Unit sales of print books fell 22% the week of Thanksgiving at the stores tracked by Nielsen BookScan, falling from 15.4 million units in 2010 to 12.0 million this year. Unit sales did see a 4% increase over the prior week. According to BookScan, unit sales of frontlist fell 24% in the most recent Thanksgiving week compared to 2010, while backlist units were off 20%.
The American Booksellers Association, however, said that sales at its member stores that are tracked by BookScan had a 15.5% increase in unit sales that week over 2010. The association also said that sales through store Web sites powered by ABA rose 60% in the Black Friday through Cyber Monday period. More than 330 bookstores are now selling Google eBooks through ABA powered sites.
ABA CEO Oren Teicher attributed the strong holiday start at indie bookstore to "the growing acceptance of the 'local first' movement; an extraordinary level of innovative and creative entrepreneurship; a willingness to adapt to changing retail trends including selling both print and digital books online; and, most importantly, continuing to be an unmatched source of credible information about books and authors."
