Bookbinding - Blog Posts
How to bookbind your fanfic!
Part 1: From AO3 to printing
The necessary first step is turning your AO3 fanfic into booklets. Your whole book will be a bunch of booklets piled on top of each others and stitched together.
Booklet examples:
Btw, this is the official Word tutorial on how to make a booklet.
You can see there are different options. I usually do 8 pages, which is what you will see in the video. This means that a booklet of 8 pages is two sheets of paper, printed front and back, folded and one put inside the other. To have your word pages in the correct order you will need to format your word document.
Everything is in the video but here is the text for easy reading (btw the fanfic I used is Exit by schwutthing, an amazing Valjean/Javert fic)
Do not download the fanfic on AO3. Click on "Entire work" and copy paste it on word.
Format your word document. Click on File-> Margins. Select "Multiple pages: Book fold" and "Sheets per booklet: 8". Put "Gutter" to 1cm.
Double click on the empty area just above your text, on a random page of the document. This will make the "Do not download the fanfic on AO3. Click on "Entire work" and copy paste it on word.
Format your word document. Click on File-> Margins. Select "Multiple pages: Book fold" and "Sheets per booklet: 8". Put "Gutter" to 1cm.
Double click on the empty area just above your text, on a random page of the document. This will make the "Header and Footer" option appear. You can click on "Footer" and select the format for the pages' number. Always add the pages number, it will make your life easier.
Now you can justify your book. I usually justify (select all text with CTRL+A and click on Justify), but keep in mind that some documents might not enjoy passing through "justify" so double check your final document. For example, if there are lines of poetry and the author wrote into the next line without starting a new paragraph the justify option will make it weird.
Make your book pretty! I added some illustrations and blank pages. I also made the title of the fanfic bigger.
Fix the chapters' titles and notes. I clicked on Home-> Find and searched for "Chapter", so I could select on each chapter title and make it bold, and also delete the "Chapter text" added just after. You can do the same with "notes" in case you want to delete notes.
Now it is time to print! I prefer to save in pdf before, so I will do that.
IF YOU HAVE A PRINTER THAT DOES NOT PRINT BOTH SIDES
Click on print
Select "Microsoft print to pdf"
Select "Manually print on both sides"
This will create two different files pdf, one for the front pages, and one for the back pages.
Click on the file for the front pages and print them all. Do not panic if you see the pages number all over it.
Now take your printed (only on one side) block of pages and load it into your printer again, making sure that you will now print on the blank back. Open your back pages pdf file and print.
(you can do a trial with a few pages to see if everything is lining up correctly).
IF YOU HAVE A PRINTER THAT PRINT BOTH SIDES
"Click on print
Select "Microsoft print to pdf"
Select "Print on one side"
This will create a single pdf that you can print on your both-sides printer. You will see that the page are not in the order you had on the word document, but the whole file will start with page 8 (see video).
Now print!
What you want is this:
You can see that on the front you have page 8 first, page 1 after, because when folded it will end up with page 1 at the start of your booklet! And on the back of this first sheet you have 7 and 2, that will end up in the correct position.
Now you will have a lot of pages... time to fold and create your booklet! Every two sheets... you will fold as you see above.
Next post will be specifically about folding the booklet, making the holes and sewing them together.
Been trying to learn bookbinding (to mixed results) and from the looks of this I should have started simpler!
I made this zine last year to teach Japanese stab binding. It's a technique that every artist should know—with just a few tools, it's so easy to bind your own sketchbook or to make a physical version of your art/writing/etc. Download the PDF version (with bonus photos & tips!)
Gemma Gary, The Devil’s Dozen: Thirteen Craft Rites of the Old One
Major shout-out to men that craft. Dudes that knit. Fellows that felt. Bros that bind books. Cobbers that cross-stitch. Y'all are wonderful and I appreciate you.
I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -
I am fine with "the audience" -
downloading my fics
printing my fics
copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics
sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3
making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss
doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc
I am not fine with "the audience"
doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity
feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever
Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.
Enjoy the fandom things.
It’s time!! To!! Bookbind.
Look what also came in the mail!
Look what came in the mail today :)
I think I should try bookbinding…
It looks cool and a lot of people are doing it with fanfictions so I’d like to try it…
Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiii-!!!!!
I FINALLY finished a project I started last year (and put off for a long time because of a move, new job, and was hesitant about making the hard cover). I had so much fun typesetting and designing this one! I love how the title page specifically turned out!! Definitely one of my favorites I've done so far. And I love that I got both Eye and the Web in the design of the hard cover/end pages, with the Web hidden within.
The fic is The Unknown Watcher by arthureameslove. The fanart on the frontispiece is by @art_of_cammie on Instagram!
