Another Soft Week for Unit Sales in January

Sales of print units are off to a slow start in 2019, falling 8.6% in the week ended Jan. 26, 2019, compared to the similar week in 2018, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Through January 26, unit sales were down 4.8%. The largest decline in the week came in adult nonfiction, where units dropped 10.5%. Last year at this time, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury was still a hot title, selling about 236,000 copies in the week ended Jan. 27, 2018, while Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life hit the adult nonfiction chart at #2, selling approximately 58,000 copies. In the similar week this year, Michelle Obama’s Becoming was the category’s #1 title, selling about 69,000 copies. Sales of adult fiction fell 8.6%, with The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris as the #1 title in the category, selling more than 19,000 copies. A year ago, new books by Christine Feehan (Judgment Road) and Danielle Steel (Fall from Grace) were second and third on the category bestseller list, respectively, with each selling more than 22,000 copies. A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window was #1, selling about 23,000 copies. Unit sales fell 6.9% in juvenile fiction in the week ended Jan. 26, 2019, due to midlist weakness. The #1 title on the juvenile fiction list, Brawl of the Wild (Dog Man #6) by Dav Pilkey, sold more than 38,000 copies—Pilkey’s Dog Man and Cat Kid sold 29,000 copies in the comparable week a year ago—putting it at #1 on the category list. In a look at sales by format, warning signs are flashing in mass market paperback and physical audio, where year-to-date sales were down 16.9% and 27%, respectively.

Total Sales of Print Books

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Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

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Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

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