If you’ve written a book or are planning to do so, you’ll need to ship them to friends, family, speaking engagements, and for publicity purposes. It’s important to pack books properly, or else they can be damaged.

Here are seven important tips for packing books safely:

1. If the box’s inside bottom flaps have a gap between them of more than a couple of inches, the books can get bend on the edges of the panels. To keep this from happening, either:

• Fill in the gap with cardboard, styrofoam, or packing material, ensuring the filler is level with the panels.
• Put a cardboard or stryofoam panel about the same size as the box in the bottom.

2. Stack the books in the center of the box.

• Lay the books flat on top of each other in one or more stacks. Try to avoid standing any books up on any side.
• If you have multiple stacks, make sure the open side of each book touches the spine of the book in the stack next to it.
• Try not to let the books touch the sides of the box, and especially not the corners as corners are where the worst damage usually occurs.

3. Surround the books with packing material on four sides, preferably using packing paper, news paper, or sheets of small or medium sized bubbles.

• If you use packing peanuts or similar, it’s good to put them in grocery bags or other disposable, flexible bags instead of putting them directly in the box, and close the bags. When you put the packing peanuts in bags, it makes less mess for your recipient.
• DON’T use big packing bubbles. They can pop during shipping and allow your books to get damaged.

4. If you have a letter, packing slip, or any other papers you’re including for the recipient, put them on top of the books, so they don’t get lost in the packing material.

5. Put a piece of corrugated cardboard, a styrofoam panel, or a similar object on top of the books. This helps to keep the books from getting cut if the person opening the box isn’t careful, and to reduce shifting, if the books are in two or more stacks.

6. Fill in the rest of the space above the books with more packing material.

7. Close and seal up the box with box tape.

• If it was necessary to let the books touch the corners, seal each top and bottom edge of the box and the side edge where the seam is, to reduce the chances of damage.

Your box of books is now be ready to be shipped.

Geoffrey Powell-Isom picks, packs, and assists in the processing of orders at the WinePress warehouse in Enumclaw, WA. He also assists in the reception of incoming shipments, organizes and tracks inventory, and maintains a sparkling clean warehouse.