8 Reasons Book Lovers Need USPS
Why should you care about the state of USPS? Well, if you’re a book lover in the United States, you likely rely on it in ways you aren’t aware of. The U.S. has the cheapest shipping costs in the world, and because of Media Mail rates, books are especially cheap to ship. Here are 8 reasons book lovers should be defending USPS:
1) Bookstores Depend on it
Raven Book Store succinctly demonstrates how big a difference it would make to bookstores–especially during the pandemic—to have to switch to UPS or FedEx. Whereas USPS has a specific, discounted Media Mail rate for shipping books and other educational material, private shipping companies charge full price—and their prices were already higher to begin with. How to be Antiracist is $27 new. Shipping it to a customer would cost $24 at UPS and $14 at FedEx, while the USPS cost is just under $3. How many customers would be willing to pay for that shipping cost? 📨 @FedEx Home Delivery: $14.03📨 @UPS Ground: $23.87📨 @USPS Media: $2.94 The end of the United States Postal Service would be a disaster for bookstores and libraries. pic.twitter.com/lsoKTWwJ3w — Raven Book Store #SaveTheUSPS ✉️ (@ravenbookstore) July 24, 2020 There are also some library systems that use USPS for inter-library loans. In fact, there is a separate library rate. Although some library systems use couriers, there is a chance that USPS makes it possible for your library to get books from other cities for you.
2) It Makes Book Giveaways Possible
Here is the first tweet that made me aware of this situation: I’m Canadian, which means that my country has one of the highest shipping rates in the world. Believe me: you don’t want this. If I wanted to give away a book within my own country, it would cost about $15 to send. Which is why you don’t see a lot of Canadian book giveaways—it’s sometimes cheaper to just buy the book brand new! U.S. Americans often have online book giveaways, whether it’s from publishers or bloggers or just someone feeling generous. Those giveaways will not be feasible if instead of spending $2–5 to ship a book, it starts looking like $14 for every book. IF THE @USPS IS FURTHER DIMINISHED, THAT VITAL PART OF OUR COMMUNITY WILL DISAPPEAR. CALL ELECTEDS. SIGN PETITIONS. BUY STAMPS IF YOU CAN ⬇️⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/U2VWpCyEJq — Carmen (@tomestextiles) July 25, 2020
3) It Makes Sending ARCs More Reasonable
If you’re a book blogger, BookTuber, or Bookstagrammer, you’re probably familiar with ARCs: Advanced Reading Copies. These are early versions of books that are sent out to reviewers in hopes that they’ll result in more coverage and sales. ARCs are already expensive to print, and COVID-19 has led many publishers to switch to just digital versions for the time being. If, in the absence of USPS, shipping costs for ARCs begin at $10 or $15, we’re going to see a lot fewer of these paper ARCs in the world. Some publishers are already willing to pay couriers to get their books in the right hands, but it will likely mean that they are a lot less willing to take a chance on a less well-known blogger, BookTuber, or Bookstagrammer.
4) Book Swapping Sites & Book Exchanges Rely on it
Like book giveaways, book exchanges are only reasonable when shipping costs are low. There are lots of book swapping sites (I used to be a big Bookmooch user, before Canadian shipping costs were too high to manage), where you can wishlist books and send books to others on a token system, trading your unwanted books for desired ones. There are also less formalized versions of this, especially between reviewers—many people swap ARCs with people across the country from them. I’ve also seen recently more people trying to pass on their read or unwanted ARCs to own voices reviewers. All of this makes perfect sense when you’re spending under $5 to ship them, but falls apart when you have to pay UPS or FedEx prices. At that point, you might as well wait to buy a new copy.
6) It Makes Book Boxes Affordable
There are tons of subscription book boxes popping up all the time—the biggest being Book of the Month. BotM can keep costs low because it is operating in bulk: they are responsible for a whole lot of a title being sold at once. With that, I imagine they are also working with a bulk mail discount, which makes shipping costs very low. How could Book of the Month continue to charge $15 a month including shipping if they had to switch over to UPS or FedEx? We’d be seeing a lot fewer subscription book boxes, and the ones that did exist would have to bump up their prices considerably.
7) It Justifies Your Book Swag Purchases
Outside of Media Mail, USPS also offers very low First Class shipping rates. Small, lightweight purchases correspond to a very low shipping cost. That’s only possible through USPS. Buying bookmarks or cute bookish enamel pins or any other fun little purchases becomes hard to justify when you have to pay a courier to deliver it. Like book giveaways, book swag giveaways are also popular online, especially from authors. They often acquire bookmarks and other little promotional materials and give them away to fans—but without USPS, it becomes unreasonable to ship out these little luxuries.
8) Rural Communities Need USPS
How Can We Save USPS?
Now that you know why book lovers need USPS, what can we do to keep it around? To save USPS, there needs to be structural change to how it is supported and regulated, so contacting your local representatives is the most effective thing you can do. Let them know that you support the USPS, and demand that the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act restriction that requires USPS to pre-pay health benefits and retirement benefits 75 years in advance is unreasonable and needs to be lifted. Of course, an infusion of cash can’t hurt, so you can also buy stamps! Check out Annika’s post on bookish stamps from the USPS to get you started. Maybe write your representatives some postcards and feed two birds with one scone! Let’s do our part to make sure USPS—and the bookish ecosystem it supports—is around in the years to come.
