While we have had the ability to print books overseas, we have been reluctant to do so for many years. We have always taken pride in putting "Made in the USA" on our books. Most of you might recall the recent controversy about doing that -- we had cover designs rejected for proudly noting the country of origin. We since adjusted the slogan to say "Designed in the USA" despite the fact every book was still printed here.

Our US distribution model had books printed and shipped from locations close to the end customer. We had contracted with three print operations in each time zone in the US except Mountain. Except for some Amazon orders and our eBooks, all other foreign orders had to be exported. This has now changed.

We were very pleased with a recent test of our print/ship capabilities in the UK and Australia. Karim El Koussa was able to get his new release to Beirut via our UK printer much quicker and cheaper than shipping from the USA. Martine Kalaw had a number of overseas orders that were printed in either the UK (for Europe) or Australia. All worked very well. Captain Hooter had a number of his books about Amsterdam "Coffee Shops" printed in the UK and shipped to the Netherlands.

Going into 2019, we now have print/ship operations overseas through our distribution partners that did not exist before. This greatly increases the potential reach of your books -- and we need to think about possible target markets overseas (at least in English-speaking countries.) Here's the updated list of countries we print and ship from:

USA - Pennsylvania

USA - South Carolina

USA - Tennessee

USA - California

UK (for UK & Europe)

Spain

Germany

France

Italy

Australia (for Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands)

India (coming in 2019)

One of the most amazing things I noticed is the reduced shipping cost for UPS in the UK versus in the USA (after the currency conversion). I am not exactly sure why -- but I'm not complaining!

As we continue to market your books, we will expand our thinking to include these opportunities. It might finally be time for us to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair (Buchmesse) in person. Germany anyone?