Led by strong demand for Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, unit sales of print books rose 14.5% in the week ended November 21 over the prior week at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Promised Land sold nearly 835,000 copies at outlets that report to BookScan in its first week on sale.
It wasn’t just the Obama title that drove gains in the week. Eight of the top 10 adult nonfiction bestsellers were new. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (D&D Rules Expansion) sold more than 82,000 copies; Lysa Terkeurst’s Forgiving What You Can’t Forget sold more than 70,000 copies; and Rupi Kaur’s Home Body sold nearly 52,000 copies. Another hot seller in the week was the Friends advent calendar, which sold more than 68,000 copies.
Sales of adult fiction rose 7.1% in the week. David Baldacci’s new title, Daylight, was the top seller in the category, selling more than 50,000 copies.
Print unit sales totaled just under 17.8 million units in the week ended November 21, up 26.3% from the comparable week in 2019. Sales through November 21 were 7.6% higher than in the comparable period in 2019.
