With all categories except adult fiction posting declines, unit sales of print books fell 6.1% last week from the comparable week in 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan.
Sales of adult nonfiction fell 7.8% despite a good debut by Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis, which was the #1 seller overall last week, selling nearly 62,000 copies. Sales in some of adult nonfiction’s biggest segments, however, had big declines, including reference, where units dropped 18.7%, and general nonfiction, which had a 17.3% decline.
Juvenile fictional sales fell 6.6% compared to the week ended May 1, 2021. Within the category, sales of general juvenile fiction were down 9.2%, while sales in the social situations/family/health subcategory declined 12%.
Juvenile nonfiction sales dropped 10.4%. Sales of social situations/family/health had a big decline as well, falling 28.3%.
Adult fiction was the bright spot in the week, albeit with an increase of only 1.4%. It was another good week for Colleen Hoover, who had the #1 title in the category with It Ends with Us, which sold about 29,000 copies, and the #6 seller, Ugly Love, which sold more 16,000 copies. The bestselling new release was Shadow Fire by Christine Feehan, which sold just under 16,000 copies, putting it in eighth place on the category list.
Young adult fiction sales declined 12.6% last week. Last year at this time, Leigh Bardugo’s books were enjoying a sales spurt thanks to a Netflix series based on her Shadow and Bone title, which lifted six of Bardugo’s books into the top 10 category bestsellers. Shadow and Bone was #1 in the category last week, selling over 21,000 copies. Last week, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series placed four titles on the category’s last, led by Heartstopper, Vol. 1, which sold just over 17,000 copies.
