I only vaguely noticed news reports over the New Year about a company called AMS declaring bankruptcy. I didn’t realize until just today that AMS was the parent company for Publisher’s Group West. PGW is the main distributor for your favorite indy presses, including Avalon (Seal, etc.), Soft Skull, McSweeney’s and Milkweed, among others. “Things aren’t looking pretty, and the losses, may run deep,” says GalleyCat. PGW won $75 million in debtor-in-possession financing, but that money will go towards keeping PGW afloat, not paying off its creditors, Ed Champion points out. Bottom line is, these publishers are probably losing all their sales from the past three months, the most crucial time of year.

So now would be an excellent time for you to support your favorite small publisher directly. Soft Skull offers a package of its 2006 fiction releases for just $100. McSweeney’s publishes a couple of magazines, and sells subscriptions plus copies of its books through its web site. Milkweed has a shopping cart function too, but I couldn’t find one on the Avalon site. Anyway, buy direct from the small presses wherever you can!