…and I dedicated my first book to you boys.

I just did an update to my kickstarter project explaining the whirlwind of a weekend that Steve and I just had dealing with fulfilling around 500 book orders: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lisadeluca/a-robot-story-learn-to-count-to-ten-in-binary/posts/871711

Here’s the story again:

The books arrived last Tuesday just as I was in the air headed to a work event.  It was the longest 4 days… waiting to rush home and see how they turned out.  The books are absolutely beautiful.  There are a couple minor things I would’ve changed had I seen them in person before printing.  However, there has to be something off for a first edition, how else would they be recognizable and worth millions some day?!?  😉

I spent the entire weekend, with the help of my husband, stuffing the books into their envelopes.  Luckily I was prepared and had already put my nanny to work in the previous weeks stamping return address labels.

 

I spent a lot of time signing each book

Matching tshirt sizes with order,

stuffing envelopes, verifying addresses, and double checking orders.

I think my husband’s instagram feed this weekend sums it up best:

 

I even put the boys to work!

So your books will be in your hands in the next two weeks or so.  Just have to make a few trips to the post office to hand off over 1,000 pounds of books.  Thank you Ann and Steve for your help in my shipping operations!

Because I view Kickstarter as a learning experience for all of us I wanted to share a little info about the importing experience.  I weeded out over 20 different printers from China and finally picked one based on 1. their website 2. other books they’ve done (pics) and 3. price.  I had a pretty good experience with the printer.  It was relatively fast from when I sent over the artwork and paid the book costs before they were shipped.  Part of the price of the books with the printer was the cost to ship over seas from the China port to the Baltimore port.  This did NOT include the cost to import.  The import cost was an additional ~$1,000 I didn’t expect.  Think of it as adding an additional $1 per cost of book.  If I had known about the import fees I might’ve ordered more books since the import fees didn’t have to do with quantity.  Anyways, here is the breakdown of the import fees I had to pay:

36 Customs Entry Services $125
56 Overnight Courier Services $20
142 Importer Security Filing $25
146 ISF Bond $150
35 Est. Duties/Taxes/Fees $2
20 Ocean Freight/THC Services $205.09
10 Warehouse Services $195
33 Domestic Freight Services $187.20 (delivery to my house)

I wanted to share this with you all incase you ever decide to import goods from another country and/or you decide to do a Kickstarter campaign of your own.  If you ever have any questions about the process you are welcome to send me an email.

Overall I viewed my first Kickstarter project as a success.  You have not seen the last of me!  Thank you all again for making this project possible!

<3  Lisa