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Shipping Considerations
If you're going through the trouble, cost and hassle of publishing your own book -- paying for nice artwork and quality paper and binding products -- don't forget to think about the aspect of self-publishing that involves actually getting your product to the buyer! A nice presentation can go a long way towards a buyer being happy with their purchase or being completely disappointed and non-trusting of the information you have put in your book. The things to consider are the materials you use to wrap the book (to protect it through the shipping process so it arrives looking just as nice as when it left), the shipping labels for printing the purchaser's information as well as your return address information, the shipping tape to keep it all together, and the postage required to mail it.Packaging
Depending on what methods you are employing for selling your book, you will have different packaging needs for getting your product shipped. If you're selling your book on your own -- as individual copies to individual buyer's -- then some simple bubble mailers will probably do the trick. If you're also selling your book through Amazon or some other online seller, then you will need book boxes to ship multiple copies of your book to the distributor. Buying your packaging products in bulk is the trick to saving money on your shipping costs. The most expensive way to buy your packaging products is to buy the mailers one-by-one from your local grocery store or drug store, as you need them. The most inexpensive way is to buy large quantities of your most-used shipping products from an online vendor who will offer a bulk discount. For most people who are self-publishing, you can find reasonable discounts without having to invest in huge quantities of extra packaging products by simply buying them in small bulk packages from your local office supply store.Labels
What type of label you buy will depend on what type of printer you will be using to print them with. If you use an ink-jet printer to print your shipping labels, make sure to cover the label on your package with clear shipping tape so that moisture will not make the ink run or smudge. For the best results with printing labels, though, use a laser printer. Your local office supply store sells many sizes and colors of shipping labels for virtually any printer. My suggestion to you would be to keep it simple -- not only for appearance's sake (you want to be taken as a professional, not amateur!) but for cost's sake as well.Shipping Tape
If you're using bubble mailers to mail individual copies of your book out to buyers, you probably won't have to use shipping tape very often. It comes in extremely handy, however, when you have to ship off books to Amazon in the book mailer boxes. Shipping tape (or "packing" tape) comes pre-loaded onto handy dispensers, sold at all office supply stores. These tape dispensers make quick work of packing up boxes of books. Do not skimp on costs here and attempt to use something like Scotch tape for shipping your packages. Again, the goal is to look professional!Postage
Online postage is definitely the way to go, unless you have stacks and stacks of unused stamps just sitting around (along with a hefty shipping scale)! In keeping with the whole "professional" theme, online postage is the only way to go. Most online postage sites allow you to print the postage directly from their sites onto your shipping labels, making it extremely easy to get your packages ready to go.Shipping Resources
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