One of the Northeast’s major book wholesalers, Koen Book Distributors, may be on the verge of bankruptcy. As Judith Rosen reports in a PW Daily story, the company, headquartered in Moorestown, New Jersey, has suffered, as have all distributors, from “low margins, high returns and a decline in the number of independents,” but for Koen “the squeeze is now so intense that it has been forced to forgo sales for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” because the company is “on credit hold” with publisher Scholastic. Company president Bob Koen says he is optimistic he will be able to avoid bankruptcy, but meanwhile he has stopped accepting fall orders. John Mutter, on the daily e-newsletter Shelf Awareness (unavailable as a link), reports that the company is jointly owned by Koen and his wife, Pat Koen, who together formed the company in 1972 and are now divorcing.