When do you calculate the postage for your books?  Before you wrap the book or after it's been wrapped?  I first did it before I wrapped it, but then found it easier to do it once it's all wrapped up and ready to go.  Then again, I wrap my books in recycled paper bags and not in envelopes and such ..

After you wrap is the simplest way.  Just put the warpped book on your scale, read the weight, round up to the next ounce and enter that for the weight when you buy the postage.

If you are using PBS postage, you need to calculate it before you buy the postage. I always put the book and whatever I am using as a mailer on the scale together. The two sheets of paper doesn't add any weight, but something like a bubble mailer can make enough of a difference to change the postage amount.

I always weigh after I wrap. Just to avoid some idiot postal employee, with a god complex, that wants to make an issue of .01 of an ounce difference. Heaven knows; if there is a cranky postal worker, my package will land in their hands. This is the same reason I always buy DC. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong. :-/

I weigh both before and after. I weigh before and enter that with 'book' selected. I believe the system adds .6 ounces to that to account for packaging. If you select 'wrapped book' it doesn't add anything.  If I am using a bubble mailer I will sometimes increase the weight a little, but with paper wrapping I just enter what I get. I then double check it after I've wrapped in case the taping took me over the next price change.

I use an electronic scale to weigh a plastic protected book along with a bubble envelope or a couple of sheets of 24 lb paper before using wrapped printable postage. If the weight is very close to the next pound, I'll prepare the book first and throw a sheet or half sheet of paper on the scale to emulate the label.  I've also trimmed bubble envelopes to book dimensions in order to keep the weight under the next pound. Sizing the envelopes close to book dimensions also helps to prevent breakout during transport.

I think the postage calculator for PBS asks if the weight you are entering is just the book weight or wrapped book weight. I usually just weigh the book itself if I need to, the wrappers I use are very light so will at most add about two-tenths of an ounce to the weight. I always round upward (like, if it's 5.4 oz, I'll round up to 6) to be on the safe side.

Cheryl

If it's a single book, I weigh it before wrapping and round up.

If I'm mailing multiple books I usually put them in an old Amazon box or something, and that requires a lot more packaging to keep them from rattling around in there.  So if I'm sending more than one I will definitely wrap first, even though it means putting the informational half of the label on the box instead of inside.

I generally weigh after wrapping to make sure I don't go over on weight due to all the tape and stuff.