600+ Books Shipped
We started taking advance orders for my new book on March 31st. 500 copies sold in the first 4 and a half days (we offered a special ebook edition for the first 500 customers), and over the next few weeks we sold an additional 100 copies.
While waiting for the books to arrive, I set up a system to handle the large quanitiy of packages. Signed up with Encidia.com to print labels and postage for USPS packages, bought a special label printer and USB scale, and ordered 700 bubble envelopes. (In total, this cost over $900!)
On Monday, April 28th, we received the books from the printer and started processing orders.
Express packages went out the first day - 40 of them. For some reason, the Endicia service couldn't process Express packages going to international destinations. Too much paperwork, I guess. We ran into a few problems with missing phone numbers and such which required we change the shipping service on several packages.
Priority Mail International packages went out the next day - about 80.
Wednesday was the BIG day, as my wife and I had 2 helpers. We processed close to 450 packages, including US Priority Mail, First Class International, and Media Mail.
Thursday was spent cleaning up a few glitches and catching our breath, getting ready to process the UPS packages. UPS doesn't really have a good system to process a group of 23 packages, which is what we had to send out.
I ended up hand-writing addresses on the envelopes and taking them to the UPS center across town on Friday. I'm seriously considering eliminating the UPS shipping option from the PowerKeys Publishing website.
To ship everything out, we spent close to $5000 on postage and shipping fees, in addition to the setup charges mentioned earlier.
UPS would be a much better option if we shipped out enough packages to justify their daily pickup service, and if I understood their online shipping service. Their website just doesn't give enough information. It's almost like they want you to spend your money first, and then they'll tell you what sort of page is being printed, what size paper (or label stock) you need in the printer, and how it will be attached to the package.
What's even more stupid is that their website says I can't use the Zebra LP2844 label printer I purchased for the Endicia service, although their special UPS brand label printer is the exact same thing! I know, because there were a bunch of them at the UPS customer counter.
Oh well.
Considering how many people got confused with the shipping options on the website, I'll be taking a close look at how this can be simplified. Maybe I'll just offer 2 services, Standard and Priority.
Standard service in the US would be Media Mail, which is about $2.50 per book. For international packages, standard service would be First Class International, which is about $10.10 per book. Priority service runs about twice as much.
Of cource, I really should add in something to cover the envelopes, labels, and other "handling" costs. About 50 cents per package should do it.
Next week, I'll take a good look at upgrading the shopping cart on the PowerKeys Publishing website. Everything I need is now in place, so it should only take a day to do. I'll also be sending out books to everyone who helped in creating it, as well as some of the important industry media, those who review books for bookstores and libraries.
And then I REALLY have to take some time and complete the website for the book. There are several links to it within the book itself, and it would be good if they actually had content! I also have to create the Special Offer CD that is offered in the back of the book. I've already got 6 requests for it.
Beyond all this, I also have to set up distributor arrangements to get the book into bookstores and such, and then there's publicity to set up so people are aware of the book and know to look for it.
So much work to do yet.