The Bookbinding Journey Begins

My first endeavor in the world of bookbinding has begun!

I’ve wanted hard copies of my favorite fanfictions for so long, and with a lull in work around the holidays, I felt like it was finally time to get cracking. After looking at a few other binder’s commission rates, I realized it would cost less to make them myself, and I would have more creative control (which if you know me, I’m quite the perfectionist). Thus began my deep dive into all that is bookbinding.

I started with making my own custom typesets in InDesign. I felt like I had more control over all the elements in comparison to other binder’s preferred Word Document methods. Plus, I’m already quite familiar with Adobe suite, so it seemed like the best and most time-efficient option.

I loved getting to make the typesets and was more than happy to get to re-read my favorite fanfictions as I did so. It took me about a week to format them to perfection, and export each volume into booklets for print.

I’m currently now in the process of printing, which on my poor InkJet who can’t do double-sided prints, is quite time-consuming. I’m printing two sets of Manacled by Sen Lin Yu—roughly 350,000 words per set—one for myself and one as a gift for my friend.

The next step will be sewing my signatures as soon as the rest of my supplies get in over the next few weeks. So far, the process has been very relaxing, and I will most definitely continue with this hobby in the future.

I’ve realized in my own research efforts that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of readily available information on bookbinding. I really had to dig for information, and made a lot of unsure purchases at first since I didn’t know what would actually be useful. If any of you are interested in learning more about bookbinding and would like for me to make a more in-depth blog post, or even a series of them with all my knowledge, tips, and tricks I’ve acquired, let me know!

You can find me on Instagram at @authorcamicicero or TikTok at @readitandwept.

I’ll keep you all posted as I venture forth!