One of the first steps you need to do when you decide to publish a book is to go out and get yourself a PO Box. Why? One word: Security. Without a PO Box, you will be using your home address in places that it is easy for anyone to find. Do you want your readers to know exactly where you live? Would you want your Annie Wilkes to know where to find you? Probably not.
Here are just two places that you need to enter an address that the public has easy access to:
- Your domain name registration. All someone needs to do is run a WhoIs search on your website’s domain name and they will see your home address.
- Your newsletter/mailing list. If you use a service, such as MailChimp to run your email list, you need to give out your address (required by the FTC’s CAN-SPAM Act), which is then plainly displayed to everyone who signs up for your email list. Yikes!
Someone may also be able to find you by searching your copyright registration or ISBN registration, although it takes a little more work to find you that way.
How To Get a PO Box
You can just take a trip down to your local Post Office and ask them about renting one. Or, you can search and sign up for available PO Boxes online at https://www.usps.com/manage/po-boxes.htm. You do not need a large one, the smallest box should be all you need for this purpose.
PO Boxes have different costs depending on their location. If the prices on the Post Office nearest you is high, check the prices a little farther out. For instance, a PO Box at the Post Office nearest me is $98 a year, but if I go to the one just a mile further out, its only $70 a year.
For even more security, you may want to consider publishing under a pen name, but let’s save that conversation for another article.
Get Notified When You Get Mail
Once you have your PO Box, you can sign up to the USPS’s Informed Delivery service to get an email with images of any mail that is due to be delivered to your box. That way you only need to drive down to check your PO Box when you know you have mail there.
Already Used Your Home Address?
Go get a PO Box right away, then go into all your accounts and change the address to the PO Box instead.
BE SAFE!
The US Postal Service will not let you add a pen name to your legal name on your PO Box. Same problem with UPS Store mailboxes. I found a small chain of shipping, copying and mailbox stores that lets me use my legal name and also my pen name, so I can receive mail both ways. Authors with pen names may want to take note.
I am the only person with my surname in my city. I suspect a dedicated troll would be able to find me with a PO Box just as easily as with my physical address. Of course, I live in New Zealand, not the US, so I’m hoping the Pacific Ocean is sufficient barrier.
However, this is good advice. I get a lot of newsletters with obviously fake addresses (unless they really do live at Disneyland!), so personal security is something people are concerned about.
It never occurred to me anyone would want to track me down. Luckily for me it’s all post office boxes in my area. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
Great advice that I never really thought about before.
Oooohhhh-emmmmm-geeee! I never even thought of this. Duly noted. I will definitely do this. Great post!
This is so great. I hadn’t thought of using a PO box. Thanks for the tip.
So true. This was the main reason I delayed using MailChimp until I had one. We chose to use a box through the UPS Store instead of the USPS because it provided a street address instead of a PO Box. Pricing was comparable, and having a box at the UPS store gives us discounts on shipping and printing stuff. If someone else wants to look at this option remember that UPS stores are franchises. Be sure to check pricing and services of all local options because they can differ between locations.
These are great tips. Most people don’t realize these things when they start trying to grow a mailing list. As for whois, I pay my host a small fee to keep my personal information private. Eventually, I will have to get a PO box. Still trying to keep my overhead small. lol
I have thought about getting a PO Box when I realized my newsletter displayed my address at the bottom of each newsletter. I hate that, but I ended up dismissing the idea of getting a PO Box because of the fee. I’ll consider it again. Thanks foe this post!
Great information! I do already have a PO Box, but I hadn’t realized all the places someone might be able to obtain one’s address. Thanks for sharing!
I must admit I never thought of the security issues associated with publishing. I guess I just figured there were so many other ways to find my physical address that I didn’t think about my domain ID being another exposure. The good news is I just did a Whois search, and apparently using WordPress to register my domain must have protected me. I’ll be more careful in the future. Thanks.