Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Glee, "Only the Good Die Young."

Some thoughts on shirts.

As I slowly package the still-pending shirt orders (about half have been mailed out or hand-delivered, with about half remaining), I find myself inundated with email from people asking if I have any extras. Which, naturally, has me pondering what I've learned from this batch, and what to do differently if I print another run. I've come to the following five conclusions.

1. Order = Pay.
This took so long because we had to chase down every person who said they wanted a shirt and get them to pay for it. If we do it again, we say "place your order, pay your total, and you'll get your shirt when we hit the minimum order threshold or run out of time, whichever comes later." Pros, no chasing people. Cons, some people may demand refunds if things take too long.

2. Make it clear that the choices offered are the only ones.
We also had issues with a few people going "I want shirt style A, but this color from shirt style B." This, well, wasn't possible, because the shirts didn't exist, but we didn't catch that until Deborah was in the final review of the list. So if we do this again, we need to be very clear on the "what you can get is what's on that specific page" issue.

3. Set a maximum threshold.
This was a super-large order, which also slowed things down a lot. So there needs to be a "no fewer than X, but no more than Y" point.

4. Up the price for 3XL and up.
I hate this. I tried so hard not to reach this conclusion. But...it costs more to print a shirt that's between 3XL and 6XL, and we had a lot of those. I was never expecting to make money on this, and I figured, "well, if someone who orders a S is paying the same as someone who orders a 5XL, it all comes out in the wash." And it did, as far as printing costs was concerned. What I didn't do was calculate for mailing costs. It's about three dollars more to ship a larger shirt, especially if that shirt is not being mailed alone. If I want to be able to afford to print the shirts, and mail the shirts, I need to charge more for the larger ones. I'm so sorry. It's purely financial, and it annoys me deeply.

5. Print more extras.
This time, I ordered three extra shirts, and Amy, who is smart, ordered eight for her bookstore. Amy has been doing a brisk business selling shirts to filkers who missed the original order, and is a happy little clam. I still don't know which shirts are mine, because I'm in the shipping process. More extras would mean a happier answer to "do you have one you can sell me?" inquires.

...of course, all this is academic until I finish mailing. Still, that's where I'm at right now, and sometimes it's nice to think aloud.
Tags: busy busy busy, contemplation
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  • 82 comments

katyhh

October 28 2011, 15:58:15 UTC 5 years ago

And here I thought, number 1. would be totally and utterly crystal clear to everyone ... *sigh*
Sorry you had to chase folks.
I am not getting into the "larger sizes cost more to ship" rant ... not not not. I feel your pain about having to do this.

seanan_mcguire

October 28 2011, 18:04:13 UTC 5 years ago

I makes sense, and for anything BUT clothing, I don't get twitchy. Heavy things weigh more. But with clothes, there's all this social baggage that goes along with it, and I hate feeling like I'm charging people for being heavy, or for wanting nightshirts.

amberfox

October 28 2011, 18:47:03 UTC 5 years ago

Ooh, I wish I'd thought of the nightshirt option. Ah well.

aliciaaudrey

October 29 2011, 00:06:46 UTC 5 years ago

Man, now I wish I'd thought of that.

Though come to think of it perhaps I'm just glad other people appear to sleep in oversized T shirts. My mother keeps insisting this is some weird holdover from when I as twelve.

kyrielle

October 29 2011, 20:16:19 UTC 5 years ago

Oversized t-shirts are COMFY. Nightgowns are long enough to tangle up and try to tie me up, plus most of them are made too warm or with itchy lace/trim/whatever in places that shouldn't have it or.... And pajama pants? Yeah, thanks, I'd rather not. I love sleeping in oversized t-shirts. They are *comfortable*. And it's easy to get them if I need more. (Besides...I don't wear t-shirts all that often daytime, so if I want to enjoy them....)

tiferet

October 28 2011, 22:20:19 UTC 5 years ago

Once you get to 3XL shirts really do weigh more. It's one thing when people decide that anything bigger than a 10 or a 12 is "plus size", but if it's actually affecting your cost, passing it on is not unreasonable.

Also, seconding that nightshirt option, omg.