Book Mailer Envelopes

Rigid book mailer envelopes for UK booksellers, publishers, comic and record shops and online retailers. Also sold as rigid book mailers, capacity book mailers, book shipping envelopes or all-board envelopes. Supplied flat in trade packs with peel-and-seal closure.

What a rigid mailer does that a padded bag doesn't

A padded bag protects against abrasion and light knocks. It does nothing about bending, and bending is how books arrive damaged.

A book pushed through a sorting machine in a padded bag flexes. The spine creases, the corners curl, and a book that left you as new arrives as used. For a seller shipping second-hand fiction that's an annoyance; for anyone shipping new stock, signed copies or collectible comics it's a refund.

Rigid board doesn't flex. That's the entire proposition, and it's why these cost more than a mailing bag and less than a box.

The capacity gusset, and the postage trade-off it forces

These are capacity mailers: the gusset expands so one size takes a thin paperback or a thicker volume without void fill. Useful, and the reason a small range of sizes covers a wide catalogue.

But the gusset is also a postage decision, and it's worth being blunt about it.

Royal Mail's Large Letter band caps at 25mm deep. Sent flat with a thin item inside, these mailers sit within that and post at letter rates. Expand the gusset and you exceed 25mm, and the parcel is priced as a Small Parcel — regardless of how light it is.

So the rule is simple:

• Thin items, flat mailer, under 25mm — Large Letter, and the cheapest way to post a book.
• Anything thicker — Small Parcel, and you should size for protection rather than trying to squeeze the band.

Measure a packed sample with the item actually inside before you standardise. The difference between the two bands across a thousand books is the kind of number that decides whether a title is profitable.

Choosing a size

Dimensions and pack quantities are in the table below. Two things decide which you need.

Size to the book, not to the paper size. A B-format paperback, a trade paperback and an A4 catalogue are three different footprints, and a mailer that's generously oversized lets the contents move — which reintroduces the corner damage the rigid board was bought to prevent.

Check the thickest thing you send, not the average. The gusset gives you headroom, but it isn't unlimited, and a mailer packed to its absolute limit seals badly.

What these suit

• Paperbacks, trade paperbacks and thinner hardbacks
• Magazines, comics and graphic novels
• Catalogues, brochures and calendars
• Sheet music, documents and printed matter
• Photo prints and artwork that must not bend

Where a book wrap is the better answer: heavy hardbacks, boxed sets, multi-book orders, or anything where the thickness varies a lot order to order. A book wrap folds to the depth of the contents and adds crush protection at the edges. These envelopes are for flat and semi-rigid; wraps are for bulk.

Being straight about that boundary saves you the returns.

Buying by the pack

Supplied flat in trade packs, with price breaks as pack quantities increase.

Most booksellers need two sizes rather than four — one that covers standard paperbacks and one that covers A4. Concentrating volume on two lines gets you further up the price break than spreading it across the range, and it simplifies the packing bench.

Practical detail

Rigid board construction, supplied flat, with peel-and-seal adhesive for tape-free closure. The surface takes labels, barcodes and direct print cleanly, and the whole mailer is recyclable in normal paper collection.

We buy these as part of a manufacturing group, at volumes a reseller can't reach — which is what keeps the trade price where it is. Behind them sits over 100,000 square feet of warehousing, so the size you standardise on is the size that's still there when you reorder.

Not sure which size fits your best-selling title? Send us the dimensions of the book and we'll tell you which mailer suits it.

Delivery and returns

Next-day dispatch on UK mainland orders, with free UK mainland delivery and a £75 minimum order. Full terms on our delivery and returns pages.