To make things simpler for customers (and ourselves), we have built in the shipping costs to our prices for all domestic orders. That means when something costs $25 in the store, that is the total price you will pay for it to be delivered via FedEx SmartPost anywhere in the United States.
To make this work, we’ve had to change some prices on our products. Some went up by a couple dollars, some stayed the same and some went up $5 to $7.
This is a change that John and I have wanted to make for a long time, but it always seemed like it would really pinch for a few years as we changed the way we priced our books. In 2015 we decided it was the right thing to do to make things simple – both for you and for us.
As Lost Art Press has grown, our shipping options have become more complex. John was spending a lot of time trying to manage our shipping algorithms to account for temporary fuel surcharges, delivery zones and other assorted crap.
By building the shipping cost into a book, shirt or DVD, it frees up a lot of time for both of us to work on what matters. Also, it makes ordering simpler for you. The price you see is the price you pay. Period.
This new policy applies to all products – books, DVDs, apparel and posters – shipped domestically. For apparel that we ship overseas, we still have to charge shipping. There was no way around that.
About Pre-publication Orders
Those of you who are long-time customers are probably wondering: What will this do to pre-publication orders? Since 2008 we have offered free shipping for the first 30 days on new products.
As of now our plan is to offer a free pdf download of the book with every order during the first 30 days. If you look at the cost of shipping vs. the cost of the pdf, I think you’ll agree that is more than fair.
We hope you like these changes and it makes ordering simpler.
— Christopher Schwarz
sounds good. takes the mystery out of the whole thing. plus, I like the idea of getting the PDF for pre-pub orders.
It will, for sure, remove that miserly pressure I’ve felt in the past to “buy it right now so I don’t forget until I lose that free shipping.” I can now procrastinate with impunity.
Excellent decision! Thank you, Lost Art Press. Happy New Year!
Sounds like a win-win deal for me Chris. Great idea. Thanks, Michael O’Brien
Sent from my iPhone 5s
>
Perfect solution, PDF is much appreciated. Your quality books are not to be missed, having the PDF with me always has been very handy. Great year ahead!
Most excellent! I can now shop at LAP without miserly twinges.
I really liked this change. I also like that you’re being transparent about how it effects pricing. Thank you.
Also as someone who both preorders and gets the pdf, I love this change. Thank you!
Sounds good to me! I love the idea of getting the PDF…. and knowing it works better and is fair to my fav publishing company… even better 🙂
Great change…Thanks!
Happy New Year! I appreciate you all the time in my feed. Thank you! 🙂
That is more than fair and trowing in the PDF on new releases sweetens the deal. Thanks!
A good idea, keeping it simple. I could not possibly care less about the free .pdf, being a paper loving luddite who buys LAP as much for the craft of the books themselves as for the content (I have always found great irony in the fact the hand tool crowd so loves digital everything…). But again the simplicity is appreciated. Keep up the great work!!
I’ll still order pre-pub. I like what LAP publishes and I want them to have way to gauge the interest in a particular publication. Thanks though for the simplification the pricing model brings.
If I’m buying the book I’m not interested in a PDF, so pre-orders will no longer be an incentive for me. I offer my view as a data point. Still love your books and will buy, but probably at a more leisurely pace.
I love the concept of free shipping. But I don’t like a price raise with no free shipping at lee valley where I like to do 99% of my shopping. I guess I will buy the rest of my lost arts press books direct.
Curmudgeonly offered –
Is the new, printed in red, “Everything Ships For Free” addition to the LAP home page banner just another example of humor by Schwarz? Would seem the message in red was, at best, not well considered and certainly fails at humor. At worst, the message is the first disingenuous bit of puffery printed on the LAP sites.
In truth, prices are/will be raised to include the cost for shipping. Shipping is not free.
You could look at it that way, of course. Some prices went up. Many didn’t. Some prices were going up anyway because of the increase in paper costs. We decided to build shipping into the price.
All that doesn’t fit on the banner.