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Shipping Books- Most cost effective option?
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Nicole
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Sep 25, 2015 09:34AM
In the past month I've had a significant increase in requests from bookstagrammers and YouTubers wanting to review my book- which is awesome. Because these types of reviews are visually driven, they only want paperbacks, not e-copies, which I get. Many of them are located abroad, and I'm wondering what the best way is to keep shipping costs to a minimum. I'm in the US and am finding myself needing to ship to Malaysia, India, Pakistan, South Korea, and the UK. What do you guys do?
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Who is your main supplier of paperbacks?You could re-upload the book to say,l createspace for example, and then send choose to have a PROOF sent to you.
But instead of having it come to your address you put theirs in. Saves on having it come to you and then them, plus the book itself is cheaper for you to purchase.
I've never done this, but perhaps it's possible.
Just trying to think out of the box.
Nathan wrote: "Who is your main supplier of paperbacks?You could re-upload the book to say,l createspace for example, and then send choose to have a PROOF sent to you.
But instead of having it come to your ad..."
I've done it, and it works fine on Createspace, but it's not a proof copy. Order the books through your Createspace dashboard and you get the author's price, which is the same as the proof price.
Ship directly to your customer just by filling out the form online, and it gives you the shipping options. Choose the least expensive and they'll still get the book within a few weeks, which is not bad for shipping halfway around the world.
Nathan wrote: "Who is your main supplier of paperbacks?
You could re-upload the book to say,l createspace for example, and then send choose to have a PROOF sent to you.
But instead of having it come to your ad..."
You don't have to do that. If you are buying your own book through Createspace, the finished book will cost the same as if it were a proof, so you don't have to go through the process again. I have bought copies of my finished book for the reduced price before.
You could re-upload the book to say,l createspace for example, and then send choose to have a PROOF sent to you.
But instead of having it come to your ad..."
You don't have to do that. If you are buying your own book through Createspace, the finished book will cost the same as if it were a proof, so you don't have to go through the process again. I have bought copies of my finished book for the reduced price before.
I have just been shipping directly from createspace, I am wondering if it would be healer to order many at once and have them sent to me and then ship them usps or DHL. I haven't tried to do that before so I'm not sure if it comes out about the same or if it will save me any money.
Also works for Lulu.com. You can upload the artwork and order copies off their site at the creator rate (which of course is way lower than the retail price). If you upload it as a private project they won't make it available for sale on their site, but you can still order copies yourself. You can then have them dispatched to any part of the world and if it is somewhere where Lulu has a printer (not everywhere, unfortunately), it will be cheap.
Nichole wrote: "Many of them are located abroad... Malaysia, India, Pakistan, South Korea, and the UK..."Just flame me for being a cynic, but could it possibly be that these "review requests" are just a way to get free product for the flea market?
(Ann, I'm being supportive, I'm being supportive! I just don't wanna see a colleague get whammy-scammed)
I'll say that so far I've been lucky with the books I've shipped, as in the reviewers have given me author spots on their blogs and on Instagram, have posted photos and quotes of my book before even finishing it, and have actively messaged me throughout to tell me what they thought. So while I think there's potential for being screwed over, so far it's been good exposure for me and increased my social media following :). Thank you for the concern though!
Nicole wrote: "I have just been shipping directly from createspace, I am wondering if it would be healer to order many at once and have them sent to me and then ship them usps or DHL. I haven't tried to do that ..."I've had batches of 20 shipped to me so I can sell them directly locally. I've found the cost per copy works out not much less than the cost of shipping a single copy direct to somewhere else. I'd then have to add on the cost of onward shipping, so for me the answer is "no". However, I live in Canada, maybe the shipping cost if you are in the States might be less, but even so I can't see it being worthwhile.
I have no issue shipping out books to places..as long as it's in the United States. I'm assuming there is a transfer or double charge for anything shipped outside the country so I tend to stay away from it.
