The late Easter week in 2022 caught up with book sales last week, with print unit sales tumbling 27% compared to the Easter week ended April 16, 2022, at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. (Easter week sales in 2023, which ended April 9, were up 4.7% over 2022). With Easter now in the rearview mirror—making year-to-year sales more meaningful—year-to-date sales through the week ended April 15 were down 1.9% from the comparable period in 2022.
All categories had declines in sales last week. Adult fiction suffered the least, with sales falling 7.9%. Two of the top three bestsellers in the category were new, and the best a Colleen Hoover title could do was a fourth place showing. Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez was the #1 adult fiction book, selling more than 23,000 copies in its first week on sale. John Sandford’s newest book, Dark Angel, was in third place, selling nearly 22,000 copies.
Sales in adult nonfiction and YA fiction both dropped 14.6%. In adult nonfiction, two new releases were among the top 10 bestsellers. Truly Simple by Kristin Cavallari was in third place, selling over 14,000 copies, and Jeffrey Eisner’s Super Shortcut Instant Pot was in the fifth spot, selling nearly 12,000 copies.
The YA fiction segment had no new titles among its top-sellers last week. Laura Nowlin’s If He Had Been with Me was #1, selling over 14,000 copies.
The juvenile categories had the biggest declines last week, with fiction sales plunging 47.7% and nonfiction falling 45.9%. Religion books still were popular last week in nonfiction, with The Beginner’s Bible at #1, selling about 3,600 copies. (The week prior, My First Learn and Read Bible was #1, selling nearly 12,000 copies.) Dav Pilkey’s Twenty Fleas Under the Sea (Dog Man #11) remained in the top spot in juvenile fiction, selling more than 60,000 copies, down from over 153,000 copies in the prior week.
