Holiday Book Orders Face Supply Strain, and Ingram Takes on More of the Load
At least one publisher is advising bookshops to order holiday stock through Ingram rather than placing orders directly with the publisher, Publishers Lunch reported on 29 October 2026.
The advice comes as problems in the book supply chain grow more pressing. The supply chain is the network of warehouses, shippers and wholesalers that moves a book from the printer to the shop shelf. Ingram is a wholesaler, a company that buys books from many publishers and resells them to bookshops and libraries.
The American Booksellers Association (ABA), the trade group for independent bookstores in the United States, is warning its members. Its chief executive, Allison Hill, sent a letter to booksellers setting out the challenges that will affect stores this holiday season. The ABA published the letter on 28 October 2026 under the title ABA CEO Allison Hill On Supply Chain Disruptions.
Hill's letter names three pressures on the workforce. She cited difficulty hiring warehouse workers, which she linked to a labour shortage. She also pointed to immigration enforcement by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in communities, and to hiring by Amazon, which competes for the same pool of workers.
The letter also points to a change in the wholesale market. This is the first full season without Baker & Taylor, another book wholesaler. That means Ingram will be handling a full load of orders from libraries and bookstores.
Why does the route matter? When a shop orders direct, it buys from the publisher itself. When it orders through a wholesaler, the order passes through that company's warehouses and shipping. Each route can affect how quickly a book arrives, and that can matter most in the weeks before the holidays, when shops expect their busiest sales.
The ABA letter also sets out recommendations and resources for members who want to plan around these problems. Its details, along with the advice to order through Ingram, are the clearest guide yet to how the holiday season may look for independent shops. For readers, the practical question is simple: the books on a bookshop's shelves this winter depend on routes like these.
