The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending May 3, 2015

Unit sales of print books dipped 0.3% in the week ended May 3, 2015, compared to the similar week last year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The slight decline was due to weak sales through the mass merchandiser channel that offset gains through the retail & club channel. The juvenile fiction segment was the only one of the four major categories to have a decline in the week, with units down 10%. The strongest-selling new title in the segment was Confessions, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, which landed at #5, selling just over 8,000 copies. Units of juvenile nonfiction rose 10% in the week, led by sales of Johanna Basford’s coloring book, Enchanted Forest, which sold more than 27,000 copies, putting it in the top spot. Although adults have been big buyers for the title, there’s no adult BISAC subject heading for coloring books, so, historically, they’ve been categorized as juvenile nonfiction/activity books (see Bestsellers, p. 12). The adult fiction and nonfiction segments both benefitted from new titles debuting at #1. Hope, by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, was tops in the adult nonfiction category, selling almost 30,000 copies in its first week on sale. John Sandford’s Gathering Prey was #1 in adult fiction, selling almost 39,000 copies in its debut week.

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.