Making your own Book Wrapping

**Always check the shipping requirements of any website you sell through to ensure you utilize their standards**

Some times, you simply don't have enough boxes, or boxes of the correct size, to ship all of your books (for more on conventional shipping, check out this post). There is an alternative manner of shipping books, which I call “wrapping” books. It involves a single large piece of cardboard, roughly 2.5x as wide as the book and 1.5x as tall.

This system of wrapping only works with tightly bound, strong books—or similar goods like DVDs in cases. Do not use it with fragile books, or those that are particularly valuable; I only use it with recently published books in excellent condition. Sometimes it helps to first wrap the book in a protective foam sheet or other protective material.

The process works like this.

1. Lay the book or DVD out on the cardboard, roughly twice the thickness of the book from the width dimension on the right side and in the middle on the height dimension.
   
2. Draw lines with a ruler along the upper, lower and right-hand sides. Make the lines a bit away from the edge of the book to give the cardboard space to be bent over.
   
3. Cut out the corners as demonstrated. This creates an easily foldable flap on the right-hand side.
   
4. Bend over the right hand flap—it may help to run a pen or the ruler's edge along the line to make an indentation. Replace the book and draw a line down the left-hand side of the cardboard.
   
5. Cut out the top and bottom edges to create top and bottom flaps.
   
6. Bend over the edges on the top, bottom and short flap. Crease the fold lines if necessary. You may want to trip the top and bottom flaps if they are particularly long.
   
   
   
7. Bend over the top flap, creasing it as needed. Trim the cardboard so it does not overlap the top. Tape all of the edges.
   
   
   

You may wish to reinforce the corners—the weakest part of this wrapping—with an extra layer of cardboard inside.