Hey! I'm Nicole, and I make handmade books of common domain texts, fanfiction, and other works. Falling Sun Bindery is a member of Renegade Publishing (renegadepublishing.org).
As booktober is coming to a close, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the creative art of fannish bookbinding! Fannish bookbinding and bookmaking is a type of fancraft where fans aim to replicate books or create original books inspired from their canons or bind fanfic, and can also overlap with the creation of custom zines.
Fanbinding can be done through commercial services, such as Print on Demand companies, or can be done non-commercial by printing and binding the works by hand. This involves methods such as old-school spiral bindings, using desktop thermal binding machines, traditional hand-sewn bindings for hardcovers or pamphlets, or glueless bindings such as coptic or sewn board binding.
Though author feedback is positive for the most part, fannish bookbinding faces the criticism that some people might do it to make a monetary profit and there is also the controversy of copyright blanket permission and plagiarism to consider.
Are you interested in learning more about fannish bookbinding? Check out our Fanlore page!
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2008 Honda Civic Manual
328 pages
Completed February 2, 2023
Not a fic binding - a couple years ago I got sick of not having the manual to my car except in PDF form, so I hand-imposed the pages and made essentially a landscape-mode quarto! And there was only one choice for the endpapers, obviously.
Imposition notes and my mistake under the cut :D Still not sure how that happened.
to make a life by gone_girl
53,903 words | 376 pages
Completed October 30, 2023
Coming out of my grad school funk to shout about "to make a life" by gone_girl AKA @piratemadi on tumblr! This is a Black Sails fic and I LOVE it for its beautiful translation of the canon setting into the Ozarks of Missouri and its unflinching exploration of the moral compromises that the characters make. The friendship between Max & Silver and the Max/Anne romance are at the core of the story and I am just always so enthralled by the nuances of the characterization and the absolutely gorgeous prose! Everyone go read it!
I actually bound it almost two years ago, but life circumstances prevented me from ever getting around to posting it. I tried to make the book elegant in a way that reminds me of Max both in canon and in this fic, but with earthy colors to show her connection to the region and the deep-rooted community that she grows into. A little hint of pink in the endbands because for some reason the pink outfit that she takes off in the very first scene always stuck in my head??? And it seemed to complement the green this is not a Wicked reference. Also this was my first time doing corners on a book and it was really fun to try!
@piratemadi Your patience is endless, your writing talent is unmatched, here are the pictures <3
I remember reading this series like daily back when tuc week 2022 was ongoing. Before then, I don't think I'd ever considered the ship. Fast forward 3 years later and armed with way too much power, it easily made my to-bind list, and I also really wanted to get into the practice of making author copies. Binderery let me check both of those boxes off.
Thank you so much to @blanketed-in-stars for letting me bind her work, which you can read for yourself on a03 here! It's fantastic and I recommend it to all the hamnet/mareth fans out there. Literally rewired my entire world view of them.
Progress pics and way too long history dive/ramble below the cut:
I really wanted something that looked like it could belong in the Underland, which posed a huge challenge. Their society was mostly reliant on technology from the 1600s, kept records with vellum and parchment scrolls, or in the case of Sandwich, carved them into the walls. But what about books?
Gutenburg's press started printing commercially in around the 1450s, but the first American and English presses started in 1638 and 1476, respectively. It wasn't exactly a new technology, but it certainly may not have been something one could just lug down to the Underland(or take on a ship). So were the lack of books due to never being in Gregor's viewpoint, Regalia being a society that didn't value books, or simply a lack of supplies? How much of the population, especially the Underlanders, could read, anyway? Was that something restricted to the rats, who often went topside to read (eat) library books, and the upper class in Regalia, or was most of the population literate? Could the spinners make a silk paper-like cloth? Could they cast their own type and run sheets through a press? What about handwritten books? (Did the Regalians even have a currency?) Maybe they were simply too focused on military affairs and had no time for books. There were simply too many questions to answer, so I ended up going "well, I want this bound and it doesn't have to be precise down to the letter. let's do this."
I went Coptic binding because it was first used as early as the 2nd century CE, though likely not a popular binding method in England. However, coptic binding/the codex ties back to the Roman diptych, which felt fitting for Regalia, as a very Greek/Roman inspired society. As for the fabric, I picked it simply because it reminded me of the jungle where we first meet Hamnet. The vines were too good.
I set the binding to pamphlet which felt way too thick, so I ended up reprinting it twice: the one you see above, and then the author's copy, which I was able to do in cream because my paper arrived the day after. Only the author copy has thicker boards because I found them after I cut the first ones and didn't want to waste those. It happens lol.
Once again, I'm thrilled with how it turned out :) and one final thank you to blanketed_in_stars for letting me do this and the Renegade Guild for all their help during Binderery!
