First, let me thank all of you for supporting me with direct book orders. I am honouring your orders and anyone who has ordered thus far will receive their autographed book(s) shortly. No shipping charges, as promised!

However, I feel compelled to share some facts about Canada Post today that have wasted a lot of time and money. You may or may not know that authors do not make a lot of money when publishing a book.

Fact: Authors get a discount when ordering a set minimum number of books, however, that discount is greatly reduced by US shipping and customs clearance charges, and by the time the book arrives my credit card bill is higher than intended due to the poor exchange rate we continue to enjoy. However, looking at the bright side, I am the proud owner of several boxes of books… which have been selling relatively well. Thanks to all who stepped up and expressed interest since August!

However, matching the price Amazon and Chapters Indigo are advertising means I would incur a further loss. To offer free shipping on top of that any business operator would think the author is either independently wealthy or crazy. I am neither.

Fact: Canada Post has been promoting free shipping on Tuesdays for all of October 2017. Apparently, this is an annual event. I decided this was a great way to give back to friends and supporters who live too far away to pick up their autographed copies.

Last week Tuesday we showed up at the post office with the first book orders to be shipped only to be told that we had to create the shipping labels online, print them and then take them to the post office. We shipped the orders on our dime thinking that the next orders will offset the expense. We also live 30 minutes one way from town and we try not to waste too much gasoline with constant trips.

Today we spent all morning online and the telephone trying to enter the information for each shipment only to find out that each Tuesday only ONE PARCEL is entitled to free shipping. This was not clearly stated anywhere!

Each book within Canada costs anywhere from $ 12 to $ 15 to ship. I have a small business account number with Canada Post and a discount is applied already. However,  there is no such thing as a book rate in Canada.

Thanks for letting me share my frustration. Those of you who have ordered will receive your books without being charged for shipping – I will stand by this promise. Anyone else interested, I encourage you to check out Indigo-Chapters:

Chapters Indigo has added Inspiration Kantha to their line up of books. They offer free shipping, no minimum purchase amount! Let’s hear it for THE Canadian Book retailer! Here is the link if you are interested in ordering.

17 Oct This entry was published on October 17, 2017 at 12:03 pm. It’s filed under Creativity Update, Journaling, Kantha Book info, staying in touch and tagged Blog, Canada Post free shipping, changes, Learning, misleading advertisement, no such thing as free shipping for small business accounts with Canada Post, rant. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.