The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending May 11, 2014

Unit sales of print books rose 2% for the week ended May 11, 2014, compared to week 19 at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The increase was driven by double-digit gains in the juvenile fiction and nonfiction categories, and a small increase in adult nonfiction. In the juvenile fiction segment, sales of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series continued to roll along, with three editions of Fault selling a total of about 118,000 copies in the week, and the three top-selling Divergent books selling about 95,000 copies. Units in adult nonfiction rose 0.5% in week 19 of 2014 over the week ended May 12, 2013, and received a lift from two new books. Michelle Knight’s Finding Me topped the adult nonfiction list, selling just over 31,000 copies, while Glenn Beck’s Conform hit #2 and sold over 26,000 copies its first week. New hardcovers were in the two top spots in adult fiction, helping to limit the declines in the week. James Patterson’s Unlucky 13 was #1, selling over 66,000 copies, and John Sandford’s Field of Prey came in second, selling just under 39,000 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.