It can cost a pretty penny (or a shiny shilling) for us to ship books across the pond, and that means we in turn have to charge our UK customers high shipping prices. We’ve looked for ways to get around this, but we’ve never found a viable option. Until now.

Thanks to the help of some wonderful friends, we’re starting a new program—UK Rapid. As its name suggests, UK Rapid is a quick way for folks who live in UK to get our books. Basically, we’ve set up a Canon Press warehouse in the UK and stocked it with some of our most popular titles. When your order comes through on our website, your books will be shipped from within UK. Not only will you receive your books within a few days (instead of a few weeks!), but you’ll also save a good deal on shipping (since you’ll only be paying First Class UK shipping prices).

The only catch is this: all the items in your order must be UK Rapid-eligible in order for the UK Rapid shipping option to appear. So, if you try putting an order through and can’t see the “First Class UK” shipping option, chances are that you’ve accidentally added an ineligible item. To help avoid this, we’ve conveniently marked all the UK Rapid-eligible items with the UK Rapid logo. Also, whenever you want to return to the UK Rapid section, just slide your mouse over to the “Books” menu on the left and click on “UK Rapid.”

At this time, only a smattering of our titles are available through UK Rapid. (You can find a complete list here.) But keep your eyes peeled. We hope to add more books to this program in coming months.

A few months back, we upgraded our email list software. See, we were overhauling our email newsletter. Moving on from our old, unreliable, and sometimes hard-to-read template, we adopted a sleeker pattern which we like to call “e-postcards.” Each one is designed by our very own Rachel Hoffmann, who takes nebulous ideas (courtesy of Austin and myself) and turns them into concrete, eye-catching postcards.

What’s more, instead of overwhelming readers with a long email chock full of text and information, we’ve started to use the postcards to bring more people to our blog. Why? Because the blog gives us a freedom that our email newsletters didn’t. It allows us to publish author Q&As, guest posts from our authors and friends, and (every now and then) give you a peek into what keeps us busy here at Canon.

So we’re pleased with the new format…but how do you feel about it? Inquiring minds want to know.

But back to the email list upgrade. One of the more entertaining features of our new software is that it allows readers, while unsubscribing, to tell us why they’d rather not get our emails. A lot of people tell us that they simply receive too many emails, and we sympathize. We know how difficult it is just to get through personal correspondence. But every now and then, people tell us what they really think of us. We learn from the responses, but honestly, sometimes we just have to laugh.

A few week ago we received this note: “Because I hate you. Is that good enough?” On our most recent mailing, someone delicately informed us, “I want nothing to do with Doug Wilson or his associates.” In the past, we’ve had a couple other similar notes (though none so eloquently worded).

But our favorite (and it indeed, it was a gem), was when someone sadly let us know: “I no longer own a Cannon printer.”

What more need be said?

So, ssh, don’t tell anyone, but I’m still learning about this big ol’ publishing world. Thanks to a subscription to Publisher’s Weekly, I’m learning pretty quickly, but every week I find myself facing some new challenge that reminds me how unpredictable the book business can be.

Book publishing is dependent on the new. As a general rule, New York Times bestselling lists are filled with books that were released within the last year-and-a-half. And what this means is that publishers are always facing the same, never-ending question: what do people want to read today? (more…)

Do you know what RSS stands for? No? You are not alone.

RSS = Rich Site Summary. But what you really need to know is that RSS Feeds are an easy way to keep up with regularly changing web blogs and other similar sites. You don’t need to visit each of your favorite web sites any more because RSS automatically retrieves their latest updates and allows you to stay in the loop with ease.

May 1st has been named “RSS Awareness Day.” (Side note: did you know that only 5% of internet users use RSS feeds? Shocking, but true.) And since a number of Canon folks’ lives were recently transformed by the introduction of RSS, it seems worthy of a post. Here is a clever video that explains it all:

But, as LeVar Burton used to say on “The Reading Rainbow”, don’t take my word for it! If you’d like to start reading this blog via Google Reader, click here.

By now, you faithful readers have probably figured out that this blog is kind of our bulletin board to let you know what’s new at Canon Press. The trouble is, we don’t want you to think that the blog is just a series of advertisements. After all, who really wants to read that? So, we’ve been trying to spruce up—solicit a few guest posts, quiz some of our authors on their books, and give you all a taste of what’s it like to work at Canon. (And no, you have no idea yet. Trust me.)

But there are also a lot of little updates and additions to our website: new books from other publishers, sneak previews for what’s ahead, new covers on classic Canon titles, and more. And since all those little things aren’t enough for a blog post on their own, I thought I’d post a collection here, just to make sure you don’t miss out on what’s up. (more…)