Baker & Taylor's Liquidation Plan Goes to a Creditor Vote

Creditors of Baker & Taylor, the book and media wholesaler that shut down last fall, can now vote on the plan to wind up what is left of the company. At a hearing on October 27, Chief Judge Christine M. Gravelle of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, New Jersey, approved the disclosure statement for the company's Chapter 11 plan of liquidation, according to the court docket. The confirmation hearing is now set for December 8, 2026, at 2 p.m. Eastern.

The disclosure statement filed on October 27 sets the deadline to vote on the plan, and the deadline to object to it, at 4 p.m. Eastern on December 1. Baker & Taylor filed for Chapter 11 on March 16, 2026, in an effort to stop litigation and finish an orderly liquidation.

Not much left to share

The filing lists the company's remaining assets as roughly $290,000 in cash, about $605,000 in accounts receivable, about $323,000 in a former employee health-plan account and about $400,000 held as workers' compensation collateral. It still has some books and media, with a liquidation value of about $60,000, but "substantially all of the inventory is subject to claims of suppliers and asset purchasers," so the company puts its net value to the estate at less than $5,000. It may also collect a $1.25 million earnout from its 2025 sale of the Australian supplier James Bennett, if that business hits its targets.

Against that, unsecured claims asserted in the case total about $96.6 million, and the estimated recovery for that class is listed as unknown. Former employees have asserted another $8.3 million in WARN Act claims, which the company disputes. Administrative claims and professional fees are paid ahead of that class, and the lawyers for the company and the creditors' committee have agreed to defer part of their fees.

How the company got here

The disclosure statement describes the collapse in detail. In September 2025, Baker & Taylor agreed to sell its assets to the distributor Readerlink, a deal that would have kept most operations and jobs. Readerlink withdrew on September 26, 2025. Left without credit, the company let go about 600 of its 950 employees on October 6, 2025, and began winding down.

Over the following months it sold three divisions for a combined $2.1 million or more: Baker & Taylor Publisher Services, which was mostly housed in its Bookmasters affiliate; its digital business supplying e-books and audiobooks to public libraries; and CamCat Publishing, which offered publishing services to individual authors, mostly of children's books. It also sold more than $8.7 million in inventory through a liquidator and paid off its lender, CIT, in February 2026.

The plan names a plan administrator who will continue the creditors' committee's investigation into possible claims against the company's insiders and affiliates. Any money that brings in would go to creditors.

Why it matters for writers

Plenty of small presses, independent publishers and self-published authors sold through Baker & Taylor or worked with its former publishing services arm, and some of them are among its unsecured creditors. If you filed a claim before the July 17 deadline, look for a ballot. It has to reach the claims agent, Omni, by December 1, and the company's own filing makes clear that payouts to unsecured creditors are uncertain.

Authors who used the old Bookmasters or CamCat services should note that, according to the filing, those businesses were sold off in late 2025 and are not among the assets the estate still holds.

Sources

• U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey, In re Baker & Taylor, LLC, No. 26-12863: Disclosure Statement, Doc. 184, filed October 27, 2026
• Same case: Amended Disclosure Statement, Doc. 182, filed October 26, 2026