Ashlee Simpson writes the book on tenacity

In a week without major new pop releases, Ashlee Simpson’s “Autobiography” reclaimed the top spot Wednesday on the nation’s album sales chart.

Sales of most albums dipped from the previous week, but Simpson’s increased about 6% to 286,000 in its third week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album has sold 955,000 to date. Last week’s top seller, volume 16 in the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” hits compilation series, dropped to No. 2 on sales of 276,000, down 45% from its first-week figure 504,000.

Prince’s “Musicology” re-entered the Top 10 with a 22% sales increase that pushed it eight slots up the chart to No. 7, probably reflecting last week’s resumption of his tour, at which all ticket buyers also receive a copy of the album, and his stint on CNN’s “Music Room” over the weekend.

The soundtrack from “Princess Diaries 2” entered at No. 27 with sales of 33,000.