GOD this little book means everything to me <3 Some more pics of the lovely formatting, it is so crisp and pretty! Thank you so much for @violoncellobindery for the honor!!!
finally working on some binding projects again and i completed the scariest steps - gluing the spine and cover boards to the cloth, which is when you learn if you majorly fucked up your measurements and also when it's too late to go back - and it WORKED i did not lose all my skill in a year <3 thank god
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people on TikTok don’t realize fic binding didn’t begin with idiots selling mass printed fanfiction on TikTok-Shop. They think it started as a negative thing ON TIKTOK😭it started on tumblr years ago as a way to appreciate authors!! It was never about selling fics, we’re AGAINST THAT HERE and always have been. I am so tired of the way TikTok rewrites fandom culture.
I don't think it's overstating to say that I'm the person who first popularized fanbinding on Tumblr. I began binding fic in September 2018. It was and is an exciting, novel way to participate in the traditional fannish gift economy. You do it with your own two hands, and you have the chance to make an extravagant gift to authors whose often very personal work means so much to you. In the process you have many opportunities to create close personal connections within fandom.
Because there are so many wonderful fics out there, one person could never give them all the love and recognition they deserve. I really wanted to see the practice grow beyond myself. I wrote a detailed manual of my process and offered it up for free so other people could join in. In the years since, Renegade Bookbinding Guild has arisen, always as a team collaborative effort, and it's remained a community focused phenomenon that explicitly supports open knowledge sharing without fees, deep respect for fic authors, and fosters more practice of that gift economy. You, dear reader, are welcome to join us in this project. We have bound thousands of books at this point, and every day more books are born.
I'm not on TikTok, but I've been linked to a lot of misinformation being posted on it over the last few years. I've also heard about a lot of profiteering going on, taking advantage of the hard creative work other fans have freely offered to feed our souls. Speaking only for myself, I think it's a damn shame that some are so quick to commodify the work of other fans. Gifts should beget gifts, not grifts.
When we treat fanworks as free "content" from faceless sources, to suck down voraciously and demand more, or make a quick buck off, the supply will start to dry up. Fanworks are labors of love, but they are still a lot of labor. The energy that keeps folks engaged and creating is essentially a feedback loop. Many authors and other creators are spurred onward to make more, write another chapter, draw another porny picture, bind another book, simply because of the sheer joy they see that their act of creation gives to other fans. I see the Renegade philosophy as helping to supply that energy back into the system. Fic authors deserve that we respect their works as their own, and that fic you love that they spent so long writing deserves every bit of fawning, gibbering, ranting, sighing, rec listing, and sometimes binding, that we fic readers might offer it in return.
ArmoredSuperHeavy, Dead Dove Publishing
2024.11.26
To Trip is Just to Fall by catwalksalone
63,280 words | 310 pages
Completed October 8, 2023
This is another incredible Wat/Geoff story by catwalksalone and I really cannot get over the humor and love and humanity baked into every word. You didn't know you needed to read about two kids growing up and falling in love and being messy but trying so so hard - but you DO!!!
In keeping with the themes of the story I went for a very posh outside and somewhat clashing endpapers (hand-marbled by me) inside; the riot of color in the marbling made me think of Wat. And as a nod to a bit of recurring imagery throughout the fic - geese in flight on the back cover.
This was my first attempt at putting HTV on laval bookcloth, which has a velvet-like texture. It went all right, though with a bit more adhesive bleeding and warping than with regular cloth. I realized too late that in my worry about heat damage, the spine lettering is off-center. And I should not have done all those tiny dots on the front cover!!!! But again I will chock it up to Thematic Resonance and say that nobody's perfect and that's okay :)
Absolutely go read To Trip is Just to Fall and lose yourself in a coming-of-age story with an enormous amount of heart.
Used my cold and rainy day of PTO to finish up a laced limp paper binding I've been sitting on for a while. This is a non-adhesive binding (except for the spine lol) and it's so satisfying when it finally comes together in the last step. I used scrap papers left over from a project in April so I'm glad to finally get this off my desk!
to the sky without wings by leupagus
81,567 words | 232 pages
Completed September 16, 2023
I wouldn't even call myself a Star Wars fan, but the premise of this fic intrigued me so much that I read the whole thing and became so so attached. And then I found the perfect blue-green paper for the cover and knew what I had to do. If you zoom in on the headband picture you will see that it's also tricolor (blue, green, and gold).
I was absolutely devastated while making the case, because the cover paper seemed to be wrinkling horribly, but once it dried it had no problems! I also struggled with the HTV on the spine because I use a household iron, and the spine is longer than the heating element. So making sure everything adhered evenly without melting or warping took a lot of concentration and patience :)
Go read the trash fire jesus series and weep <3 This one is really a gem.
Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire
240 pages
Completed September 4, 2023
Hello to the TINIEST book I've ever made (or seen in real life). Credit goes to @simply-sithel for the typeset and the wonderful rainbow printing. My eternal sorrow that I received the printed (and cut!!!) pages in mid-April and didn't do a single thing with them until sometime in July.
The finished dimensions of this book are about 1 3/8" wide, 1 5/8" tall, and 3/4" thick. I'm not rightly sure what you'd even call this size but I love it so much, it fits in the palm of my hand and I can almost hide it completely by making a fist. Making the case and endpapers also let me use some paper I've had sitting around since 2020 when I first started bookbinding (though I got distracted and used the same paper for both, oops).
