For the second week in a row, unit sales of print books were down compared to 2020. Units dropped 3.9% last week compared to the week ended July 18 2020 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
Nonfiction continued to be the most challenged category, with units down in all three nonfiction segments including adult nonfiction, where sales declined 9.1%. The category did have the top-selling book of the week, Mark Levin’s American Marxism, which sold nearly 330,000 hardcover copies in its first week on sale. (Publisher Threshold said the book sold 400,000 copies across all formats).
Marxism easily outsold two books examining the Trump Administration. Michael Wolff’s Landslide sold about 25,000 copies in its first week on sale, and Frankly, We Did Win the Election by Michael Bender sold almost 15,000 copies in its first week out. A year ago, Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough was #1 on the list, selling almost 339,000 copies, and books on social justice were also selling well.
Adult fiction and young adult fiction were the two bright spots in the week. Adult fiction sales rose 16.5%, led by new novels. The Cellist by Daniel Silva sold nearly 49,000 copies, and The Adventure Zone by Clint McElroy and Carey Pietsch sold more than 21,000 copies.
Sales in young adult fiction jumped 34.4% over 2020, led by a familiar sales pattern: strong backlist sales complemented by a few new releases. Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End, published in 2018, was #1, selling over 15,000 copies, while the top frontlist title, Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, was #3, selling just under 8,000 copies.
The juvenile nonfiction segment had one of its biggest declines of the year, with units falling 21.6%. Sales were down in all but one of the segment’s subcategories. With most schools prepared to hold in-person classes this fall, parents do not appear to be buying nearly as many educational books for homeschooling. Last year at this time, My First Learn to Write Workbook by Crystal Radke sold almost 40,000 copies; last week, it sold less than 8,000 copies. The #1 title in the category was School Zone Big Preschool Yearbook, which sold just over 12,000 copies.