I’m so glad to be able to let people know that our signed hardcover/paperback store is up and running again!
COVID threw a tremendous spanner into the works at SignedBooksDirect.com due to the prolonged lockdowns and travel restrictions that went into effect in Ireland in 2020. For a long while—from early April until fairly late in the year—we weren’t able to travel more than three miles from our house. This meant there was no way for us to mail books out to people; our nearest post offices are both six miles away. And even when those travel-distance restrictions eased up a little, late in the year, we still couldn’t have done much in the way of mailing, as we don’t have a car, and no taxi service was running in our area. As Ireland’s online mailing services didn’t then support printing your own postage and/or labels (or at least the kind we needed for our business…) and having packages picked up from you, putting the shop on furlough until things loosened up was our only option.
However, now that travel restrictions have been completely lifted—and the Irish postal system now does support the kind of label printing and pickup we were after—we can now feasibly open up again! Which is great, as a lot of people have been messaging us on and off about purchasing signed and personalized books…very likely with an eye to the upcoming holidays, and the unpredictable behavior of other countries’ postal systems and supply chains.
Fortunately, our supply chain reaches no further than from my working chair in the living room to the “boot room” at the back of the house, where we keep all those piled-up authors’ copies that we’re frankly rather eager to get rid of. Additionally, as regards further stretches of that chain, it’s handy that (for maximum security and trackability) our preferred shipping method is by registered mail. This keeps your purchase under lock and key until it reaches your local post office, and seems less prone to the vagaries of delay. (In most parts of the world, registered post is treated as air mail, always flies, and routinely has priority over other mail types.)
So if you’ve been thinking about picking up something signed from either me or Peter… the shop is open and the writers are IN. 🙂 If you haven’t purchased from us before and want to know how all this works, click here for the explanation. (And expect me to remind you again when you make your purchase: don’t forget to add a note to the order telling us how you want your book personalized. You’d be astonished how many people forget this in the heat of the moment…)
ALSO, ONE CAVEAT ABOUT THIS: We’re presently in the process of doublechecking our inventory to make sure that the amounts the store is presently reporting are correct. With this in mind, for the next ten days or so, if you see a book you’d like to purchase, please query us first at the store’s contact address to make sure that we’ve got the book before you go through the actual ordering process. In advance: please and thank you!
In the meantime: thanks for your interest! We’re looking forward to your visit to Signed Books Direct.
