The lack of a successful new bestseller hasn’t stopped unit sales of printed books from surging 17.3% last week in the week ended Nov. 7, 2020 at point of sale, according to the NPD BookScan report. With the exception of children’s non-fiction, all major categories registered double-digit increases from last year. It was the third week in a row that sales increased by more than 7% from 2020.
Non-fiction for adults had their best performance in months, with units up 17.1%. Although David Venable Half homemade, completely delicious remained No. 1 on the category bestseller list with over 64,000 copies sold, four new titles were among the category’s top six bestsellers. at Philipp Dettmer Immune was in second place on the category list with over 38,000 copies sold followed by Paul McCartney Lyrics, which sold nearly 37,000 copies. The president and the freedom fighter by Brian Kilmeade sold over 28,000 copies in its first week on sale and was followed by Gary Larson Far Side 2022 Off-the-Wall Calendar, which has sold over 25,000 copies.
Unit sales of adult fiction jumped 29.4% over the 2020 period, with five new books among the category’s top 10 sellers. Mitch albom’s The stranger in the lifeboat was # 1, selling over 52,000 copies. Lore Olympus: Volume 1 by Rachel Smythe sold nearly 45,000 copies followed by that of Janet Evanovich Game on, 28, which sold over 44,000 copies.
Unit sales rose 28.8% in young adult fiction. at Marissa Meyer Golden sold over 9,000 copies in its first week on sale, making it the best seller in the category. Sales of children’s fiction increased by 14%. Jeff Kinney’s new track Wimpy Kid, Big cap, remained # 1 in the category, selling just over 124,000 copies. Second on the category list was Aaron Blabey’s The Villains in the Bee-Hind You!, which sold over 30,000 copies, followed by Aaron Slater, illustrator by Andrea Beaty, which sold around 27,000 copies.
Sales of non-fiction to children rose 9.7% last week, its best performance in months. Dan Green’s How to draw 101 animals was # 1 in the category, selling around 8,400 copies.
Sales of young adult non-fiction increased 35.8% from a year ago. Part of that increase is due to the ongoing listing of Johanna Basford’s adult coloring books in the young adult non-fiction category. Two Basford titles topped the category bestseller list and a third was in ninth place and totaled around 5,500 copies.