Perhaps the solution is to pop the book in a _relatively_ fitted postpak? (That's what we call the envelopes with bubble wrap inside down here in Australia). That's how most of the Australian booksellers ship single-title orders, it means you're paying for the weight of the book and nothing else. How much does each 'fancy' book weigh?
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I'm shipping them in a tight cardboard sleeve. I think the shipping weight is 1lb9oz.
What I need is an EU or even UK warehouse so I can take advantage of the sweet, sweet cheap subsidized shipping. I bet it'd be 10USD to ship from the UK to AU. The most cost effective way to do THAt is to actually print a round of books in the EU but that's a stretch right now.
Part of the catch to all of this is that the warehouse I work doesn't do postal service at all, just Fedex and UPS. I balanced the pros and cons and let them handle the international shipping--it's pricier but it gets there in a week instead of a month. It's also unrealistic for me to keep up with shipping on my own.