The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending March 15, 2015

After two weeks of small declines, unit sales of print books rose 2% in the week ended Mar. 15, 2015, compared to the similar week last year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The retail & club channel had another solid week, with units up 4% over the week ended Mar. 16, 2014, and for the year to date. The gains in the retail & club channel offset declines in the mass merchandisers channel. Both the adult segments had gains in the week, with fiction up 4% over week 11 of 2014 and nonfiction ahead by 3%. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins, held on to the top spot, with 44,000 units sold—20,000 more than the runner up, which was The Target, by David Baldacci. The highest debut on the list was Debbie Macomber’s The Last One Home, which sold almost 17,000 copies, putting it #5 on the fiction list. The 3% increase in adult nonfiction was aided by the strong debut of Dead Wake, by Erik Larson, which sold nearly 43,000 copies, putting it at the top of the nonfiction list. Another good debut was Shane Dawson’s I Hate Myselfie, which sold about 13,000 copies—good enough for fourth place. Animals, by Jennifer Quasha, was #1 in juvenile nonfiction, selling more than 8,000 copies and helping to give the category a 16% increase over the similar week last year. Dr. Seuss titles remained atop the juvenile fiction list, but sales were down compared to the previous week, and with no strong debuts, sales for the segment fell 3% over week 11 of 2014.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

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.