The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending March 1, 2015

Unit sales of print books fell 2% in the week ended Mar. 1, 2015 compared to the similar week last year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The decline was due mainly to softness in the mass merchandiser channel, where sales fell 10% in the week. The only segment to post an increase in sales was juvenile nonfiction, which had an 8% gain. Random House titles held the four top spots on the juvenile nonfiction list, led by Tish Rabe’s There’s No Place Like Space, which sold almost 17,000 copies. Random House titles took 23 of the top 24 bestseller places in juvenile fiction during the week, but units in the segment fell 6% compared to week nine of 2014. Dr. Seuss books again dominated the list, with Green Eggs and Ham at #1, selling more than 45,000 copies. The only book to break the RH hold was Jeff Kinney’s The Long Haul, which was at #19, having sold more than 13,000 copies. Three new books helped limit the decline in adult fiction to 1% in the week, as One Wish, by Robyn Carr; Daniele Steel’s Prodigal Son; and David Baldacci’s The Target trailed only The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins, which was tops in the week, selling more than 42,000 copies. Units in adult nonfiction fell by less than 1%, as two movie tie-in editions of American Sniper ran one-two in the week, selling a total of about 64,500 copies. Since the beginning of 2015, those two editions have sold more than 692,000 copies, while the regular mass market paperback sold almost 132,000 copies.

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.