I was reading a news article last night regarding the ongoing shipping issues that are creating challenges for many businesses, manufacturers and retail stores. I’d like to share with you all how this is impacting us here at Flesk.
What I found interesting was seeing how certain publishers had decided to push their 2021 fall titles to the spring of 2022. This was a decision that I had made months ago. Here’s why.
The average book shipments are taking 90 days and the pricing is up 500% compared to pre-pandemic pricing. To give you an example of what this translates to for a business like mine is that it can take 5 months for us to get a book printed and delivered to us (instead of less than 3 months), and my average shipment costs are hovering at around $10,000 instead of $2,000. I’ve paid over $30,000 in extra charges this year alone due to the rise in shipping costs. On top of this, paper costs are also up about 30% this year that has raised the printer bills by thousands of dollars.
I saw all of this coming early this year and prepared for it as best I could, but that doesn’t mean by any standards that this situation is fun to go through. What I realize is that a lot of businesses, stores and manufacturers will be heavily challenged by these rising costs and delays until the spring of 2022, if not longer. It’s been increasingly difficult to make release date announcements when we are unsure of when the books will actually arrive with us.
What are we doing about all of this? The port congestion and shipping prices are all out of our control. So, we focus on what we do best. We make books and will have quite a bit of exciting new titles to announce next year. I am hoping things have calmed down by then!
What can you do to help? We have been amazed at how many people have pre-ordered our Flesk books and who have been incredibly patient. This has saved us this year. We have not had one angry email or phone call all year. It’s really been wonderful. We have the nicest most understanding supporters. If you don’t mind continuing to pre-order books, even when they may be a few months late, we would appreciate it.
To all of you, I am grateful.
Thank you all!
–John
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