Unit Sales Flat in Early March

Unit sales of print books were flat in the week ended Mar. 9, 2019, compared to the similar week in 2018, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. A 6.5% gain in the adult nonfiction category offset declines in the other three major categories. The gain was due to several strong debuts, led by Girl, Stop Apologizing, Rachel Hollis’s follow-up to the still-steady-selling Girl, Wash Your Face. Stop Apologizing sold more than 156,000 copies in its first week, making it the #1-selling title of the week. Other new books atop the adult nonfiction bestseller list were The Case for Trump by Victor Davis Hanson, which sold nearly 27,000 copies and landed in third place on the category list, and Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin, which sold more than 20,000 copies, putting it in fifth place on the list. Adult fiction print unit sales fell 5.5% compared to the week ended Mar. 10, 2018. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens remained #1 with more than 30,000 units sold, followed by the trade paperback edition of A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window, which sold 20,000 copies in its first week. Unit sales in the juvenile fiction segment declined 3.2% compared to the similar week last year, as Dr. Seuss titles continued to dominate the category list, topped by Green Eggs and Ham, which sold almost 38,000 copies. Last year at this time, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle was the category #1 title, selling almost 50,000 copies. The good showing by the new adult nonfiction titles boosted hardcover unit sales by 11.4% over 2018.

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