Seattle Book Publishing Takes a Hit
The announcement on Dec. 29 that San Diego-based Advanced Marketing Services is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection could have big effects for Seattle's tiny book publishing world.
AMS owns Publisher's Group West (PGW), a 30-year old distribution company specializing in small and medium-sized publishing companies. The bankruptcy filing by AMS casts in doubt PGW's ability to make payments to its publishers for last quarter's earnings--typically the highest grossing quarter for the publishing world, with holiday sales.
According to AMS's bankruptcy filing, made public by Publisher's Weekly, the company owes $2.2 million to the Avalon Publishing Group, which owns Seattle-based women's interest publishing house Seal Press, as well as publishes Everett-based Rick Steves' popular Europe Through The Back Door series. Additionally, the company owes over $800,000 to Bellevue-based book packager Becker & Mayer, and PGW is also a distributor for Seattle's premier publishing house, Sasquatch Books.
Other notably affected companies include McSweeney's Books, the imprint of Dave Egger's perennially popular San Francisco-based literary journal, which also co-publishes books with one of PGW's largest client publishers, Grove/Atlantic ($1.1 million owed per the bankruptcy statement); 826 Valencia, the non-profit writing center supported by Dave Eggers (amongst others) that operates a Seattle chapter, 826 Seattle; former Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins' micropress 2.13.61; and the Bathroon Readers' Institute, the Ashland, Oregon-based publisher of the pop-culture trivia series Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
This morning AMS won a small battle, gaining a $75 million loan to keep operating during bankruptcty proceedings. The company's troubles stemmed from accounting scandals for earnings reported in 2003; on Dec. 12, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that former AMS VP Sandra Miller Christie was sentenced to 36 months in prison for falsifying earnings, and on Dec. 28, the company's creditor announced it would not extend the company's credit--due largely to its failure to restate earnings--precipitating the bankfuptcy filing.
Problem is, no one knows if that means the publishers will get paid their holiday sales revenue. Failure to do so could have a ripple effect through the publishing world, with dozens of small pubs forced to close up shop.
