I spent the weekend transforming crates of stuff into a heap of packages.
Dear sponsors, you have a gift coming. It is not a copy of Run Your Own Mail Server. Go read the fine print on the description of what you backed: I said I will send you a gift, not a copy of the book. Your package contains not one but two items. They are irreplaceable, so when you trick them into falling into the smelter they will be gone forever.
Tricking them won’t be hard. They’re not that smart. Merely irreplaceable.
This heap also contains books for folks who chose the special edition during the RYOMS Kickstarter campaign. I have to make one more pass through the backer list to catch people who gave me their shipping information after I did the initial shipment. After that, I’ll check back in a month or so. I can’t force folks to give me their addresses.
I learned some important things in creating this heap.
Next time I ship gifts for a sponsorship that’s open longer than a year, I need to contact every backer and get their current shipping addresses. Probably some sort of web form for address collection.
Signing and shipping hundreds of books is a right pain. Next time, I must hire help. A teenager willing to help stuff books and carry boxes would have made this so much easier.
You must have IOSS paperwork to work with printers inside the EU. It’s not a legal requirement, but printers don’t want to work with any outsider who doesn’t have proper tax paperwork. You only need an IOSS number if you’re doing 10,000EUR or more of direct sales with the EU, however. That excludes me. That could change, but I don’t anticipate that happening. When I do a dropship-based sales, I’ll plan on shipping from the UK.
I still believe that this book was what authors call “a lightning strike.” These sales are not my new normal. The next book will have fewer backers, and that’s fine. I’ll enjoy the brief triumph and get on writing the next book.
Once the acetaminophen kicks in, that is.