Late Easter Leads to Unit Drop at End of March

Unit sales of print books dropped 7.1% in the week ended Mar. 23, 2019, compared to the similar week in 2018, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The lateness of Easter this year took a big bite out of the juvenile fiction and nonfiction categories, where sales fell 19.5% and 16.3%, respectively, compared to the week ended Mar. 24, 2018. With Easter being celebrated on Apr. 1, 2018, as opposed to Apr. 21, 2019, the top 10 juvenile fiction bestsellers in the week ended Mar. 24, 2018, featured a heavy dose of Easter and spring books. Among them were Little Blue Truck’s Springtime by Alice Schertle, which sold about 18,000 copies, and Llama Llama Easter Egg by Anna Dewdney, which sold more than 16,000 copies. The juvenile nonfiction category also had its share of seasonal titles on the top 10 list last year, including Easter Eggstravaganza: Mad Libs by Roger Price, which sold nearly 9,000 copies, and The Story of Easter by Patricia Pingry, which sold more than 8,000 copies. Easter doesn’t have the same impact on the adult market as it does on the juvenile segment, and the adult nonfiction category managed to post a 1.8% increase in the week ended Mar. 23, 2019. Six of the top 10 nonfiction bestsellers were new, led by On the Right Side of History by Ben Shapiro, which sold more than 47,000 copies. Ninth and 10th on the list were Doing Justice, by former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, which sold nearly 13,000 copies, and Kushner Inc. by Vicky Ward, which sold more than 11,000 copies. Units in adult fiction fell 3.6%, even as sales of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens doubled from the previous week, to more than 75,000.

Total Sales of Print Books

(in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

(in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

(in thousands)