Bookslut has an interesting article by Alexis Wiggins on the lay of the land in independent publishing after the bankruptcy of Publisher’s Group West.

“We had sold 60,000 copies of What Is the What,” explains Eli Horowitz, publisher of McSweeney’s. Because of the PGW pay system, publishers received payments for sold books every 90 days. When the bankruptcy was announced, no one knew what was to become of the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sales for the previous quarter. “There were a couple months of confusion. Everyone was wondering what would happen,” Horowitz remembers. Publishers were faced with the prospect of a total loss of revenue for all fourth-quarter sales, a deathblow for many.