Legend of Haiku Zine
Feb. 28th, 2021 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingOkay! I finally got all my deadlines and public appearances and submissions squared away, so it's time to get back to the Legend of Haiku zine project.
This is super complicated, but it's good to take things one step at a time.
Back in November and December, I was facing two main problems - shipping, and the cover.
The problem with shipping was that, due to the election, the pandemic, and the idiot president defunding the USPS, almost nothing I was mailing out of my Etsy store was getting where it was supposed to go. People who bought from me were getting angry in a way that was entirely disproportionate to the situation, and I was hemorrhaging money. Not only was this difficult to deal with, it was dispiriting. I didn't shut my Etsy store down, but I allowed everything to sell out without restocking.
Finally, across January and February, people gradually started to receive their orders, and I also started to receive mail that had been sent to me in late 2020. Now that the USPS seems to be back on track, and now that the messy winter weather seems to be mostly over, I feel more confident about mailing stuff out again.
I've decided that, for these zines, I'm going to use Media Mail, which generally takes a week or two longer to arrive but has tracking. In order to use Media Mail, though, I need to use stiff envelopes. Office supply stores don't sell these for some reason, so I had to ask around in a few artist networks about where to get them and what brand to use. Nobody could give me a straight answer, though, which was super weird and gave me horrible social anxiety.
In the end, I settled on (these), which I heard about from one of the guys who works on the Boss Fight Books series. I'm also going to wrap the zines themselves in kraft paper bags (these ones) sealed with Zelda-themed washi tape (which I got here). I just ordered all the shipping supplies this afternoon, along with a half dozen Sharpie markers.
So the next thing is the cover, which... I'm just going to need to sit down and work on, I guess.
This is super complicated, but it's good to take things one step at a time.
Back in November and December, I was facing two main problems - shipping, and the cover.
The problem with shipping was that, due to the election, the pandemic, and the idiot president defunding the USPS, almost nothing I was mailing out of my Etsy store was getting where it was supposed to go. People who bought from me were getting angry in a way that was entirely disproportionate to the situation, and I was hemorrhaging money. Not only was this difficult to deal with, it was dispiriting. I didn't shut my Etsy store down, but I allowed everything to sell out without restocking.
Finally, across January and February, people gradually started to receive their orders, and I also started to receive mail that had been sent to me in late 2020. Now that the USPS seems to be back on track, and now that the messy winter weather seems to be mostly over, I feel more confident about mailing stuff out again.
I've decided that, for these zines, I'm going to use Media Mail, which generally takes a week or two longer to arrive but has tracking. In order to use Media Mail, though, I need to use stiff envelopes. Office supply stores don't sell these for some reason, so I had to ask around in a few artist networks about where to get them and what brand to use. Nobody could give me a straight answer, though, which was super weird and gave me horrible social anxiety.
In the end, I settled on (these), which I heard about from one of the guys who works on the Boss Fight Books series. I'm also going to wrap the zines themselves in kraft paper bags (these ones) sealed with Zelda-themed washi tape (which I got here). I just ordered all the shipping supplies this afternoon, along with a half dozen Sharpie markers.
So the next thing is the cover, which... I'm just going to need to sit down and work on, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-01 07:22 pm (UTC)Also if we lived closer, I'd just smuggle shipping supplies from work to you, because we have a literal storage closet chock full of shit we can't use any more due to old company branding on it (they didn't like my "put a blank address label over it" idea :\). We got so many rigid mailers, which I definitely recommend for media mail. I've also cut up cardboard boxes to sandwich media mail contents between and slide into a padded mailer before for media mail, but it sounds like the post office has gotten pickier in that department. Plus it's, you know, work.
Also also, no matter how long it takes, I'm very excited to see the finished product of this zine! *flails all the pompoms*
no subject
Date: 2021-03-02 01:48 pm (UTC)Damn I hope they're paying you fat loads of cash money. As much as I like swords in fantasy stories, I take one look at the naked razor blade of a box cutter and cringe like a small child. I like every single one of my fingers and would very much like to keep them.
Mailing things out is an art, though. I'm not even being facetious. It's complicated, and it's deep. I'm a mere amateur, so I don't even know how deep it goes, but I have nothing but admiration and respect for people who do mail professionally.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-04 01:50 pm (UTC)Also, your "mailing things as art" bit made me think of the slew of "packaging ASMR" videos I've watched online. It really is lovely and relaxing to watch. The thought that goes into making those orders presentable and safe is just.... *swoons* Meanwhile, I'm wrapping laptops in 4 inches worth of bubble wrap, shoving them in the tightest boxes we have, dropping them 4 feet, and going, "Yup, that's good to ship." I really wish I was joking, but we have to do this in the event the package is damaged and we can claim we packed it properly to get our money back and maybe FedEx shouldn't run a fucking fork lift through random packages.