Holiday book sales got off to a good start during Thanksgiving week. Unit sales of print books rose 5% in the week ended Nov. 30, 2014, compared to Thanksgiving week last year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Sales through mass merchandisers were up 9%, and sales through the retail & club channel increased 4%. The juvenile nonfiction segment had the best performance in the week, with sales up 21%, led by Minecraft, Elf on the Shelf, and Frozen titles. The juvenile fiction segment also posted double-digit gains compared to the similar week in 2013, led by a slew of Disney Press releases. Disney’s annual holiday promotion gave the publisher nine of the 13 top-selling titles in the segment. Jeff Kinney’s The Long Haul, however, continued to top the juvenile fiction chart, selling more than 221,000 copies in the week ended November 30. The adult nonfiction category had a 2% increase over week 48 of 2013, despite the fact that there were no big debuts. Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard’s Killing Patton had a nice sales jump over the previous week and was the top nonfiction title, selling more than 62,000 copies.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

Dec. 1, 2013 Nov. 30, 2014 % Chge Week % Chge YTD
Total 15,049 15,826 5% 2%
Mass Merch./Other 4,024 4,386 9 -2
Retail & Club 11,025 11,441 4 3

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

Dec. 1, 2013 Nov. 30, 2014 % Chge Week % Chge YTD
Hardcover 5,737 6,463 13% 2%
Trade Paperback 6,360 6,690 5 3
Mass Market Paperback 1,367 1,241 -9 -11
Board Books 784 731 -7 16
Audio 112 109 -3 -0.3

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

Dec. 1, 2013 Nov. 30, 2014 % Chge Week % Chge YTD
Adult Nonfiction 4,588 4,703 2% 0.4%
Adult Fiction 2,728 2,649 -3 -9
Juvenile Nonfiction 1,294 1,570 21 14
Juvenile Fiction 5,419 6,069 12 12