Book Shop News

From C.J.
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Happy January, Mounties!

I’ve had the idea of doing Wheel of the Year melts and candles for a while but felt like January was the right time to launch them–

So I am!

Introducing … Imbolc, which now always gives me fond Cagliostro memories, and goes on sale today!

“Winter wanes and spring unfurls, cold earth and candles melt, a wand of birch for waking seeds in frozen ground once dwelt.”

Imbolc

It’s a frosty, cozy blend of birch branch, incense smoke, and new green leaf, perfect for altars or just dreaming of spring in winter!

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I’m going to ship these all at once, on the 18th, to make sure they get to you by Imbolc, but they’re perfect for burning all the way to Beltane, which will be the next in line!

This is an uber-limited scent, so if you’re interested, pick one up!

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Will these candles be available from now on like Magiq, or are they limited like the Vidivinty’s Glade?

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These will be limited and available until the next Wheel of the Year celebration, so until Beltane! (Around May 1).

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Gotcha, thank you.

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Morning Mounties!
As we near the official publishing of The Book of Briars, ( :sweat_smile:) I wanted to give an update regarding the hardcovers some of you longtime Mounties may have pre-ordered waaaaay back in 2017 when The Monarch Papers was ending.

Originally, there was a bundle that included a guild-specific dust jacket over a clothbound book with silver foiling. The mockup looked like this:

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Unfortunately, some things have changed in the subsequent years, including our printer no longer offering true clothbound covers, and the setup cost per version being pretty expensive.

So, logistically and financially, the above cover concept just won’t work now. But–

I have a solution I think you might like.

Lightning Source (our printer) does offer an option for a dust jacket over a case laminate cover. Normally, that wouldn’t be a viable option because you’d have the same cover on the book as you would the dust jacket, for twice the price, but with The Book of Briars, we happen to have two distinct covers.

The official cover, and the original cover from The Monarch Papers!

So if you pre-ordered a collection in 2017 with a limited guild dust jacket hardcover, here’s what I’ve put together to make up for the changes:

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You get both!

But, if you’re not happy with this option and would rather be refunded the cost of the hardcover, I completely understand. Just send me a message via the support chat on ackerlygreen.com and I’ll take care of you.

The two questions left are…

Should the original case laminate cover be the locked or unlocked version?
And should it have all the scuffs and scratches it suffered on its journey back from 1998?

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Wow, that is GORGEOUS.

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It’s a big week for the Ackerly Green Book Shop…

The Briar Society Coin Relic is now officially available for purchase!

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If you have an annual Briar Society membership you’ll see the coin is free for you, and monthly members can purchase it at a 50% discount, just go through the checkout and pay the flat rate shipping class we usually use for pins!

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That’s a great alternative!

Wow that was so long ago I don’t even remember if I ordered it or not :thinking::woman_shrugging:t2: But I’m excited either way!

I think unlocked would be fun! Because then we get the symbols not just the keyholes plus we’re reading the actual thing so it makes sense to be unlocked ?

Time travel scuffs
Are we talking about the crispy Book?
Do you have a mock-up for that? :eyes:

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That would be our copy, I think the time travel scuffs would be from the Day or Change bringing forward the 98’s copy.

I think that’s a great work around! I’d go with unlocked w/time travel scuffs.

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Ah you’re right.
I was just trying to visualize what that would look like and my brain immediately went Cripsy Book? You want the Crispy Book?
Guess it’ll just be burned into my memory forever :joy: Pun fully intended.

Then yes. I personally think travel scuffs would be super cool!

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I can do scuffs!

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I also immediately thought crispy version. That was a rough day.

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Awww man, the candles especially the wheel of the year range, I want so much! But shipping is brutal, I know there isn’t much you can do about it, but it does mean I cant justify it to myself :frowning:
Guessing there’s no option to combine shipping?

I shall have to live vicariously through everyone else’s reviews and hope shipping comes down at some point in the future.

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EDIT: Please read to the bottom because there ends up being potential good news!

Believe me, I feel you with how frustrating shipping is on this kind of stuff. Shipping one candle to your neck of the woods costs $28-$30 which is just absurd. So I charge a flat rate of $19 and eat the $9-$10 difference myself so that readers outside of the US and Canada can get cool stuff they want. That $9-$10 is the profit I would’ve made on the candle. (I’m not saying that to be all wow, I’m awesome, I just want you to know I completely understand how frustrating this is and am trying to make it a little less painful.)

(side note, my print-on-demand stuff like shirts, hoodies, and hats are fulfilled by Printful which has fulfillment in the US AND Europe which makes shipping for those products MUCH more reasonable.)

The reason I don’t combine shipping on candles right now is because I only have reinforced boxes that ship one at a time. I am looking into bigger boxes to ship 2+ candles but boxes are hard to come by right now during the pandemic and using a different box than the kind I’m using right now would also mean I’d have to buy additional packing material, etc.

So, hmmmm … I thought this was going to be a boring, disappointing business post, but then I did a little calculating …

If I could find a box and packing for 3-4 candles, the cost of sending 3 candles via USPS in a 9x9x4 box would be around $45-$50 which is definitely a savings… I could charge somewhere around $38-$42. would that be something non-US, non-CA readers would be interested in?

ALSO, (this post is getting happier and happier) once we get up to four candles, UPS becomes cheaper than USPS, and would cost around the same as sending 3. :man_shrugging: I could do something like, “Buy 3 or 4 and and only pay shipping for 2.”

Let me know your thoughts, but I could look into this if there’s interest!

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The break down is greatly appreciated, even though you don’t need to justify it, shipping global sucks!

UK has done a great job isolating itself recently and I’m seeing lots of shops either refusing to ship or greatly increasing shipping costs to cover the new charges.

I’d certainly be interested in buying multiple to enable a more palatable combined shipping, even more so if it meant you didn’t have to cut into your profits to achieve it.

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That’s very sweet of you, and I’m glad you brought this up because if I can make it work, I think this could be a really nice solution for a lot of people. This “Buy more and save” idea could work for everyone, it just involves some research on my part and … :grimacing: math. The jobs I never dreamed I’d be learning to do as an indie author now include International shipping logistics. :laughing:

We need a Community Fellowship just for offsetting shipping internationally. :cjheart:

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Oh, also, one big roadblock has been that it’s hard to find good, reliable box/material suppliers outside of Uline right now. Uline is a massive shipping product provider here in the US with really good deals on boxes and shipping supplies, but I refuse to buy from them because their owners are also A-list Trump supporters and I always try to vote with my wallet (in addition to actual voting, of course.)

They have beautiful, black shipping boxes and I love the vibe, but not enough to support them. :cjsmile:

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If it helps you feel validated at all, when I handled logistics for the radio station I used to work at we had the same problem with ULine. The catalog had so many things that could’ve made things so much easier and cheaper and simpler. To us it was also more important that we didn’t support them, though, more important that we supported local wherever possible. Yes, things were a pain in the butt, but they worked out.

So as someone who has been in that position, I applaud you for also going the tougher route that I believe is more worth it.
As a consumer, I would also happily spend more money if it meant not supporting absolutely awful people.

I adore that you cater every part of AGP to follow your beliefs and values, even if it means more work and more math on your part. :cjheart:

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Absolutely :100:.

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Well, now that you’re doing candles in series … have you considered subscriptions? I pretty much know I’m going to get the seasonal candles when they come out, so I’d gladly pay up front (which may defray some shipping in the interim).

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