Building Books

I've wanted to bind the @mxtxfoodzine into a hardcover book ever since I first discovered them in November, and this binderary I finally got around to it 🎉

I figured a lectern case would be perfect for a recipe book, plus I'd been wanting to try it for a while anyways! There's definitely some glue spots and wonky corners, but for a first try I'm very happy with it :)

Also a huge thanks to @spockandawe 's spreadsheet and all the people who wrote down their findings in the @renegadeguild 's discord server, I'd never have figured this out without y'all!

I want to see divorces happen. I want to see women leaving their partners who voted for trump. I want to see men leaving their partners to vote for trump.

I want to see people cutting ties. Children with their parents who voted for trump. Brothers and sisters cutting ties with their siblings who voted for trump.

I want to hear about people complaining that they can't get dates or get laid because they voted for trump.

People who voted for trump are bad people and should have no access to you. It should be a deal breaker. If it isn't, then you're excusing what trump stands for, and you're just as bad.

“DIG”

Appearance:

A hardcover book with no title or author. It has 96 pages. The covers and every single page of the book have been marked with dirt.

Content:

Every page only has the word “DIG” in a small neat typeface in the centre of each page without any variation.

Abnormality:

Reading the book causes a psychological effect that leads to an obsession to DIG. The reader will be unable to suppress their compulsion to DIG and will continue to do so until their death. The cause of death is normally suffocation due to the hole they’ve dug collapsing in on itself.

Classification:

The book is clearly belonging to forever deep beneath creation. It burrows in to its victims minds and leaves the compulsion to DIG until they suffocate. Close spaces, dirt and suffocation. It will be placed in the suitable wing.

Why on earth are you BUYING PHYSICAL BOOKBOUND COPIES OF FANFICTION????

ACTUALLY WHY ARE YOU EVEN BOOKBINDING FANFICTION TO SELL?!?!?!

IF ANY OF YOU DO EITHER OF THESE THINGS, GET OUT!! I AM NEVER SPEAKING TO YOU AGAIN.

In all seriousness though, authors on AO3 have begun to pull their works off of the site to avoid getting sued by people stealing their works to make a pretty bound book for profit. Entire accounts could be shut down as well.

Listen, I’m all for saving favorite works by printing them out and putting them in a binder, or learning how to make a bookbound copy yourself and/or assembling one with a pre-made and purchased fancy binding for a fanfic FOR YOURSELF or AS A GIFT to someone, but making bindings with and putting fanfiction in it TO SELL is where I draw the line.

Literally the entire point of AO3 is that you can read it FOR FREE.

It is DISRESPECTFUL for people to make money off of hardbound copies because guess what, the original creators of these fics get nothing. We are literally only writing fanfiction for our own pleasure.

Buying and selling book-bound fanfiction is also ILLEGAL YOU DUMB SHITS. People who are selling content while claiming to be a book binder is a misconception of their services. Book binders make the covers and all that, not the actual content of the book. Selling fanfiction is also an immediate violation of copyright law / Creative Commons licenses. The original fan work will get erased from the internet.

Fanfiction is already a legal grey zone since they are works being written about are protected by copyright. Copyright holders can in fact go after writers as well as the person who sold the fanfiction.

This also goes for people who steal fanart and, claim it as theirs, and put a price on it.

Don’t make it worse.

rest assured, we can still write our fanfics and make our art.

Buying a binding for you to assemble onto your own fanfiction or fanfiction you printed for PERSONAL USE is fine.

HOWEVER,

Bookbinding fanfiction for profit is literally ruining things for everyone. DON’T.

Do whatever you like to your books! Dog ear them, tear the pages out of them when you're done, turn them into crafts, grow mushrooms on them.

That even goes for my books if you ever have the chance to have one. I don't care what you do with them as long as you're enjoying yourself. The worst thing you can do to a book is not use it.

Inspired by @buildingbooks I thought I would post some of my bookbinding projects. This first one is a coptic bound book with awesome travel themed paper around the signatures. I was so please with the chevron stitching.

Next is my rebound copy of the Deathly Hallows. I embroidered the symbol onto wool felt and made it into book cloth. I also added new end pages, headbands and bookmark ribbon.

The black and blue book is my first attempt at leather binding which I gave to my beloved for his birthday. Leather binding is pretty scary as there are so many ways you can mess it up. I don’t have any of the tools at home for leather work so I’ll be sticking with cloth and paper binding.

I will be honest and say that yes, leather is scary, but it is no more scary than paper or cloth. Each just has its own little quirks you need to learn. So my advice there is to find some cheap leather and learn. Make mistakes.

The scariest thing about leather is the price, but that is what cheap leather is for. Once you get used to how to handle it, expensive leather will feel like a dream.

Keep up the amazing work. You're doing such a good job.

If you're after bigger frames to give a more feminising look - look in the sunglasses section. The frames are usually much larger, and you can get clear lenses in them.

There are plenty of blogs on tumblr that are bookbinders, and several discords too. You can find so many tutorials online and if you follow the style of you want to do you can learn how to make books like the ones you pictured.

If you can cut and you can sew you can bind.