www.castlehillpress.com

 

CATALOGUE

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Works

The Mint, 1928 text
Military Report on the Sinai Peninsula

Translation

The Forest Giant

Letters

T. E. Lawrence Letters series
Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw
Correspondence with E. M. Forster and F.L. Lucas
Correspondence with Henry Williamson

See our full catalogue

  Page updated
 12 November 2008

 

Packing

A topic that surfaces from time to time is book-packing: how can we pack books safely for shipment to addresses in the UK and overseas? We have tried various solutions. The cheapest, by far, is the kind simple book-mailer used by some online merchants. However, our experience with such mailers was disappointing. Maybe they are fine for lightweight paperbacks, but our parcels weigh 1kg or more. A book is vulnerable if the only protection is a mailer made from thin cardboard without reinforcement.

In our experience it is rare for damage to occur to the flat sides of books during transit. More commonly, parcels are dropped causing damage to the edges, especially at the corners. If a package weighs around 2kg, even a thick box will dent when that happens. So there needs to be a "crumple zone" between the corner of the package and the corner of the book. That is what we aim to achieve.

The first stage in our packing is an inner layer, usually consisting of a paper wrapping and a sealed bubble-wrap bag. The paper protects the book-cover from marks, while the bag should keep out a reasonable amount of damp if the parcel is left on someone's doorstep in the rain. That happens!

This inner package is put inside an outer package. For single books sent to addresses in UK, as well as some lighter books sent overseas, the outer package consists of a heavy-duty book-mailer. This has a crumple zone all round. It can look a bit battered by the time it has been through the post, but it works well. Thus far, we have had very few reports of damage to books sent in these mailers.

When using a mailer for a heavier book, we reinforce it with sheets of carton. We also add protective cardboard if the book is in a thin card slipcase.

We pack heavier books (and sometimes even lighter books sent overseas) inside a conventional double-wall cardboard box, big enough to leave crumple-zone at each end of the book's inner wrapping. We fill this space with large bubble-wrap or polystyrene chips. Although the outer box is often dented in transit, the crumple zone seems to be effective.

Almost all our shipments get through unscathed. On the rare occasions when damage does occur, it is usually because the package has encountered something very sharp or heavy. In one case, some kind of blade punched dagger-like into one end a parcel. It left a small slit in the outer packaging, but penetrated the book, starting at the bottom, until it was more than half way up. The force required to do that must have been very large indeed. On another occasion, something went through the side of a box like an ice-cream scoop. It gouged a hole in the side of the book nearly 2cm deep and 3cm across. In another case, tyre-tread marks on the box showed that it had been under the wheel of a van or fork-lift truck.

Thankfully, such incidents are rare. The only way we could protect against them would be encasing our shipments in heavy-gauge steel. As it is, we spend more on packaging than many mail-order companies.

There comes a point where the cost of further protection is more than most customers would be willing to pay. All our shipments are insured, and when damage does occur, we replace the book. But we do everything reasonably possible to ensure that there is no damage.

Postscript
Some customers have noted that we often re-use wrapping paper. We receive hundreds of sheets of good-quality wrapping paper from printers and binders. Although most of the sheets have been folded (or lightly crumpled to fill space) they are clean and perfectly usable. It is hard to justify throwing them away, so we re-use them when possible.



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