We’re a publisher based in Germany.
Our books are mainly sold on Amazon and other retailers.
You can buy our publications directly from us too, in this web store, but considering the high shipping costs, it is probably better for you to buy them on Amazon.
How the logistics works
Amazon books
The books we have published on Amazon’s platform KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) are print-on-demand; when you order a book on Amazon, they print it and ship it to you.
We have ordered our books in the same way from Amazon! So if you order an Amazon book directly from us, it means that we have first ordered it on Amazon (albeit with a discount), and then we send it to you. That’s a roundabout way of doing things. So if you don’t have any squabbles with Amazon, we highly recommend to order the book directly from them instead of from us (the author still gets the royalty from Amazon for your purchase there).
Independent publications
We also sell our own publications that we printed ourselves and keep in stock. These are unique books and magazines that can only be ordered from us.
In addition, we have a small stock of books and magazines from other publishers, both new and second-hand. Many of these publications are hard (not to say impossible) to get elsewhere.
We will ship these publications to you from Germany. However, shipping is expensive, and this is why:
Why shipping is so expensive
Since 2019 in Germany, you’re only allowed to send “documents,” not goods, in parcels transported by the German Post (Deutsche Post). And books count as goods, not documents. Books and other goods must instead be sent as a package with DHL (or any other package company), but this is much more expensive.
Example
A typical order for us would be for one book and maybe a few magazines. This would typically be under 500 gram, and could therefore be sent as a Großbrief for 3,30 euro (if thinner than 2 cm), or a Maxibrief (up to 1 kg, 5 cm) for 6,50. Add 2,65 for tracking (registered mail) and we land at prices between 5,95 and 9,15 euro for virtually all orders.
Now the same order has to be sent as a package. DHL’s cheapest package with a tracking option is their Paket, which can weigh 2 kg and measure 60 x 30 x 15 cm. That is total overkill for sending a book! And here is what they charge for it:
- EU: 14,49 euro
- UK and Switzerland: 19,49 euro
- Rest of Europe: 22,49 euro
- Asia & Africa: 25,49 euro
- USA: 26,49 euro
- Oceania: 27,49 euro
As you can see, it absolutely doesn’t make sense to send a simple book, typically priced at 20 or 30 euro, to North America for 26,49 euro (or to Germany’s neighbor Switzerland for 19,49). We consider it a rip-off.
DHL offers cheaper rates for business customers, but then you have to send at least 200 packages per year. We would be happy if we sent out a tenth of that, so that is not an option for us, or for any business of our size, particularly in the area of special interest publications – small-scale LGBTQ publishers need not even bother!
Why did the mailing rules change?
Deutsche Post claim they introduced the new rule in 2019 in response to new guidelines from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), but it seems that no other country has interpreted the guidelines in this strict way. Deutsche Post has therefore been criticized in Germany for disrupting small businesses and making it harder for regular Germans to sell things to an international audience on second hand sites, since shipping for a person in Germany will be much more expensive than for a seller in another country, so customers may choose to buy from people who offer cheaper shipping instead.
Conclusion: We can’t do business
Our conclusion is that it is impossible for a small actor like ourselves to do business in Germany. It is not feasible to charge up to 30 euro to send a simple book to the US. It makes no sense, and the only way companies can still do this is to be big enough to get special rates, negotiate a deal, or make a loss on shipping. We can’t do any of that.
And yet here we are, for the odd chance that someone would think it worth it to pay the huge shipping price, maybe for a bigger order that contains more than just a book.
Suggestion
There has been a lot of discussion in Germany about what actually counts as a “document,” and whether this is checked at the post office, and it has been shown that the office clerks often are as clueless as the customers about this.
We are quite sure that our magazines count as documents and therefore can be sent as a letter. Our books can to some extent be seen as catalogs, which do count as documents. So here’s what we’ll do:
To the extent that it is possible, we will try to send the orders as “letters.” This means we will package them in a simple envelope (not a cardboard box) that we throw in the mailbox. It will look like a thick letter, and it will not contain any customs declaration, since those are only used for goods, and goods are prohibited to send as letters.
So to conclude this rant:
Which shipping should I choose?
At checkout, you can choose shipping as a letter or as a DHL package.
- If you only order a few publications and don’t mind them being sent in a simple envelope, choose letter.
- If your order is big (includes 2 or more books), you have to choose DHL instead.
Ideally, you order our “Amazon books” on Amazon, and our unique publications in our web store.
Special wishes
We are happy to accommodate special wishes, just send us an email or add a note to your order at checkout. All orders are manually and personally handled with the utmost care and gratefulness.
If you’d like a book to be signed, you can request this in the note at checkout. Please specify if you want a generic greeting or a personal dedication, in which case you also need to specify which name (or nickname) it should be made out to.
Contact
You can reach us at info at breakoutbits dot com.