Our copies were printed in Poland, or so they say, and possibly sent overland by pony, as we just got them yesterday. The American copies I saw when visiting family last month had a darker, more muted teal on the cover, so there is clearly a good deal of variation in the color reproduction with Print On Demand (POD). The American copies turned up two days after ordering, as well, but I hear the remarkable efficiency of Amazon US is because their goods are delivered by special Amazon white vans driven solely by cranked up maniacs willing to run you over on the way to deliver your made-in-China novelty trucker cap within the time limit, and the fulfillment center itself is a Dickensian workhouse where people have a minute and a half to pee before their pay is docked, and kindly modern businessman Jeff Bezos fires people by computerized notice on Christmas Day, etc. I mistakenly thought Scrooge was Scottish! Not that Europeans are so happy with Amazon; they strike a lot about it. Anyway, I support the right of people to go to the toilet without penalty, especially because some of them must be pregnant or diabetic or have UTIs, for the love of all that's decent. Have a heart. Let them pee. Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your bladder infections!
In the meantime, this is the solution we have, for better or worse, since we discovered at the last moment that Ingram Spark's POD service, which we had planned on using, and which has greater flexibility in formats and binding, is unavailable to us due to their arbitrary "we don't deal with Greece or Estonia, thank you very much" dismissal on the phone. (They did deal with a host of other small European countries, as they explained, but without giving reasons. Yes, I'm still bitter.) I don't want to sound ungrateful. Amazon has done a lot for me, don't get me wrong. I just wish they were less horrible. Wouldn't we all be better off if various institutions were less horrible? Don't retaliate, Amazon. that's all I'm saying. The Ghost of Guaranteed Christmas Delivery will haunt you, Bezos. It's not too late to change.
This latest guide is very much a personal effort; LT designed the cover with help from Micah Hahn of design studio AutumnSeventy, who designed the central image, a sort of Art Deco sunburst made of smelling blotter strips, and a lot of complaining from me, who didn't like the electric yellow they initially chose for it.
Luckyscent is in touch with us to sell copies as well. If you are a retailer who would like to offer the book, please use the Contact page to drop us a line!
Since the original guide is out of print, we are also looking into the possibility of bringing out our own self-published POD version of it. Even if many of the reviews are out of date, due to reformulations and discontinuations, many readers seem to want to have a copy, for the reviews of classic fragrances and for the in-depth essays with which we introduce the subject. TS