,000 | 123,087,000 | 2.4 |
| Trade Paperback | 387,524,000 | 395,202,000 | 2.0 |
| Other | 57,978,000 | 52,833,000 | -8.9 |
| *All figures exclude nontraditional panel, which was added in 2008 | |||
