Juvenile Categories Spur Modest Sales Increase

Unit sales of print books posted a modest gain in the week ended June 18, 2017, over the similar week in 2016 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Sales rose 2% last week over 2016, led by a 9% increase in unit sales in the juvenile nonfiction segment. For the third week in a row, Chelsea Clinton’s She Persisted was the #1 seller in the category, with over 13,000 copies sold. Summer Bridge Activities also remained popular in the week, with six books in the series on the category top 10 list, selling over 34,000 copies. Unit sales in juvenile fiction rose 4% over the week ended June 19, 2016. While Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss stayed #1 in the category, Jimmy Fallon’s Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada had a strong sales performance, selling over 10,000 copes, putting it in fifth place on the juvenile fiction bestseller list.

Unit sales of adult nonfiction increased 3% over 2017. The gain was led by Newt Gingrich’s Understanding Trump, which sold over 37,000 copies in its first week on sale, making it #1 in adult nonfiction. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken remained in the second spot of the category bestseller list, selling over 26,000 copies. Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies: The Civil War by Steve Fisher moved up three spots on the bestseller list to #5, selling almost 20,000 copies. Another strong week of sales by John Grisham’s Camino Island was not enough to prevent unit sales in the adult fiction category from declining 4%. Camino sold almost 96,000 copies in the week, easily outdistancing Tom Clancy Point of Contact by Mike Maden, which sold about 25,000 copies, good enough for second place on the category list in its first week on sale.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format (in thousands)