Shipping costs and timing

Q: Why does it take so long to get the book I ordered?

A: We are a small press, and operate on a just-in-time printing model. That means that we don’t have lots of copies of each of the books we have published sitting in a warehouse, ready to ship. If we don’t have a copy of what you want on hand, we order a new printing of that book. Getting the book printed and then shipped to you can take a month from when we received the order.

 

Q: Why is it so expensive to ship your books? I can get them cheaper from Amazon!

A: Canada Post imposes a $20 surcharge on what we ship.

Amazon is a giant conglomerate that has a special deal with Canada Post that makes their shipping costs much lower than ours. The system benefits larger operations with more clout.

 

Note that if you order a book from Amazon rather than from us, the author gets a lower amount of royalty because Amazon demands a 40% or more discount to stock our books. The royalty is based on a percentage of the revenue from a book that we actually receive, so for each book we receive about half of the suggested retail price, and the royalty comes out of that, not what you the buyer paid for the book.

 

Q: Why does it take so long for my local bookstore to get your books?

A: Sometimes the issue is the same as for individual purchases: we have to order more stock.

 

However, many local bookstores, for various reasons, are also slow to pay their invoices. We are holding some unpaid invoices from two years ago, and those bookstores still want us to ship new books to them.

 

We appreciate that they are small retailers, often facing cash-flow challenges. We are a small publisher, ditto, and delays are not from any lack of interest in getting the books to people who want them.