Ways to Bind a Homemade Book
Sure, you can always wait around until Random House realizes how great your book is and they decide to publish it with a print run of a million copies. Why wait to get your book into the hands of the public? There are plenty of ways you can bind your book yourself. Each has its advantages and drawbacks, but there’s certain to be a method that will fit with the concept you have for your tome. Here are some of the many ways to turn those pages over which you toiled for so long into a real book.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
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Consider which kind of binding you want to use. There are lots of factors to consider, including the length of your book, the subject of your book and how you want people to think of your book. If your book is only 20 pages long, it might not make sense to pay for expensive perfect binding. A cookbook, however, needs to lie flat, making a comb binding ideal.
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Staple binding. This is an easy, low-cost way to put your book together. A poetry chapbook, for example, may not be very long. Just add a thick piece of card stock to your pages to serve as your cover. Fold the book perfectly along the center. (You might want to use a T-square.) Then, simply staple the book together with the curled ends on the inside of the book. If you plan on making lots of books, you might want to invest on a large stapler, as most desktop models may be a little too small to do this comfortably.
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Sew your book together. This is how hardcover books are made, after all. Get a needle thick and sharp enough to do the job. Separate the pages of your book into sections and sew the left edges of the sections together nice and tight. Cut a piece of linen or another strong fabric to fit along the spine of your book. Dab book glue onto the fabric and put the sewn sections together.
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Choose comb binding. Comb binding is extremely secure, durable and looks very professional. You will need a machine that punches the proper holes in the pages of your book. Punch these holes and then thread the tips of the comb binding through the holes, and you’re set.
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Perfect binding is professional-looking and allows you to print your name and the book’s title on the spine. Gather your pages and staple them together three times a half-inch from the left margin. This keeps your book together. Now give your book a smooth look. Prepare the cover of the book and fold the cover to accommodate the width of your book’s spine. Use a light coat of bookbinders’ glue inside the cover and slide the stapled pages inside. (Be sure to let the glue dry fully!)
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