How to Make a Poetry Chapbook

Use your computer and printer to produce handmade poetry chapbooks.

During the 17th through 19th centuries in the British Isles, "chapbook" referred to a small booklet that contained poems, songs, folk stories or other works with general appeal. Printers produced any material that they thought would sell and had "chapmen," or peddlers, sell the booklets on the street. In the United States today, chapbooks refer to booklets of poetry or fiction by a single author. Today's chapbooks may be simple booklets printed and bound at home or fine, handmade works of art. If you have access to a computer and printer, you can easily publish your own chapbook. A nice size for a poetry chapbook is 10 sheets of paper. Once you fold each sheet in half and collate them, you will have a booklet of 40 pages, measuring 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches.

Things You'll Need

• Cardstock (8 1/2 x 11) for cover
• Text (8 1/2 x 11) paper for body pages
• Oversize stapler, able to cross a 5 1/2-inch page

Instructions

1. Prepare a paper mock-up of your booklet before you begin setting it up in your word processing program. This will help you visualize the layout. Lay down a stack of 10 sheets of paper and fold them in half (bringing the two 8 1/2 inch sides together). With a pencil, number the sheets from 1 to 40. The center spread will contain pages 20 and 21.

2. Create a 10-page document in your word processing program with the page orientation set to landscape (8 1/2 by 11) and all the margins at one-half inch. Divide each page into 2 columns and set the gutter (the space between the columns) to one inch. (When you fold the page, this will leave a one-half-inch margin on each page.)

3. Add page numbers to each side of the pages manually. Depending on the program, you may find it easiest to use the text box function so that the page numbers do not interfere with the flow of the poems. Use your mock-up as a guide to numbering the pages. Lay the mock up out flat, with page 1 on top. You will see that on the first page of your word processing document, you will place the page number 40 on the left side and page number 1 on the right. Turn the first sheet of the mock up over so that page two is on the left. The next pages in your word processing document, then, will be 2 on the left and 39 on the right. Continue until you have added all 40 page numbers to your document.

4. Place the text of your poems into the document, guided by the page numbers you just added. Your first poem will begin in the right-hand column of your first page. It will continue on page 2, the left-hand column of your second page. Do not let the text flow automatically from one column to the next. Manually break the text of each poem at the end of one column and manually start the text in the appropriate column on the next sequential page number. You may find it easiest to manually insert text boxes within the margins of each column, as some word processing programs will not let you begin typing in the second column while the first column is blank. Text boxes allow you greater control over the placement of text on a page.

5. Print out your document using the duplex function of your printer. Lay out each sheet of paper in landscape orientation. Carefully fold the left side (one of the 8 1/2-inch edges) so it lines up with the right side (the other 8 1/2 inch edge. You now have a sheet that measures 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches. This gives you the first 4-page folio (folded sheet) for your chapbook. Carefully fold each page individually. This will give each page a sharp, clean fold.

6. Create your cover in a new document. Use the same page orientation, columns and margins as for the text pages. Type the title of the poetry collection, your name and any other information in the right-hand column. Add artwork if desired. Print out the cover on card stock and fold using the same method as for the text pages. Since the card stock is thick, you can use a wooden ruler to help press the cover into a clean fold.

7. Collate the pages and lay the booklet out flat, face down on a smooth, clean surface. Pages 40 and 1 will be on top and pages 20 and 21 will be face down. Place the cover on top. Use an oversized stapler to bind the stack into a booklet. With the sheets spread out flat, staple at the spine two or three times, making sure to space out the staples evenly. To give the outer cover a smooth surface, point the sharp edges of the staples toward the inside of the booklet. The solid edge of the staple should align with the spine of the book.

Tips & Warnings

• In newer versions of Microsoft Word, you can add blank pages within the "Document Elements" menu. In other versions you can insert blank pages by using the "Insert Page Break" function. Avoid creating pages by adding hard returns, as these will cause your text to flow unexpectedly from one column to the next.

• You can adjust the number of pages in your chapbook by multiples of four. If you use eight sheets of paper, for example, you will create a 32-page booklet. If you want to make the margins of your pages larger, be sure that the gutter between the columns is twice the size of your outer margins. (If your outer margins are 1 inch, the gutter needs to be 2 inches.) This will give you even margins all around each page when folded in half.

• Pay attention to where multipage poems break on a page. Avoid interrupting the flow of a poem with bad page breaks.

References

• National Library of Scotland; Chapbooks
• Empty Mirror; Self-Publishing Your Poetry Book or Broadside
• ENGL 219: Poetry Workshop; Some Useful Information for Your Chapbooks
• Poets & Writers; DIY: How to Make a Saddle-Stitched Chapbook