Save indie publishers!

More evidence that publishing should be a non-profit venture, subsidized by our tax dollars (books not bombs!). The need to make a profit is killing the best of the indie best:

Ironically, PGW -- the largest American distributor of independent publishers -- was by all accounts having its best year ever, and the financial troubles of AMS, a corporate giant that mainly distributed to wholesalers like Costco and Sam's Club, brought it down. AMS filed for Chapter 11 on Dec. 29, a result of being unable to bounce back from SEC and FBI investigations into its advertising accounting practices -- which led to three executive indictments -- and a class-action suit on behalf of its shareholders. As Horowitz points out, "It wasn't the indie distributor; it was a big, old-fashioned corporation with accounting problems."

(Note: I reference a Salon article above, which may require watching a wee lil' ad to read the whole thing. Believe me, it's worth watching the little flash animation to get to the article.)