Things I'm learning from my first Kickstarter

There is a special, low cost book rate for shipping printed materials in the US via the USPS.  Slow, but now it even comes with tracking apparently.  Is that an option for Canada Post?

Phil Gardener wrote:There is a special, low cost book rate for shipping printed materials in the US via the USPS.  Slow, but now it even comes with tracking apparently.  Is that an option for Canada Post?

sadly no.

r ranson wrote:Today I learned something quite shocking.

I was talking at the post office about the price of sending books to Canada.  I was trying to understand why the shipping cost varies so much - even within the same city.  Sending one book to Toronto can cost anywhere from $15 to $22 depending on the postal code.  I still don't understand why.  But it seems that my shipping cost within Canada is far to expensive for one book.  

The woman at the post office asked why I wasn't sending it by letter mail.  It's small enough.

I can send it by letter mail?  The system they set me up with at home doesn't have that option.  

Letter mail costs less than $5 (even after the price increase) instead of the nearly $20 I'm paying on average for Canadian shipping.  AND it's a standard rate for anywhere in Canada.  

The problem is, I cannot do letter mail at home.  I can only do it at the post office!



The only drawback, I have to get the address onto the envelope.  I can't figure out how to do this.  I might have to write it on the envelope by hand, but given my dyslexia, there will be errors and lost shipments.  So instead of getting the next 100 ready to ship (my goal for today), I have spent the entire afternoon trying to figure out how to print stickers from my list of Canadian addresses.  I'm getting really fed up with canada post right now.

Do you have Microsoft Word?  I think there is a place in it to paste your addresses and it will generate them to be able to print onto labels you can then just peel and stick onto envelopes or you can print the address right on the envelope.  Provided it fits in your printer.    

Do you have Microsoft Word?  

This is something I regret not getting earlier.  

My plan was to get MS office if there's any cash left over from the kickstarter.  It would have been better if I had bought this before I started shipping.  

Right now I don't have the energy or time to learn a new system.  If I had done this while I was waiting for the printer to print, this would be less of an issue.  

R Ranson
There are some pretty good free label making software out there.  I know Avery (they make labels etc) and you can go on their website and print from it I think.  Or maybe download the program. I know I used it before I got microsoft.  Or you could see if Microsoft has a 30 trial program you could use to see if you want it.  I am sure there are others out there they would be easy to use.  It has been awhile I have used any but I think all I had to do was copy the address and paste them onto a grid like form and each one would then print off onto a sticky label.  It really didn't take much time to do.  Hope this helps.

r ranson wrote:

Do you have Microsoft Word?  

This is something I regret not getting earlier.  

My plan was to get MS office if there's any cash left over from the kickstarter.  It would have been better if I had bought this before I started shipping.  

Right now I don't have the energy or time to learn a new system.  If I had done this while I was waiting for the printer to print, this would be less of an issue.  

https://softwareproworld.com/index.php/software/office/microsoft-office-2019.html  
I couldn't find a 30 trial one but this is half off  49.99 if you wanted to check it out

It looks like my Backer Report will expire in a few days.  

Which means the half dozen or so people who haven't given me their address have about a week to do so before Kickstarter says it's been long enough.