I got a book postage due. Not a big deal (1.53) but I want to see if I can change the weight in the 'system' so that when I mail the book out I donlt have the same problem! I have a feeling the calculation was incorrect.  Please advise!

Lill

Yes, you can.  Go to the book's page on PBS and click "more options" (on the left) and choose "edit book data".  Then, you can change the weight and submit the edit.  Once the change is approved, the weight will be correct in the system.

Lillian,

You can also change the book weight upon mailing before you print out your PBS postage. 

Some books have the same ISBN for the trade size and the mass market size.  PBS treats them both as paperbacks. 

ah Mary...... I am pretty sure I won't be able to remember to make the change later!!  Waning memory these days <sigh>  so I will try changing ot now before I forget! 

Thanks all for the replies!!  Happy reading,  Lill  >^..^<

Funny this should be here today !  I was just printing out a label for a book, and I was shocked to see that PBS has the weight for this small HC at 2.7 lbs.  Way too much.  Thank goodness I have a postal scale now.  It weighs right at a pound with bubble mailer.  I went in and changed the book data after I changed the postage I bought.  They didn't have the right number of pages either.  I bought the book from Amazon, and I don't agree with their weight either (either one - they have 2 different ones for the same ISBN and their weights weren't the same as the one PBS had).  I am so glad I was looking closely at this!!

Ruth

You should always check the weight before accepting what PBS has.  They are almost always wrong about the books I've sent.  I think most of the books I send start with the PBS weight of over 8 oz., where mine are usually between 5 and 6 oz.  If you accept the PBS weight without checking, you may end up wasting money on postage.

I don't even pay any attention to what the database says the book weighs.  I just stick it in the mailer, lay the blank label on top, then weigh it all together and use those numbers when printing the postage.

And books gain weight as they get handled.  Moisture?

Sometimes the weight can be different for hardcovers because there might be a regular hardcover and a Book Club edition (could be much lighter than the same regular hardback) ... might have the same ISBN, but be different weights and different number of pages. I wouldn't worry too much about the number of pages in the PBS database, I never change it unless it is "0", because it was probably the correct number of pages for a different edition of the book.

To be safe, you should really check each package yourself before mailing it. I receive some sometimes (with printed postage), with more postage than the book required.

Well, I know that PBS's weights can be off - but I thought that 2lbs 70z was extreme.  I did check it against Amazon's and they had 2 different weights for the same ISBN's.  And the book is small - Amazon's measurements were right about the size.  Once I was getting a description for a book to put in to the book data file and found that PBS had the 238 page book listed as weighing 5+ lb.  I wrote to the data people that that couldn't be right.  I got an answer back saying it might be a "board" book!!  They were kidding!  Board as in lumber.  I'm going to routinely check all my weights from now on.

Ruth

I typically added a few additional ounces when printing the labels and change the choice from BOOK to WRAPPED BOOK (or whatever it states) because I can be quite liberal with packaging materials.  This hopefully prevents books from being postage due at the other end.  So far I have not had any comments to the contrary.

I had to train myself to remember to change the mail date if it wasn't going out that day because carrier had already been past....sometimes still forget, so I have to wrap and rush to blue box in town before the start of a new day.

Odd, though, I live between two rural tiny towns.  One will accept and just restamp mail date if I print the prior day's date. The other will not.  Go figure....