Nonfiction Categories Drive 3% Unit Gain

At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, unit sales of print books were 3% higher in the week ended Oct. 29, 2017, than in the comparable week in 2016. The adult nonfiction category had a solid week with units up 7% from the week ended Oct. 30, 2016. The increase was driven by a strong first week for The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It! by Ree Drummond, which sold more than 101,000 copies. Three other new titles finished among the top 10 bestselling books in the adult nonfiction category, including Sisters First by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush, which sold more than 30,000 copies, landing it in fourth place on the category bestseller list. Unit sales were 10% higher in the juvenile nonfiction segment than in the similar week in 2016. Harry Potter: A Journey Through a History of Magic by the British Library remained the #1 seller in the category with more than 20,000 copies sold; in its first week, the title sold more than 16,000 copies. In the juvenile fiction segment, units were up 5% over the comparable week in 2016, and a number of books that have been leading sales in the category continued to top the list. The two editions of John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down combined to sell about 39,000 copies, and Dork Diaries 12 by Rachel Renée Russell sold almost 26,000 copies. Print units were 6% lower than last year in the adult fiction segment despite the release of the newest John Grisham hardcover, The Rooster Bar, which sold more than 114,000 copies and was the top-selling book of the week. Last year at this time, Grisham’s The Whistler sold more than 124,000 copies. Sales of the 100 top-selling adult fiction titles were 12% lower than in the comparable week in 2016.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format (in thousands)