Ordering and Shipping
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I just want to add….. The truth is I am pleased with everything else with Blurb. The software to create the books is great (even though the text book software is soooooooo glitchy and took me forever) there seems to be no other service out there like blurb’s booksmart. Plus, I love that I can show previews of my books. This is an invaluable, professional touch! So, I’m not all about dissing blurb, truely. I just wish the shipping was more accurate. I know there is no way it cost even half of what I paid to have my items shipped. If blurb needs to make more money, it should be via true product pricing – not via shipping costs. I actually upped the cost of my 238 paged 6×9 book about the spirit of python to 22.95 so that the shipping of $7.99 would not be such a shock to my customers. But, I am praying blurb decides to begin charging for shipping appropriately for the trade and pocket sized books. The shipping pricing for 8×10s HARD copies and up do seem fair. But not for softcovers 8×10 and under…. Please, blurb…. please change this!!! |
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I just had the exact same experience. Was planning to combine an 8×10 book order with a trade book order to utilize discount and save on shipping. Very disappointed to realize this was not possible. |
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Same here – two very slim trade paperbacks for £5 shipping each? 31×22×2cm, 0.4kg. Until Blurb reduce shipping costs I don’t think I’ll feel happy promoting this book. The whole order was over £20 for just one book. Until they do, I’m going to look around for other publishers, I guess. |
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I heartily agree. Any time a book is shipped off, you get ripped off. Eventually, they will go uder when the word spreads. There will be competition and they will lose because of their unfair shipping practices. |
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I completely agree that the shipping is too expensive. Furthermore, because I live in Canada, I don’t get to choose a shipment method and it is a mystery as to whether or not a get a tracking number so my books don’t get lost in the mail (which, by the way, is Canada Post. I don’t even get to have the slightly more secure USPS or fedex). I even talked to support, and she told me to just purchase the more expensive shipping ($20 for just two books) and that I was more likely to get a tracking number, but it still wasn’t guaranteed! ): |
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Yep. $8 was teh cheapest shipping option for 1 (one) book, when I bought it. My jaw dropped as well, as I know it costs $2 to ship a book. Amazingly bold move on Blurb’s part to make a 400% profit without moving a finger. Even Amazon.com charges only $3.99 for shipping. Outrageous. They don’t even tell you who is the carrier: FedEx? UPS? USPS? All covered in secret. |
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I agree that the shipping is outrageous. You could put it in a first class large envelope for less than a third the cost. I had ordered one copy to see if it looked okay. The cover came out way too dark. I lightened my photo, resubmitted it, and ordered one more. So I spent over $20 just in shipping the two 38 page small paperback books before I ordered a batch of them. Sending it Fed Ex is of no value to me. They wrapped cardboard around it, and the ends were open, with a bit of tape on each, but you could see the contents sliding around. BTW, the individual copies were sent from St. Louis, MO, according to tracking. When I ordered a dozen of them, that package was sent from Seattle. |
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Just wanting to join in the chorus, hoping that Blurb will listen. Books are great, software is great, shipping CRAZY! I doubt I’ll sell (m)any books as £4.99 shipping for a £4.95 pocket paperback would put any customer off. A hardcover shipping is even more expensive. My mum wanted to order some pocket paperbacks and had to choose between 9 euros shipping before 14 December and a whopping 17.50 for 10 December delivery!! That is a bit steep, well its taking the p…. really. |
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Must add my voice….shipping costs are horrible !!!! Makes it hard to sell the books you need to sell. I wanted to make small books for my workshops, but the shipping added to production costs makes makes my fee too high to get attendees. Also, agree that the textbook part of booksmart is so full of glitches it is awful to use. I have gone to doing mine in Word Publisher and then cut and paste to booksmart. Some parts of publisher make me think booksmart used some of their source codes (right word???). |
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I completely agree. I hope blurb changes this, because they are missing out. I would order a lot more books, and I think my friends might actually buy my book if the shipping was reasonable. My book is just a small paperback……it costs 8.00 to ship it! When it is for sale for 12.00! Please fix this blurb! Thanks |
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Indeed, we couldn’t agree more. Blurbs shipping prices are ridiculous, particularly on paperbacks, which are so light and cost next to nothing to send. There is no point selling a book for under fifteen dollars when the shipping costs almost as much as the book itself. This hinders sales and profit margins – and doesn’t improve the more copies you buy either. In fact bulk buying just isn’t worthwhile on blrub. I took an 80 page paperback book to the post office, which cost me almost ten dollars to recieve from blurb and was informed shipping from US to Australia would have cost between $2 and $3 AUD. I hate to say it but it seems to me that Blurb may be profiteering on postage to the detriment of clients who actually want to sell books!! It’s most disappointing. |
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They have a shipping calculator (http://www.blurb.co.uk/shipping) – it doesn’t ask for book size or number of pages, just the quantity, country and postcode. How is that fair? Blurb won’t get anything from me until the shipping costs change. For a private project I wanted to print 100 copies of a pocket book-sized book, 34 pages. Shipping costs – £103.99. Er, what?!!! Effectively that means I could order 100 copies of the largest, heaviest book with hundreds of pages and the shipping cost would be the same. Totally ridiculous. Blurb, your shipping arrangements may make it easier for you to manage from an admin point of view, but it absolutely unfair to your customers. |
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I really agree tjmoosh!! I also have amazed to be charged £103.99 for 100 of 40page soft cover pocket book and system didin’t ask the size / cover / pages. Utterly utterly ridiculous!! I wonder do Blurb is trying to reduce the amout of order for the smaller books!!?? I shall re-think about order in the future… |
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Please note, we have ordered and received 3 × 60 page paperback books. Excellent condition, very happy with the results and the freight packaging itself… We don’t think for a minute that Blurb would even think of profiteering on postage – it is more than an online business’s reputation is worth to do so, particularly as such behaviour is under investigation in many countries presently. We paid US $8.99 postage on this order, as quoted and charged by your good selves. The package that arrived in the post was marked; Postal charges: US $2.00. We would like to request the difference of US$6.99 be refunded to us as a credit on our blurb account please. Many thanks. |
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How about the cost of the packaging? And the cost of the labour to package the book? …..Tony |
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Shady Shipping Prices
