The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending August 17, 2014

The winning streak continued in the week ended Aug. 17, 2014—the sixth consecutive week in which unit sales of print books were up year over year. Unit sales grew 1% compared to week 33 of 2013 at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The gains were driven by the retail & club channel, which had a 3% increase in sales, offsetting a 5% decline in the mass-merchandiser channel. The two juvenile segments had big gains in the week, led by juvenile fiction, where units were up 16% compared to the week ended Aug. 18, 2013. Two paperback versions of The Giver, one a tie-in to the August 15 movie release, showed the biggest sales jumps. Juvenile nonfiction units rose 13% year over year ,as Minecraft: Redstone Handbook and Minecraft: Essential Handbook led the way. Adult fiction sales fell 4% in the week, well below the 11% drop in the year to date, as new releases from Haruki Murakami, Debbie Macomber, and James Rollins did well. Unit sales of physical audiobooks, which have had a solid 2014, took an unexpected plunge in week 33, falling 23%.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

Source: Nielsen BookScan and Publishers Weekly. Nielsen BookScan’s U.S. Consumer Market Panel covers approximately 80% of the print book market and continues to grow.