For the second week in a row, Dav Pilkey’s Canine Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Below the Sea: A Graphic Novel (Canine Man #11): From the Creator of Captain Underpants, was the perfect promoting guide within the US, in accordance with numbers posted by Publishers Weekly offered by Circana Bookscan. The guide bought 152,650 copies.
It was Canine Man #11’s second week topping the chart. Final week it debuted at primary with 225,612 copies bought. It’s two week complete: 378,262. That is additionally the third week in a row {that a} graphic novel was topped the BookScan finest vendor record. Three weeks in the past it was Spy X Household, Vol. 9, promoting 31,486 copies.
Canine Man was the one graphic novel representing within the Prime Ten for this week, nevertheless. And thought the gross sales are spectacular, it’s still slower than previous Dog Man volumes.
The return of Dav Pilkey’s insanely widespread hero got here at the same time as – maintain on to your hats – guide gross sales this yr have been rising general, in accordance with PW.
In line with preliminary figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, February bookstore gross sales elevated 10.7% over final yr, rising to $609
The February improve adopted a virtually 16% gross sales bounce in January gross sales. The mixture of the 2 sturdy months resulted in a 14.3% rise in bookstore gross sales within the first two months of 2023 over the comparable interval in 2022. Gross sales in 2023 had been $1.60 billion, up from $1.40 billion within the first two months of 2022.
Circana figures present guide gross sales as slat, for a similar interval, nevertheless it’s a hopeful signal that guide gross sales received’t be utterly tanked by no matter financial upheaval we’re going by way of proper now. As we reported earlier, indie bookstores are among the many most recession proof companies.
The resiliency of the guide market appears counter intuitive given the tip of homebound pandemic studying…however a guide is a remarkably sturdy platform for leisure. And, lest we neglect, graphic novels rely as books.
All this comes amidst a common slowdown for comics and graphic novel gross sales earlier this yr. In line with a February Bookscan report, present in Publishing Views, though GN gross sales stay sturdy, they slowed down within the first six weeks of 2023, down 13% from 2022, with juvenile comics declining for the primary time in additional than a decade.
Maybe the return of Canine Man, one of the crucial widespread comics characters of all time, will enhance the numbers for the spring. Right here’s some charts displaying general Comics and GN gross sales from Circana BookScan, as reported by Kristen McLean, government director and trade analyst.
