You might have heard me talk about a book I'm publishing, Super Real Graphics Presents: The Wolves of Odin? It's due out later this month.
As it's full color, and perfect bound (i.e. it has a spine) the books are printed overseas (so that the price is affordable). With it printed on another continent (you know, like Africa, as in not a country, not actually Africa either, but a different continent folks) that means the books must ship to our part of the world, and since we're doing this all in the effort of cost, that means by boat.
So, you're printing overseas, and shipping the books back to America (which also means longer lead times btw), you don't just need to get the books to the US, but to you and your distributor specifically. Being located on the west coast, Portland Oregon, you'd think they could ship the books to you, but no dice. Seattle is as close as they can boat the freight, it then has to move by land to you (or Diamond). Well, when I first used an overseas printer, moving the freight 175 miles south from Seattle to Portland was only a small extra amount, but when I printed SRG Presents Gnome this spring, the prices had gone up, drastically. So, it was an extra $600 to move the freight to me (and then, again, I still have to ship copies to Diamond on top of that). So, that means I have to drive up to Seattle, in my Jeep Cherokee, and pick up the books myself, and save about $500. A tank or so of gas, and about 6 hours work, makes it all worth it.
So, after chasing down the freight for days (once it gets' to the states, it then has to clear customs, and that requires the printer and freight companies all working together, and sharing proper documentation etc, which, in this case, they didn't) today was the first I could get to the books, and since they're due in shops this month, and have to ship to Diamond, and then move to their proper distribution centers, before shipping to shops, time is of the essence. Well, it just happened that today we were in the midst of 2 days of rain storms...
Yes, it rains allot in the Northwest, and especially on that stretch of I-5, but our rain is normally of the lighter variety, so monsoon downpours were just a nice touch :)
Here's my Jeep, with the full thousand pound, 31 case, pallet loaded inside, straight from the forklift...
Just a glimpse into the fabulous life of comic publishing.
Any way, the good news is, Wolves of Odin is on it's way!
1 comment:
Great info. It's really crazy what goes into getting a book into stores isn't it?
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