Circana Bookscan reported sales for the week ending December 23, with a strong finish to holiday book sales: They recorded sales of 31.68 million print units, up 1.74 million units over the same week a year ago, a gain of 5.8 percent. That makes for the strongest week 51 in the Bookscan calendar over the past five years, and is comparable to the final big holiday weeks (week 50) from 2020 and 2021. Continuing its strength from the year, adult fiction registered its best holiday week in the last five years, moving 6.8 million units. That strong finish puts sales […]
Statistics
Holiday Sales Come Down to Final Week
For the sales week ending December 16, Circana Bookscan reports weekly sales of 28.6 million units, falling behind last year’s sales of 29.5 million units in the same week. But with Christmas on Monday, booksellers should see another very full week of sales leading into the holiday. As Circana Bookscan analyst Kristen McLean wrote a week ago, “Overall we expect the close of 2023 to look very much like 2022 — two shallower ‘Super Saturdays’ rather than a single high peak.” Unit sales are expected to run about 3 percent below last year’s totals. For the eight weeks of sales […]
Strong Final Holiday Sales Week Surpasses 2021
As anticipated, the inclusion of an extra pre-holiday shopping day helped to lift the final week of holiday sales above the same closing week from last year. Notably, it’s the first and only week in the holiday sales stretch in which 2022 sales outpaced the same week from 2021. (Indeed, the last time a 2022 sale week was ahead of the comparable week from a year ago was in late August.) According to NPD Bookscan, week 51 sales for the period ending December 24 saw print sales of 29.8 million units, versus 27.1 million units a year ago and 23.3 […]
AAP Sales Fell 14.3 Percent In October
The AAP reported sales for October, which is usually the biggest month for reporting publishers as they ship big fall releases and fill store inventory in preparation for holiday sales. Overall trade sales were 14.3 percent lower than the record showing a year ago, falling $151 million, but still the second-strongest October showing. Adult sales of $598 million were down 16.4 percent from $716 million a year ago, on lower sales across all print formats. Consumer sales held up fine, with adult digital audio up over $9 million to $61 million, getting ever closer to ebook sales at $70 million, […]
Hoover’s Print Sales Have Topped 7 Million Units in 2022
NPD Bookscan noted in a release that Colleen Hoover has sold 7.3 million print books so far this year, through August 27. Right now she occupies four of the top six spots on Bookscan’s most recent bestseller list, and nine of the top 20 spots — with titles from three different publishers. Year to date, she holds five of the top eight bestselling print books as well. Her new book, IT STARTS WITH US, publishes October 18 and “is expected to smash presale records,” Bookscan adds. The majority of Hoover’s books are categorized as romance, and a separate release from […]
Media Coverage Drives Sales for Challenged and Banned Books
NPD BookScan looked at sales data for books that have been removed from shelves or publicly challenged, finding that media attention converts into sales spikes — though the absolute numbers range widely. “When a book finds itself at the top of a national news story because it has received a challenge, sales go up,” said Kristen McLean, books industry analyst for NPD. “But that doesn’t translate into an overall sales boost for other banned books. It’s the immediacy of the story, and viewers’ reaction to it, that drives increased sales. It is also likely that many consumers don’t know what […]