Sales of both hardcovers and trade paperbacks, the industry’s two largest print categories, were up 2% in the first six months of this year, compared to the first half of 2013, leading to an overall 1% gain in print unit sales at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The best-performing format in the period was board books, which had a 17% increase, while sales of physical audiobooks finished the first half of 2014 with a 6% increase. Unit sales of mass market paperbacks, however, continued to decline, falling 12% so far this year. The format accounted for 12.2% of all unit sales reported to BookScan for the first half of 2014, down from 14.1% during the same period in 2013.

The juvenile segment drove the increase in print unit sales in the first six months of this year, led by a 14% increase in juvenile fiction, which benefitted from huge sales of the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. (For the bestselling books in the period, see p. 5.) Adult nonfiction sales held up well in the first half of 2014, with units off less than 1%. Unit sales in the adult fiction category fell 13% in the period—roughly in line with losses in the category for the past few years.

The retail and club channel, which includes both e-tailers and physical bookstores, saw a 2% increase in unit sales in the first six months of 2014, offsetting a 3% decline in the mass merchandiser channel. The retail and club channel accounted for about 81% of unit sales through BookScan outlets in the January–June period, up from 80% in the first half of 2013.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

January–June, 2013 v. 2014

2013* 2014** % Chge
Total 284,083,000 285,916,000 1%
Retail & Club 229,043,000 232,757,000 2%
Mass Merch./Other 55,040,000 53,159,000 -3%

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

January–June, 2013 v. 2014

2013* 2014** % Chge
Adult Nonfiction 111,219,000 110,890,000 -0.2%
Adult Fiction 74,276,000 64,719,000 -13%
Juvenile Nonfiction 18,683,000 20,737,000 11%
Juvenile Fiction 66,957,000 76,579,000 14%

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

January–June, 2013 v. 2014

2013* 2014** % Chge
Hardcover 71,365,000 72,658,000 2%
Trade Paperback 153,982,000 156,990,000 2%
Mass Market Paperback 39,946,000 35,143,000 -12%
Board Books 10,049,000 11,722,00 17%
Audio 2,308,000 2,444,000 6%

*Jan. 1 – June 30, 2013

**Jan. 1 – June 29, 2014

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.