Forget Judith Regan’s expulsion from the Murdoch empire—the biggest story in publishing right now is that Advanced Marketing Services, a major book distributor, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 29. This is a major blow. AMS owes publishing houses millions of dollars. Random House is owed $43.3 million, Penguin is owed more than $20 million, and HarperCollins is owed a cool $18 million. That’s a big deal, but these companies have deep-enough pockets to stay in business. What’s much scarier is that AMS owns Publishers Group West, which distributes smaller presses such as Soft Skull, McSweeney’s, Carroll & Graf and Grove/Atlantic. So AMS could drag some of our best independent presses, which publish some of our best and most inventive authors, down with it. We’ll keep you posted.