Unit sales of print books fell 4% last week from the comparable period in 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan.
It was the best sales performance since mid-June, and was due in part to only modest declines in the adult nonfiction and young adult fiction categories, where sales dipped 1.4% and 0.2%, respectively. Adult nonfiction had a new number one seller in The Josiah Manifesto by Jonathan Cahn, which sold more than 17,000 copies in its first week. A second new release, Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski, sold just over 10,000 copies, putting it in sixth spot on the category list.
In young adult fiction, The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes remained number one, selling nearly 13,000 copies. Alice Oseman’s This Winter was the bestselling new title, selling more than 11,000 copies.
Sales of adult fiction fell 4.8% despite four new titles among the top 10 category bestsellers. Stephen King’s Holly was number one, selling over 108,000 copies. Lucy Score’s Things We Left Behind was in second place, selling more than 78,000 copies. J.D. Robb’s Payback in Death was in the fourth spot in its first week, selling almost 26,000 copies; last year at this time, Robb’s Desperation in Death debuted by selling almost exactly the same number of copies. King’s Fairy Tale was number one at that time, selling over 128,000 copes—20,000 fewer copies than Holly posted this year.
Juvenile fiction had new books in the second and third spots on the category list, but sales still fell 6.5%. Miriam Bonastre Tur’s Hooky, Vol. 3 sold nearly 16,000 copies, and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh! by Mo Willems sold just over 14,000 copies.
