Persephone Salon

Hello all! Just thought I'd set up a general 'chat' thread for miscellaneous news.

What prompted me to do this today was to relay how shocked I was when trying to order a book from Persephone to find that shipping to the US is $71.00! Shocked and disappointed that they've become so exclusive.

I purchased my book, Fortnight in September, from Blackwells who always offers free shipping to the US. I guess Persephone benefits from the sale somehow, but their exorbitant shipping is so very off-putting.

Thanks for the alert on postage Cate.

Postage to Australia is now completely out of the question for any future Persephone book purchases for me. Shipping costs to ROTW is $123.00 which is unthinkable.
A great pity.

Oh goodness, that's terrible. I would normally have said an Arrangement could be come to, but now the shop is no longer in Bath, that's also difficult. I used to try to buy them in the shop when I was in London anyway to save the postage.

Oh Trish - $123 shipping! That's even more outrageous. You might want to check Blackwells but also Book Depository. The latter I know has free shipping worldwide and they seem well stocked in Persephones.

Liz, you're sweet to say that! It must be disappointing not to have their shop in London any longer. I remember many a VMC group trip to Persephone - although (sadly) I only attended in spirit. A trip to Bath sounds like a dream - one day!

>1 bleuroses: That's unlikely to be Persephone. Postal rates between the US and the UK increased dramatically, across the board, after the US withdrew from the Universal Postal Union under the Trump government.

It now typically costs a third more to ship an LP from the US to the UK than it does to buy the record itself, for instance (I used to buy records like this frequently). See this article for more background.

Chiming in to say this is not a problem exclusive to Persephone. All small publishers in the UK have been suffering greatly since the Brexit debacle with increased postage prices, customs issues and VAT issues, and many have said they simply can't ship abroad. Another side effect of the lack of sane Government in our country. As tallpaul says, shipping from the US to the UK has become extortionate too, so unfortunately this is restricting both countries. It's extremely depressing.

>5 tallpaul: and >6 kaggsy:, thanks for the article and your comments. I'm glad to know that it isn't Persephone but it's sad to realize that small publishers (and others) are suffering so from Brexit, Covid and questionable governing on both sides of the Atlantic. I haven't ordered directly from any small publishers for a few months which explains my surprise - and I guess Blackwells is large enough to have distribution in the US to offer free shipping.

Karen, I imagine this will add limitations for our VSS this year!

>7 bleuroses: They are clear on their website that this is a new post-Brexit policy:

https://persephonebooks.co.uk/policies/shipping-policy

The shipping rate is the same for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 books (one box), outside of the UK, due to the increased postage and paperwork involved.

>7 bleuroses: I think it will, Cate. It’s going to be very difficult and we can’t expect people to send parcels with high shipping costs. Such a shame… 😕

>7 bleuroses:, >8 kac522: >9 kaggsy:: perhaps we should specify that our VSS recipient should reside in the same country as the secret Santa.. at least that would help VSS to continue in a limited way.
It would be such a shame to abandon it altogether because it is a lovely event.

>10 mrspenny: yes, I think that may have to be the solution- at least we can still carry on with VSS then!

>8 kac522:, >9 kaggsy:, >10 mrspenny: - Perhaps we should set up the VSS thread now?

>12 bleuroses: I spose we could think about.... I'm a bit reluctant to consider Christmas as early as September!!!

As a Virago Elf with a day job in finance and international shipping, I can tell you that the rules are different for gifts and purchases.

If you tick the box that says 'unsolicited gift' on the customs declarations customs charges only kick in when the value exceeds $2,500, so not a problem for the VSS.

Sellers - including publishers - can't do that, so they pay duty at a %age of the value plus a number of admin charges.

>14 BeyondEdenRock: That's great news for our VSS - thank you dear Virago Elf (and it's so lovely to see you, Jane!)

From Persephone's FB post today:

"Here at Persephone Books we have mostly been trundling on as normal: inviting a potential new employee in for a cup of tea then sending her away with lots to read from the ‘damaged books’ shelf, dead-heading the geraniums outside the shop window, preparing the Standing Orders for the new books (this is for customers who ask us to automatically send them everything we publish - we are so grateful for their loyalty!), replying to emails about bookmarks gone astray or a query about foreign rights holders.

But the real drama, sadly, continues to be trying to work out how to pay tax on our books when shipping them to Europe. The customs rules changed on July 1st and now all commercial goods imported into the EU are subject to VAT. However, in order to pay the VAT, you need an IOSS (‘Import One Stop Shop’) number, which is all but impossible to obtain yourself; instead, you are forced to use newly set-up intermediary companies who have spelling mistakes on their home page and look like scams but are, astonishingly, government-approved. The huge amount of time, energy and money being expended on this by all small businesses who ship from the UK to Europe at the moment is a bit mind-blowing. We try very hard to be practical about it, rather than emotional, but day after day it is not easy to keep our increasing sense of rage at bay. So we are writing to our MP about it and all the rest, but do feel rather dispirited; the only upside is feeling simpatico with smoked salmon makers, fencing gear exporters, fisherman in Cornwall, and the thousands of other small businesses also struggling to cope with all the bureaucracy surrounding this new system.

To cheer ourselves up, we are going to spend the weekend re-reading all our European books, of which we are so proud: PB no.5 AN INTERRUPTED LIFE, PB no.39 MANJA, PB no.75 ON THE OTHER SIDE , PB no.102 THE EXILES RETURN, PB no.106 INTO THE WHIRLWIND, PB no.115 MAMAN, WHAT WE CALLED NOW? , PB no.121 EFFI BRIEST, and PB no.136 THE OPPERMANNS. We suggest you do too."

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Rereading this thread and my apologies to Kathy, >8 kac522: , for not acknowledging the link you posted regarding Persephone's shipping policies. A belated thank you.

All in all, it's a very sad time. I hope, with all of my heart, that Persephone (and other small presses) will be able to survive.