After a strong first quarter — perhaps buoyed by relatively early calendar returns for live versions of the Bologna (March 21) and London (April 5) book fairs — deal reports in the US for the second quarter hewed more closely to the sales pattern for print books as measured by NPD Bookscan. In other words, deal volume was down compared to a record-smashing second quarter in 2021, declining 9.1 percent, but was still well ahead of previous years (and 8 percent better than in 2019, which had been a peak period). And even though total deal volume fell, reported six-figure […]