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Out of the Darkness More Brightly by catwalksalone
8,986 words | 96 pages
Completed September 4, 2023
I'm literally begging y'all to read this short and sweet fic about the movie A Knight's Tale which I discovered SO long ago and which has been a comfort to me ever since. It has pining and medieval monks and a perfect wintry atmosphere.
I had a GREAT time using medieval-looking fonts here and finding an illuminated manuscript design for the title page. The book is sextodecimo (16 pages on one side of a letter sheet) so it was too small for HTV - at least for me, I know there are some people out there with steadier hands :D So I got myself a gold pen and went to work with some success.
The Interrogation by magdaliny
51,263 words | 280 pages
Completed August 20, 2023
This story is sweet and haunting and cathartic and so many moments have stayed with me since I first read it. It was a joy to typeset and bind <3 Even when the HTV fought me and had to be applied twice.
to be as one is by TheGoodDoctor (@doctors-star)
35,627 words | 224 pages
Completed July 19, 2023
This was a project of firsts. My first Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day bind, my first time making a copy of a book for the author, my first time using single-thread endbands and heat-transfer vinyl, and my first time making three (3) copies of a book at once.
This is such a moving, intimate story and I knew as soon as I read it that I wanted to bind it. I was lucky enough to have endpapers and thread reminiscent of the trans flag to go with the Gender Themes of the series, and I also felt that the floral details fit the ideas of beauty that the fics explore (and as a bonus it's also simply pretty).
I set out to make two copies - one for me, one for the author - and ended up making a third because I botched the first cutting job, then realized it actually wasn't that bad. While three copies is a lot of work, it was actually nice to have one extra chance with each step. I kind of felt like that third copy was my bad-luck-catcher that absorbed most of my mistakes. It's definitely the wonkiest out of the three now that they're all finished :D
Happy Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day! Thank you to @doctors-star for writing such a touching and beautiful series of works, and for agreeing to have it bound. Everyone go read "to be as one is" here!
I did some HTV tests (using the White Tree of Gondor and Aragorn's coronation song, lol) with mixed success. I'm working with an iron, not an EasyPress, so I think the uneven heat and my own inexperience caused the mangling and warping of the designs. I had two additional tests that went somewhat better but I'm a little anxious about replicating that.
Luckily I have some wiggle room on my next project. I made 3 text blocks (because of one messy cutting job that gave me an extra) and four cases, because I realized I had added an extra 1/8-inch after gluing the cloth. I was surprised at how weird it looked even with that small of an error. So I will do another practice HTV test on the throwaway spine, and if it works out then maybe i'll make another book to fit it!
Also pictured: berry paper that I bought as a treat, and my first time doing endbands with single-strand embroidery floss. I'm never going back, y'all, it turns out so delicate.
People have been wondering what has to come next after the wizardblogging and clownblogging and whatever and my pitch is medieval monks. Like we can all pretend to be tonsured.
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Hi! Sorry if you've already done this, but could you maybe talk a little bit about how you do titles on covers/spines? They always look fantastic. Do you use something like a cricut machine for the letters?
thank you!! i'd be happy to talk about it especially bc it's been taking up a lot of room in my brain lately.
you're right, i use a cricut. i bought my Cricut Maker secondhand and it works quite well so far. up until now all my titles have been made with "premium vinyl", which requires no ironing and is supposedly permanent. however i've noticed that it comes off quite easily when applied to bookcloth, especially with thinner/smaller letters. i titled 90% of my books within a two-week time period so i didn't realize this would happen until after they were all done. for this reason i don't recommend the permanent vinyl for spines or cloth covers - i don't know how it would work on paper-covered boards. maybe it'd be better without those cloth fibers.
the one other titling method i've used was using a stencil (cut with the cricut) to paint with fabric markers. that worked really well and looks very dramatic (and there's nothing to be in danger of peeling off) but i don't think my hands are steady enough to do very detailed designs.
i have bought a couple sheets of heat-transfer vinyl to try out next - the idea of ironing my books is a little scary but i have heard that htv produces much longer-lasting results on bookcloth. i have some scrap boards covered in cloth that i will use as test pieces and i will post an update after i give it a shot!
maybe more information than you wanted to know, but thank you for asking!! <3
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
122,169 words | 360 pages
Completed March 12, 2022
A second binding of P&P! This was for a work auction, and the highest bidder picked out the text, cover papers, spine cloth, and endpapers. I was relieved he picked a book I'd already typeset :D Unfortunately he did not want the Jane Austen font I'd used for the first binding but I suppose it's all right :)
When I was doing the endbands I realized that the color scheme of the whole book is the trans flag - an added bonus!
This binding also marks my decision to switch to a different method of titling. So far I've been using Cricut's "Permanent Vinyl" which, it turns out, is not permanent on bookcloth! It sticks great for a day or two at most before peeling/falling off at the slightest provocation. This book was the last straw - because it was a gift, I couldn't ignore it when I saw the letters starting to shift around, so I peeled them off and glued them back on with PVA one at a time. Never again... I'll probably use HTV going forward, but I also bought some mod-podge to try just applying that over the titles I've already done and hoping it doesn't completely ruin them :/
