It’s Something…
Filed under: Behind the Scenes by Dave @ 4:52 pm…you might not have known. Not a week goes by where I don’t ship some books to good ol’ Amazon.com. On a weekly basis we replenish the stock at both their warehouses. The one thing most folks don’t know however is that many of our books have to have ISBN stickers applied to them to be in compliance with current publishing rules (or something like that) before we ship them off. So every week, the ritual begins first by taking all the ordered books off the shelf, and second by carefully making sure that the non-compliant ones get a nice little sticker on the inside and another on the outside. And that’s something you might not have known. 
Thankfully, each time we send a book to the printer, new and reprints, we take the opportunity to add the ISBN-13. We’ve reduced the “stickering” by more than 60%. It’s only a matter of time before that little job function disappears all together. Who’s the new muffin man?
Comment by lucyzoe — March 5, 2008 @ 10:17 am
I do believe I’ve probably received a book that was hand-stickered by you, then…
Speaking of which, have you ever seen those large graphics in Carl’s Jr. (if you have them up near Moscow) boasting of their “hand-scooped” ice-cream shakes? I never have understood the appeal of a “hand-scooped” ice-cream shake. It’s all blended and smoothed together anyway, so how could hand-scooping make a difference? But hand-stickering… now THAT would sell books quicker than, er… well, to be honest I don’t think it would improve the marketability of any of your books. There are very few ways to go up when your books are already among the best of the best.
Comment by John Nicely — March 26, 2008 @ 12:17 pm