Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Note on shipping to Canada


We are unpleasantly surprised to find it is no longer practical for us to ship our books to readers and reviewers in Canada, at least not directly from our HQ in New Jersey.

Here are the new USPS rules: http://blog.stamps.com/2017/12/26/important-usps-making-changes-first-class-mail-international-flats/

We have processed all outstanding orders, but as of today we will be refusing/refunding orders and review copies that call for shipping into Canada. We're researching some workarounds, but here's the gist:

For a typical 6-oz. poetry paperback, the shipping to Canada via First Class International Package Rate would be $9.50 US, above and beyond the $15 or $16 cover price.

Some of our books are a good deal heavier than that. Recently it cost us $16 in postage to mail a single copy of our largest book to a reviewer in Canada. To ship that book to a reader, we'd have to charge $32, double the cover price.

We can reroute review copy requests via our international printer network, but that also costs us $10 a pop. So we can't do that, like, a lot.

We are internationally distributed though, via Ingram/Lightning Source and various wholesalers. So your favorite local booksellers and online bookstores up there should be able to get the books to you that way, with much lower shipping fees.

Exception: We think the chapbooks can still squeak by as First Class International Letter Rate, unless they are over 3.5 oz. The only way to get our handmades is to order them directly. We're upset that this means some chapbooks may not be available to our readers outside the US.

But we'll keep looking into this.

In the meantime, please note that the PayPal buttons on this site do not accurately reflect this new rule, and orders placed to Canadian addresses will be refunded/rerouted as necessary. (We're about to rebuild the site and store and will address that then. Our Square store only accepts US orders anyway, per their own policy.)


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