Unit sales of print books finished the first quarter down 1.7%, compared to the same period in 2023, at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. Sales in the quarter were given a boost by an earlier Easter than 2023, when the holy day took place on April 9—the first week of the second quarter. Still, sales in the year have gradually shown improvement after falling 6% in January, due mostly to sales of more than 900,000 copies of Spare in 2023.
Continuing a long pattern, the fiction categories did better than nonfiction in the first quarter, with all three fiction segments posting increases, albeit with juvenile fiction up only 0.1%. The big seller there was The Scarlet Shedder, the 12th volume in Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series, which has sold nearly 405,000 copies since its March 19 release. Young adult fiction sales were up 6.8%, helped by the strong showing of Laura Nowlin's If Only I Had Told Her, which sold over 271,000 copies in the quarter.
Adult fiction sales rose 4%, and novels held five of the top six bestseller slots in the quarter. Sarah J. Maas had the top overall seller in the quarter, with House of Flame and Shadow selling almost 477,000 copies, while her A Court of Thorns and Roses sold nearly 392,000 copies. Rebecca Yarros also had two of the top six books, with Fourth Wing and Iron Flame selling about 342,000 and 336,000 copies, respectively.
The only adult nonfiction title on the top 10 list was James Clear’s Atomic Habits, which sold nearly 335,000 copies. The Taylor Swift Little Golden Book biography continued to sing in the new year, selling more than 259,000 copies, but couldn't stop juvenile nonfiction sales from falling 6.8%.
