GLOUCESTER-Steve Lanning is proud of what his company, Bluewater Publishing, produces and so are the tens of thousands of service members who have ordered one of his cruise books that documents deployments for the Navy, Marines, Army and National Guard.
The first book he produced was for a 1991 deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Since then, his books have qualified for what’s called the media mail shipping rate, a discounted price from the U.S. Postal Service for mailing items such as books. He often sends hundreds of books at time, so the rate saves him money.
Suddenly last month, Lanning learned no can’t ship under the media mail rate, so that has increased his shipping price by more than $7.00 a book.