Gorham Printing

I liked the name Gorham printing because it reminds me of the cuss word they use in Firefly - I thought it might be a sign. I sent an email to them to get an idea of postage, but they replied they don't deal internationally.

I feel like I'm in a maze and keep taking turns that lead to dead ends.

Createspace Postage Answer At Last !

Finally managed to get some information out of the Createspace people after some consistent emailing. They wrote:

"I created a mock order to give you a very broad estimate of shipping costs to Australia, by choosing existing titles that have similar physical properties to the trim sizes and page counts you mentioned.

The first book is Black and White and has a trim size of 5.25" x 8" with 356 pages going Economy shipping to Sydney, Australia. The shipping cost only for this order of 100 books was $697.19, for 200 was $1,371.21, and for 300 was 2,045.24.

The second book is Black and White and has a trim size of 6" x 9" with 392 pages going Economy shipping to Sydney, Australia. The shipping cost only for this order for 100 books was $994.57, for 200 was $1,965.98, and for 300 was $2,937."

I gotta tell you, my first thought was "Gaawwwwdd!"  These prices increase the cost of each book by:

5.25" x 8"   (356 pages)

     100 book order     $6.97

     200 book order     $6.86

     300 book order     $6.81

Normal book cost for this size - $5.12. So that more than doubles the cost of the book.

6" x 9"   (392 pages)

     100 book order     $9.95

     200 book order     $9.83

     300 book order     $9.79

Normal book cost for this size - $5.55. That nearly triples the cost of the book.

I'm looking at a 300 page 6" x 9" book. That will likely put the cost of postage somewhere between these two amounts. Then taking the exchange rates into account and I'm now doubting I can use Createspace for the physical copies I will need to sell in Australia, particularly as I was looking at a AUD$19.95 RRP.

What's extremely disappointing is the lengths I had to go to in finding out how ridiculous the postage costs are. Imagine going to all the trouble of arranging a book, only to find I couldn't order any myself. Surely a simple graph based on size and weight is possible. I am really appreciative of the lengths this Createspace employee went to, however, to give me some information. Certainly her workmates have been less forthcoming (I received another email the same day from someone else giving me the standard fob-off).

Lipmag, from the community forum on Createspace, sent me the following information:

"I have a 214 page book at 5.5x8.5" which according to CS weighs 12oz

100 books shipped to Australia is USD $486.70 (Economy); 200 = $950.24; 300 = $1435.95  -- you don't want to know what Express and Priority shipping costs."

I'm really encouraged by the helpful 'all in this together' vibe from the forum.  :)

Meanwhile I have gone onto a postal site to work out postage to Australia from your average Joe in USA and it is still high, but considerably lower than Createspace: under $600 for 70lb. Maybe I should look at having the books sent to someone in USA and then they can on-forward the books to me. Or maybe it's time to get a quote from one of the other PODs. What do you think guys?

I think it's back to the drawing board!

Postage Hits a Wall.

Following Createspace's advice, I set up a dummy book (which took ages because I had to convert said dummy book to pdf, wait for them to approve it - twice because I sent the wrong size) and they approved it. Now I've gone to make a dummy order and I'm told there is a maximum 5 books I can order because it's at the proof stage.

One book would cost me US$14.72 in postage.

Five books it drops to US$58.47, which is a considerable saving but still doesn't answer my query for 100,200 and 300 book orders.

And I do NOT want to have to order a proof of my dummy book so I can move forward to the next stage.

Surely they don't expect me to pay US$25 to find out how much postage will be?

This frustration at my inability to find out postage costs was the last thing I thought I'd be stuck on.

Maybe it's time to strike up an e-conversation with the people at LightningSource.

Desperately Seeking Postage

Have sent off a fictitious book to createspace so they can process it and I can pretend to order it so I can find out postage costs to Australia. What a waste of everybody's time. :(