Are Books Unaffordable Due To US Post Office?

 

Postage stamps just got hiked another five percent. The price of stamps has doubled in 19 years, from 41 cents to 82 cents. At first glance, you may say that this is too much, too fast, but everything else seems to have skyrocketed since then as well, from food costs and cars, to housing and entertainment events. I am not writing here about inflation, but about how postal rates impact the book business. And they are doing just that.

A generation ago the use of direct mail was under threat by the early years of email and the expanding digital economy, but it still existed. Postcards, fliers, catalogs, and other mailers were used by publishers, bookstores, and authors to drum up interest in books for sale. But with the Internet’s growth, and the advent of smart phones and social media, the postal service no longer offers cost-effective ways to market books.

And now the final useful thing that the post office offers — the shipping of books — is questionable. Fed Ex is crazy expensive and UPS is no bargain. But the post office’s rates had been competitive — and now they are going up again.

Unless consumers are willing to pay more for shipping — or publishers/authors are willing to cut profits by absorbing some of these increased costs — we will see a decrease or a slowdown in book sales by mail. Will more consumers migrate to e-books and audiobooks, reducing purchase costs and eliminating shipping entirely? Will more readers go to bookstores to buy their books and not buy online or have to deal with shipping? Perhaps.

Small presses, used bookstores, and indie authors are endangered by increased shipping costs. Same with foreign publishers and printers who ship in bulk to America.

The trend is and will always be that shipping costs increase over time. By how much and how quickly will determine the fate of books.

“Franklin's experience is typical. Wherever history finds a simplified speller, the story follows a similar arc. It begins with a burst of enthusiasm. The reformer, believing they've discovered the cure for English's centuries-long woes, announces their plan to simplify conventional spelling. The design is comprehensive—here they've removed the silent I in friend, there they've turned chaos into kaos. But as they present their ideas to the unsuspecting public, they find that change, especially in language, faces stiff resistance from a society rooted in tradition. In the best case, the world will respond to their proposal with a collective shrug of indifference. In the worst case, it'll unleash upon the reformer a sustained barrage of mockery and scorn that forever will tarnish their name and reduce their legacy to a punch line.”  --Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts To Make English Easier To Spell by Gabe Henry

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 7,400,000 page views. With nearly 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum