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New Self-Publisher’s FAQ
Shipping:
A Cautionary Tale
We’ve been working for
some time on a book called
Hornet Plus Three: The Story of the Apollo 11 Recovery by
Bob Fish. It’s a book very dependant on the over-one-hundred original
color photographs to convey the story. To make sure that the people who
were going to blurb (endorse) the
books saw nearly what would be published, we had 10 copies of the book
printed at our local print shop.
Proudly, we sent copies off to such luminaries as Neil Armstrong, Dick
Gordon and Vice Admiral Robert Dunn. It was the latter’s copy that
caused the fuss.
I know perfectly well that ALL mail (delivered
USPS) to Capitol Hill
is irradiated. What I did not think about were two things: a) that the
process is hard on all paper and b) that our pre-galley book might
suffer inordinately. So send it to Admiral Dunn at the Naval Historical
Foundation, I did.
I got a call about 3 days later: “Ma’am, did you send us a ring-bound
book?” Yes. “Well, the Feds fried the heck out of it. I mean, I couldn’t
even tell what it was about. And it’s fused into a solid block! Could
you send us another copy by other means?” He went on to tell me that
most of the letters they receive via the PO look as if they are 100
years old and spent at least half that time buried in a peat bog.
Well, this caused much wringing of hands and fuss, as there were so few
copies and all were spoken for. Eventually, we had someone hand-deliver
a copy someone else had read to the Vice Admiral (it’s good to be an
Admiral).
The Vice Admiral’s aide sent me back the book and package and I display
it to you for your edification:
The book: Outside
Inside
The Priority Envelope in which it was sent:
Note that the thermally-printed label and postage are opaque.
Apparently, the Feds have people whose sole job is to try to make out
labels like these.
Lesson learned: Do NOT
send anything to Capitol Hill — this includes the Library of Congress
(for the CIP/LCCN
and Copyright
offices)— via the Post Office!
Just for comparison's sake, the finished book:
Hornet Plus Three: The Story of the Apollo 11 Recovery hits the stores July 1, with blurbs from Neil Armstrong, Admiral Charles Larson (Ret.) and Vice Admiral Robert Dunn (Ret.), and a foreword by Captain Richard Gordon (Ret.) (astronaut Gemini 11, Apollo 12)
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