Fanmail.biz

What's the best way to send a book to a celebrity for an autograph - send the book and a box inside a bigger box?

Hi, I used to sell books online, so have given quite a lot of thought to this sort of thing, and also worked in a high street bookshop, so saw which sort of packaging tended to arrive intact and which didn't.

You need to some extent to trade off protecting the book with allowing the person you're sending it to to get into it and re-package it easily.

I would use a jiffy bag, not very much larger than the book, cut a piece of card from a medium-weight cardboard box to wrap around the book, very slightly oversize height-wise, which will protect the edges and corners.

Wrap the card around the book, put it in the stamped addressed jiffy bag, wrap your letter around the outside of this, then put the whole lot in an envelope - wrap the edges around so that the package doesn't slip around too much inside, but don't go mad with the sellotape and make it impossible to open.

If you send a box inside a box you're adding a lot of unnecessary weight, and you'll need to use bubble wrap to protect the book. Plus, whoever is repackaging it will need to tape it up, a peel'n'seal jiffy bag will make it a lot easier.

Or send a bookplate instead.

Good luck

HappinessStan wrote:Hi, I used to sell books online, so have given quite a lot of thought to this sort of thing, and also worked in a high street bookshop, so saw which sort of packaging tended to arrive intact and which didn't.

You need to some extent to trade off protecting the book with allowing the person you're sending it to to get into it and re-package it easily.

I would use a jiffy bag, not very much larger than the book, cut a piece of card from a medium-weight cardboard box to wrap around the book, very slightly oversize height-wise, which will protect the edges and corners.

Wrap the card around the book, put it in the stamped addressed jiffy bag, wrap your letter around the outside of this, then put the whole lot in an envelope - wrap the edges around so that the package doesn't slip around too much inside, but don't go mad with the sellotape and make it impossible to open.

If you send a box inside a box you're adding a lot of unnecessary weight, and you'll need to use bubble wrap to protect the book. Plus, whoever is repackaging it will need to tape it up, a peel'n'seal jiffy bag will make it a lot easier.

Or send a bookplate instead.

Good luck

Where do I buy the Jiffy Bag?

a stationery shop? They sell them in newsagents, everywhere in the UK, I can't imagine they'd be very hard to find in most countries.