A TRIP TO THE POST OFFICE

While it only makes sense that the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t have the business it once did due to all the emailing, Facebooking, automatic paying and depositing we’re all doing these days, I still spend a fair amount of time in one post office or another.

And almost always, there is a line of people, or at least a few. I still buy stamps and mail things. Do you?
I still enjoy the old-timey elements of a post office. There’s generally a distinctive echo in the lobby. It seems that many mid-sized Hoosier post offices retain the same style and feel of being built at about the same time.

There’s a work desk or two for patrons to sort mail and each of the desks always has a green pen holder attached. I remember the work desk and green pen holder all the way back from childhood at the Brownsville post office. And I’m pleased to say that Brownsville still has its post office.

There are the little boxes where townies can unlock their numbered cubbyholes with their keys and retrieve the mail. I think in very small post offices, say the Brownsvilles and Wilkinsons of the world, the chore of getting the daily mail is more like a social time to visit with locals and share town or personal news. A rural water cooler.

Today I mailed out the first round of copies of my new book, That Sweet Place: At Home in the Heartland, to some readers. I’ve been saving back the nice padded envelopes that arrive at home or work to reuse for this very purpose. Maybe I’ll hear back what the readers think. Maybe I won’t. You never know, but it’s nice to see the books headed into their separate directions on the map to people who I know are awaiting them.

Did you know there is something called media rate? If you are mailing a book, you can send it at a lesser fee than first class. Keep it in mind. I would imagine a goodly number of folks don’t know about this and the postal employees have never mentioned media rate without me mentioning it first.

If you want a copy directly from me, I’ll send you an autographed one. With Indiana sales tax and at media rate it all comes to $17.79. Message me for details. ([email protected]).  
In other book news, I completed the process this morning on the Kindle conversion and got word earlier that it’s up on Amazon, ready for your instant upload. Or download. I never quite know which is which.

On Sunday, a story about the book will be out in the New Castle Courier-Times, written by my editor, Katie Clontz. And come Monday, copies will be available in the newspaper office directly from me on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you need one at another time, let me know and we’ll work it out. Call: 317-224-7028.

Also this Sunday, I’ll have copies available in the Ovid Community Church atrium at $15 each (including IN Tax of .98). The IN Tax people really want me to point out their share to book buyers so that’s why I did.

I think that is the main book news to share with you today. If you have questions, comments, want a copy or want to talk about some aspect of indie-publishing, let me know. I have a program ready to roll for presentations called “Bloom Before You Are Planted.” And I’m working on another one  called “So You Want to Self-Publish Your Book.”

If you need a program for anything, let me know. If I can, I’ll say yes.

Who doesn't still enjoy getting something in the mail? Today these books went out from the Pendleton branch of the U.S. Postal Service at media rate. If you are ever mailing just a book, ask for media rate and save yourself a bit of money.