Print Units Through September Up 2%
Despite the lack of a hot new title in the first nine months of 2017, print unit sales for the period were 2% higher than in the comparable timeframe in 2016. According to NPD BookScan, print units were 467.7 million in the January–September period, up from 460.6 million the previous year. While it is certainly possible that some fall books will ring up big numbers, the small sales gain to date has been driven by backlist titles. Only three of the year’s top 10 bestsellers to date were released in this calendar year. John Grisham’s Camino Island was the top new book, selling more than 528,000 print copies since its release in June to land at #5 on the year-to-date bestseller list. The other new titles on the top 10 list are Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 (#7) and Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (#10). The bestselling title so far this year is Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. Released in October 2015, the book has sold more than 706,000 copies in 2017, easily outdistancing the second-place book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. Click Read More below for more of the story.