David Doyle Books News #44

Publishing news from Milan, TN

Dear Friends,

Many of you have written this week out of concern for us, which we truly appreciate.  While we had a number of limbs down, the actual tornados in this area did not impact us, other than several hours without power (which was the case for most of the county), and with respect to the “generational flooding” in our area (we were told to expect a foot of rain in the course of the week), we are dry, the house is dry, and the books are dry (although we did have some unused shipping boxes get soaked.  And, although I get very tired of wearing “the boot” (which sure slows me down) – my ankle is doing okay. Thank you for your concern and patience. While we are still shipping our Book of the Month club selections, all of our regular orders that came in before last night have been packed (and all but two have been shipped).
 
A number of you have also written concerning the tariff situation. While it is too early to get very specific, I can offer some generalizations.  Off the top of my head, only Eagles over the Pacific, Classic Warship, Ginter Books, Studebaker US6, Chevrolet, AM General, Cleveland Tank Plant, B-17F, Jeep restoration, Gun Trucks, Painting the Fleet and Corsair Rivet Counter books are printed in this country – all of our other thousands of titles are printed offshore. Even for those printed here, much of the high quality paper used in books cames from Canada, so the tariffs will definitely have an impact on both imported books and domestically printed.
 
When my first book came out in 2003, it was printed in the USA. However, within a couple of years I found my publishers were moving the printing to the orient. This, I was told, was not because of the cost per se, but because the differences in environmental regulations meant that the colors in books printed offshore were much more vivid.
 
Since then, more and more of the actual printing, even by US-based publishers, has gone overseas, now driven by cost.  The new tariffs may bring some of that printing back into this country – but it will come with a cost; in my experience printing is USA is at least twice as expensive as overseas, even factoring in the shipping cost. I am not saying this is good or bad - merely what I have observed.
 
But the bigger factor is – the bulk of the publications that we offer are published by individuals and companies that are based abroad.  Thus, we have no alternative to simply paying the tariffs. This unfortunately means that as our current stock sells down and we have to restock, we will be forced to adjust some prices. At this moment, this situation is compounded by the trending shift in the exchange rate, with the value of the dollar vs the British pound dropping about 5% in the past year – which has the real-world impact of the prices going up 5%.
 
This is a long-winded way of saying – “we aren’t sure yet of the complete impact of tariffs on our selling prices in the future (as we deplete our current inventory), but there are likely to be some changes.”
 
But for the here and now, this week we received the new April Phoenix Aviation Modelling magazine. We also restocked on Abrams Squad magazines, and a variety of WWI ground warfare books.
 
Just announced are new forthcoming books, including a new Ginter book about the Grumman FF/SF fighter, for which we are now taking reservations.  ALSO – we will be announcing three new aviation titles in the next 24 hours and begin taking reservations – so check our website again tomorrow – or better, follow DavidDoyleBooks.com on Facebook and get your reservations in early – some reservations will close Monday!
 
Denise and I remain grateful for your support.

Sincerely,

David and Denise Doyle

https://daviddoylebooks.com