Yeah, I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but I did have a meeting with the controller of my local post office last week. Summary (and this is direct quote): “Well, an envelope with a (as in one) book in it will probably go through if you don’t secure it with tape.” Yeah, right. She didn’t actually respond when I asked her, “Would you send an envelope on which the flap hadn’t been taped down in addition to using the rather flimsy self-sealing strip?”
So, the long and the short of it is that we are deep in discussions with our printer about using their UK facility to print and drop-ship international orders from. They are much more helpful than the USPS, and I’m confident that this will all come together over the next couple of months. In preparation for outsourcing, we’re even removing the “Printed in the United States of America” text from all the books we’re currently working on that haven’t gone to the printer yet. I find it a little sad that our (admittedly minor) contribution to keeping the US economy going will be reduced because of the asshattery of a federal agency, but that’s business, I guess.
Speaking of the US economy, we’re going to raffle off some books to victims of the current crisis. So if you’ve been laid off, you can win some free reading material! Here’s how this is going to work: scan your unemployment check stub (black out any amounts and other personal information except for your name and address) and e-mail it to contests [at] casperianbooks [dot] com by midnight on April 14th. We’ll be picking random names out of the mailbox on tax day that will receive some goody packages of reading material!