Stuck in the Mail

 “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” 

— A. A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

Hand-drawn illustration of a tall red Canada Post mailbox with a white maple leaf symbol. Two brown parcels tied with string rest at its base, and a monarch butterfly hovers nearby against a blue sky with clouds. Text at the bottom reads “Stuck in the Mail.”


Not Planned

This isn’t the post I had planned on writing today. I thought I’d be sharing fresh updates and moving things forward, with a new book proof in hand, but instead I’m stuck in the waiting game. 

Canada Post Strike

It's true, publishing is full of a lot of waiting, but right now the wait feels extra long. Because of the unexpected Canada Post strike, two important packages are sitting in limbo somewhere between the printer and my mailbox.

Package #1

The first package holds the copies I need to send to Library and Archives Canada for all three versions of Bye, Bye, Boobies as well as the softcover version of Shelved. As mentioned in this post, every Canadian publisher has to deposit two copies of each book with LAC in order to keep using our free ISBN program. Until those copies get here, I can’t forward them on to Ottawa which also means my book won’t yet show up in Voilà or WorldCat and that's really important for ensuring that when I submit them to libraries they can find them.

While I wait on the mail, both Bye-Bye, Boobies and Shelved are already available for readers. It’s a funny contrast as the books are out in the world before I’ve even held these latest copies in my own hands. 

Package #2

The second package is my proof copy of The Fox and the Crow, the first title in my Monarch Tales series. I’m eager to flip through those pages and see how the illustrations look in print, but for now, I just have the tracking number and a lot of patience.

Clay-style illustration of a large tree with green leaves, red mushrooms at its base, and a dirt path curving past some rocks. A monarch butterfly hovers near the book title, “The Fox and The Crow.” Text below reads, “Story and Pictures by Jacqueline Cooper” and “A Monarch Tale.”


Both boxes will get here eventually, but for now they’re caught in the middle of a postal delay. Indie publishing isn’t just about writing and design, sometimes it’s about waiting on the mail.

You can always find updates on our books and projects on our site littlegoodbyes.ca

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