Four times now I've released a book using the "open pre-orders, then ship 'em all out at once" method. Credit for the system actually working goes to my wife, Sandra. This time around she blogged each phase of the process. The process isn't perfect, but it's getting fairly refined. For Schlock Mercenary: The Teraport Wars we packed and shipped over 1000 packages between 9:00am and 3:00pm on a Thursday, and that included some pretty complex orders - two books (one sketch, one regular), some magnets, and a t-shirt, for example. The blog entries are here for your enjoyment and potential edification. Phase 1: Collecting orders Phase 2: Sorting Phase 3: Inventory preparation Phase 4: Printing Postage Phase 5: Packaging and Mailing (A note for Webcomics Weekly fans: we're using Stamps.com instead of Endicia because we've been using Stamps.com for two years now, and the Endicia promotion began while Sandra was printing postage. We might look into Endicia, but we're both reluctant to mess with a system that appears to be working.)
