In October, I wrote a post full of info on my first book that’s about to come out. YAY! But then some new things have come up that I thought I should share with you now that some changes have been made. YAY!
After much consideration, I decided it would be best to not try and handle all the shipping of books myself. Doing so would either take me away from being out promoting it, or cause a delay in shipping because I was away promoting it. Also, if there were any issues with someone’s order (getting lost in the mail or a shipment arriving damaged) I didn’t feel I could offer timely customer service in handling the situations as they inevitably would come up. I looked into some options, and decided to go with BlackBox, the distribution company the guys from Cards Against Humanity created, because they offer affordable shipping and incredible customer service. Hooray!
One thing BlackBox does not offer is doing pre-orders on items they plan to ship for people. I was originally planning to offer pre-orders through my website for the whole month of December and then ship them myself early January, but now the books will just become available for immediate order and shipping all at the same time in mid-January. Hooray for not complicating things!
Lastly, I was recently on The Great Big Beautiful Podcast if you’d like to hear about all kinds of stuff in my life, like the time my ovary tried to kill me earlier this year, choosing to raise kids out of the spotlight, and all about how I was able to turn my book idea into an actual book!
Thanks for reading, for listening, and for being the kindness we need more of in the world.
Yay! I’m glad to hear you aren’t going to kill yourself trying to handle the whole shipping thing yourself.
Me too!
But we will still have them in time for the cruise, right? Because I want you to sign the one I am getting for 3-year-old Lila Jane!
Hi Laurie! BlackBox will process and ship the book out as soon as an order is placed. Ordering will be made available a month before the cruise so as long as you place your order at least a week before we go, you should get your book no problem. I am also bringing some books on the cruise so if you forget to order or forget to pack it in your suitcase, you can get one on the ship!
Change IS good. Very excited for you, Anne. I never would have expected YOU to deal with shipping/customer service, even if self-publishing! My husband and his writing partner self-publish through Amazon, which means their paperbacks are available also through Amazon’s sister/daughter (?) company that “publishes” paperbacks to order, rather than printing in bulk. Granted, doing it that way probably means less money in OUR pockets & more in the Amazon coffers, but at least it’s not something any of us have to track.
Looking forward to ordering your book for my nieces and nephews. <3
Hi Emelle! I’ve heard the print-on-demand service with Amazon is super convenient, but I wanted this in hardcover so I just went ahead and handled the whole printing process myself. But I will be sending a supply to Amazon to be sold there starting in March 2018, as well as making an ebook version available on Kindle. So exciting!
This cruise sounds great. Can you send me a link or more details please?
It’s https://jococruise.com and it’s super fun!