I had been guessing that Baker & Taylor wasn't going to last much longer for some time - ever since they said they were "negotiating" with suppliers really. I saw the writing on the wall in summer 2025 and cancelled all my outstanding orders and downloaded all my carts. I put my last few orders in the fall in through Amazon and then just ignored the whole thing - I was moving the whole children's department and doing conference presentations so I was a little busy.
Late in the year and into the new year I looked at a lot of different vendors and placed some exploratory orders. I also started using Edelweiss a lot more to look at new things and build lists. They're not perfect - a lot of smaller publishers aren't on there and I still don't find their interface very intuitive - but I am getting better at using it. (A sure sign they're going out of business in the near future probably).
I am not a fan of Ingram. I find their interface very difficult to use and I miss our Baker & Taylor reps. Like a lot of new clients, we initially had issues with their shipping and I am still extremely salty about the shipping they charged on ONE book, then told us our rep had to change our shipping defaults, then we couldn't get into contact with the rep to change said defaults for a long time! I am very suspicious about their "we'll decide if something is a hot item and send it alone and charge you for it" which is one of the reasons I am no longer preordering.
I am not wild about Amazon - asides from the ethical implications of using them, their packaging is both horrendous and wasteful and their return process a nightmare. However, realistically, I have to use what is available and what is the least expensive.
I investigated Mackin way, way back when Baker & Taylor bought BWI and looked at them again - I like their interface, they've got great customer service, but the reality is that they're just too expensive. Their prices make sense, since they offer free shipping and processing, but I don't need the latter. I have also found Mackin's invoicing process a little confusing, but that makes sense since they're primarily set up to work with schools.
My most pleasant surprise was trying out Bound to Stay Bound - their customer service is great (they were polite even when I asked a really stupid question lol) - the quality of their books is amazing, and they're quite affordable. I am a little nervous that they are partnering with Ingram - no good comes of small companies getting gulped by bigger companies in my opinion, but so long as I can still order directly from them it's ok. I have ordered some prebounds from Mackin that weren't available on BTSB - they're only a fraction more expensive and the bindings are comparable.
I never got a clear answer on whether or not you could request items be bound, or how one does that. I'll follow up on it eventually - I'm primarily searching for Papercutz Disney graphic novels, IDW comics like Sonic, and Garfield.
Two subsidiary vendors I've been using are overstock/bargain sellers, Book Depot and Book Outlet. Book Depot charges shipping and requires a minimum of $100 purchase. Book Outlet does free shipping on orders over $35. I use Book Depot primarily for paperbacks, which make the shipping affordable, and for items for my outreach library or for prize books. Book Outlet titles are usually discounted 50% or more, but require a lot of searching - the inventory changes constantly and it's very easy to get caught up in constantly looking for items. I try to do it no more than once a month, unless I need some backlist titles for a school event or something gets popular suddenly and I want extra copies.
I still hope to purchase direct from a handful of publishers - Lerner and Capstone primarily, but I've also used Creative and Bellwether in the past. However, those purchases were almost always funded by grant/donation funds and I don't know whether I will be receiving those this year or not.
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