Print Units Dipped 0.8% at The End of August

Some softness in adult nonfiction was enough to drive down sales of print units 0.8% for the week ended Aug. 31, 2019, compared to the similar week in 2018, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The top title in the category was Jeanine Pirro’s Radicals, Resistance, and Revenge, which sold nearly 27,000 copies in its first week. The #1 adult nonfiction title for the week ended Sept. 1, 2018, was Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis, which sold more than 60,000 copies. In second place last year at this time was John McCain’s The Restless Wave, which sold about 18,000 copies following the death of the senator. Juvenile nonfiction sales had another good week, with units up 8.6% over 2018. Best Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham landed on top of the category list in its first week, selling nearly 12,000 copies. Back-to-school workbooks dominated the rest of the category’s top 10 list. Adult fiction sales rose for the second week in a row, increasing 2.1% in the most recent week over 2018. Three new books were among the top four bestsellers, led by A Better Man by Louise Penny, which sold nearly 54,000 copies in its first week. In third place was The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz, which sold almost 24,000 copies, followed by Danielle Steel’s The Dark Side, which sold about 19,000 copies. Juvenile fiction unit sales fell 2.4%. Dav Pilkey had the #1 book in the category in both 2018 and 2019: Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas sold about 135,000 copies in the week ended Sept. 1, 2018, while Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls sold 75,000 copies in the most recent week.

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