Postage Increases

I subscribe to a couple of small presses: for $75 or $100 or whatever it is, I get everything they produce in a year. The bigger poetry presses (still small by press standards) have similar sorts of deals, but it feels more varied and interesting when I'm getting a dozen or more chapbooks instead of a handful of books.

Recently I got a big box in the mail from one of them. I realized then it had been a while since I'd received anything from that press. I opened the box: fifteen chapbooks, probably about a third of its output for the year, and an apologetic note that this format may have to be the future for them, as the recent postage increase of 30% would have added $6000-7000 to the press' annual operating costs.

Works for me: a massive package of things to read over the coming months. Maybe by the time I'm done, the next box will arrive. But it really lays bare the realities of the postal increase. Presses see their costs soar (and very few people are subscribing to poetry presses to begin with!). Postal workers want, and deserve, pay increases and stable conditions. Fewer people are sending packages by mail, and there is deep competition between courier companies and Canada Post. It feels like there's going to be a reckoning, that alternative revenue streams are needed. Maybe it's time to explore the idea of a postal bank again. Just, you know, maybe don't tip off the Big Five this time.