When distributor Publisher's Group West declared bankruptcy last winter, it set off a chain of events that have caused big shakeups in independent publishing. The latest potential casualty is McSweeney's, which announced via its "internet tendency" that they've "lost about $130,000—actual earnings that were simply erased," a loss they've just begun to feel particularly keenly. They've got a solution in mind, but being ultra-relatable lovably bumbling English majors, they're not certain it'll work: "We are not business masterminds," they admit. We'll say: their "groundbreaking business-saving plan" includes an Ebay auction of "rare" items like 8 issues of DVD-journal Wholphin "signed/doodled on" by catalog-heir director Spike Jonze. Snap 'em up, kids, or else maybe we won't have McSweeney's to kick around anymore. You'll not only be helping a great and important literary enterprise, you'll be keeping Daniel Handler from having another crisis of conscience.

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