Publishers Group West and the End of Independent Publishing as We Know It

The Story of the Largest Bankruptcy in Publishing History

Berkeley, California-based Publishers Group West was a book sales and distribution company that represented over 100 independent publishers. While it serviced some larger publisher imprints of Random House and Simon & Schuster, PGW was the marketing and distribution salvation for small quality presses like McSweeney's, Soft Skull Press, and my own publisher Foxrock Books.

On December 29, 2006, PGW's parent company declared bankruptcy, freezing many independent publishers' end-of-the-year sales revenues and sending them into a state of financial crisis. McSweeney's was the highest profile of these publishers. Advanced Marketing, PGW's parent company, wound up owing them $600,000 worth of sales revenue.

How did this happen? And is this the beginning of the end for all traditional independent publishing?

At its beginning in 1976, Publishers Group West was an idealistic small publishers marketing collective started by Charlie Winton, a young Stanford University graduate. Back then, the group not only warehoused and shipped small press books, they actually promoted many of these books, creating surprise bestsellers like National Book Award winner "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier.

In 2002, after almost 30 years in business, Winton decided that he wanted to leave the distribution business and become a full-time independent publisher. He then sold PGW to a large company called Advanced Marketing Services, known for stocking book shelves, tables and magazine racks in Costcos and Sam's Clubs throughout the country. This was not a very comfortable fit for publishers like Foxrock Books with literary titles by Marguerite Duras and Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett.