The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending January 18, 2015

Unit sales of print books rose 2% in the week ended Jan. 18, 2015, compared to the similar week last year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. As it did in the first two weeks of 2015, the retail & club channel led the way in week three, posting a 3% increase over the week ended Jan. 19, 2014. The gain offset a 6% decline in sales through the mass merchandisers channel. One of the most significant changes in the most recent week was the (small) decline in unit sales in juvenile fiction. The category had a very strong 2014, but with no new big hits early in 2015, sales dipped 0.08%. The top-selling juvenile fiction title in the week was Jeff Kinney’s The Long Haul, which sold just under 22,000 copies; in 2014, there were five titles that sold better than Long Haul, led by Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Offsetting softness in juvenile fiction, adult fiction (which had a decline in units in 2014) saw a 2% unit gain in the week ended Jan. 18, 2015. Two new titles topped the adult fiction chart in the week: Saint Odd by Dean Koontz sold almost 24,000 copies, followed by Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train, which sold over 22,000 copies. In terms of format, increases in trade paperback and board books offset declines in hardcover, mass market paperback, and physical audio.

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.