Unit sales of print books fell 7.9% last week from the comparable week in 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. Sales were down in all categories.
The young adult fiction segment had the best performance, with units off just1%. The category had the number one book of the week, The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, which sold nearly 40,000 copies in its first week on sale. The category also had a second title that did well in its first week, with American Royals IV: Reign by Katharine McGee selling over 6,000 copies, putting it in 10th place on the category list.
Adult nonfiction sales fell 6.4%. Two new books were in the category top 10, though they sold in modest numbers. The Old Farmer’s Almanac Trade Edition sold over 10,000 copies, good enough for sixth place, and Vax-Unvax by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was in ninth place, selling just under 8,000 copies.
Adult fiction continued to struggle, with sales declining 9.5%. The category had a new sales leader, with Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s Assistant to the Villain dethroning another Entangled Publishing title, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, selling over 35,000 copies in its first week compared to just under 35,000 copies for Fourth Wing. Last year at this time, adult fiction was enjoying the BookTok boom, with Colleen Hoover’s first place It Ends with Us selling about 70,000 copies, while Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Carrie Soto is Back was the bestselling new release, selling about 34,000 copies.
Juvenile nonfiction sales dropped 10.7% in the week. Pop-up Peekaboo! Pumpkin moved into the number one spot, selling just under 9,000 copies.
