Hachette Book Group and the Stable Book Group have announced the formation of Stable Distribution, a new distribution company targeting independent publishers in North America. The service is scheduled to launch in spring 2026.

Under the partnership, Hachette Book Group US Distribution will handle warehousing, logistics, and fulfillment services from its Indiana warehouse, while the Stable Book Group, which was formed in February, will lead sales and operations for client publishers. The operation will be managed by Stable CEO Chris Gruener; Stable president Keith Riegert; Stable COO Brooke Warner; and Chitra Bopardikar, CEO of Global Publishers Group.

"Our goal is to open a new avenue for indie publishers looking to grow their businesses and reach through distribution," Gruener said. "The recent consolidation across client distribution has made it significantly harder for independent voices to reach the market. Stable Distribution is our response—an operation built to create more opportunities, more discoverability, and more support for publishers who want to thrive on their own terms."

Publishers joining Stable Distribution will be integrated through Perfect Bound, the Stable Book Group's publishing management platform, which provides title management, sales and inventory tracking, automated royalty accounting, and access to print-on-demand and offset printing services.

Initial client publishers include Ulysses Press, Trafalgar Square Books, VeloPress Books, Skybox Press, Montague Books, and Mountain Gazette Books, all moving from Simon & Schuster Distribution Services in January 2026. She Writes Press, Stable's hybrid publisher, will remain with S&S for distribution.

"We are deeply grateful for Simon & Schuster's partnership over the past five years," Riegert said. "Their extraordinary team helped us grow into the company we are today. While it's bittersweet to leave such an incredible organization, Stable Distribution is the next step on the roadmap we envisioned when we founded The Stable Book Group—an opportunity to build a distribution ecosystem truly tailored to the needs of independent publishers."

The news comes one week after an exchange at the U.S. Book Show in which S&S CEO Jonathan Karp, when asked what large publishers can do to support independent publishers, acknowledged he had not "given that much thought" to what major houses can do for indies. HBG CEO David Shelley, meanwhile, identified distribution services as one area of support, saying, "We sell and distribute for a number of smaller presses. We've definitely lowered our thresholds in terms of revenue."

Riegert told PW the new distribution company is "building out a dedicated sales team” to focus on sales of distributed clients. He added that the company is open to working with publishers of all sizes.

Russell Evans, business development director for Hachette UK Distribution and HBG US Distribution, said the company had success delivering a similar solution in the UK. "Under this model we are not just providing our services to one independent publisher, but to a group," Evans said.

Todd McGarity, VP of business development at HBG US, said the partnership addresses market needs. "We have been looking for a partner that will allow us to scale and deliver services to more publishers, while maintaining our market strategy of focusing services on medium to large clients," McGarity said. "This partnership with Stable Distribution will allow Hachette to continue to differentiate itself in the U.S. distribution market, while providing services to independent presses who need support now more than ever."

Book distribution in the U.S. has been challenging for independent publishers, who have increasingly been left with limited options in recent years. That situation has been made worse with the sudden shuttering of Small Press Distribution in March 2024 and the upcoming September closure of National Book Network, many of whose clients are moving to S&S.

Riegert said he aims to provide independent publishers with more options. "In an increasingly consolidated distribution landscape, independent publishers have fewer viable paths into the trade market," he said. "At Stable, we're committed to changing that."