How to safely mail a book you care about

Nobody writes this down, which is odd, because it is the part people are genuinely nervous about. Sending a book away is not like sending a parcel. If it is a service manual that went out of print a decade ago, or the softcover cookbook you have been writing in for fifteen years, there is no replacement to order.

Here is what actually protects a book in the post.

What damages books in transit

Three things, in this order:

1. Corner impact. A parcel is dropped on a corner, and the book inside stops against the inside of the box. Bare corners crush.
2. Moisture. Not rain so much as a wet sorting-office floor or a damp van. Paper wicks it fast.
3. Flex. A book in a soft mailer bends with the mailer. Repeated flexing over a long journey opens up a glued spine.

Note that none of these is the postal service being careless. They are what happens to any parcel on a normal journey.

Wrapping, in order

One layer of paper first. Plain paper, tissue, even a supermarket bag — it goes directly against the cover. This is purely against moisture and scuffing, and it matters more than people expect.

Then padding. Bubble wrap, two or three turns, taped so it cannot unwrap. Pay attention to the corners specifically; that is where the impacts land.

Then the container. This is the decision that matters:

• A padded mailer is fine for a sound paperback with a firmly attached cover on a short journey.
• Use a rigid box if the cover is already loose, the spine is cracked, or you would be upset to lose it. A book that can flex in transit is a book that arrives worse than it left.

If the book is loose in the box, fill the space. A book that slides has room to build up speed before it hits something.

Do not do these

• Do not tape the pages shut. People do this to stop the book fanning open. It does not help, and the tape has to be cut off at the other end, which is a blade near your book for no reason.
• Do not use newspaper against the cover. The ink transfers, especially onto light cloth and uncoated paper.
• Do not remove your bookmarks, sticky notes or loose recipe cards on the assumption they will be thrown away. Any bindery worth using keeps them in place and sends them back. Ask if you are unsure — but do not pull apart something you have spent years annotating.

What insurance actually covers

This is worth understanding before you rely on it.

Postal and courier insurance covers replacement value, which for a book means what it would cost to buy another copy. For an out-of-print title that number is low. For a book with your family's handwriting in the margins it is zero, because there is nothing to replace it with.

So insurance is a reasonable backstop against losing a $40 manual, and no protection at all for the thing that actually makes a book irreplaceable. Pack for the journey rather than insuring against it.

Tracking

Use a service with tracking in both directions, and keep the number. Most anxiety about posting a book is not about damage — it is about the week where you have no idea where it is.

If you are sending it to be worked on, ask two questions before you post: whether they photograph the book on arrival, and whether they send a tracking number when it goes back. A shop that does both has thought about this from your side, which is a reasonable proxy for how they will handle the rest.