(Re)bound: Everybody Hates a Tourist by @wolfpants
I whipped up a lil paperback yesterday and today, because it’s always a good day to make myself more copies of Wolf’s lovely words.
If you haven't read this fic, you need to: Wolf has such a way of situating Harry and Draco in the real world, and especially in the queer community. This is a story of self-discovery, evident almost immediately for Harry’s side of things: stuck in a boring job at the Ministry, frozen in an increasingly distant relationship with Ginny, and unable to break away from all the expectations placed on him by the Wixen community. Harry sees Draco's self-assurance, his friends and his community, as an enticing beacon from a life he doesn't feel he can have for himself.
But Draco's parallel journey creeps up on you as the narrative unspools. In time, it becomes clear that Draco's not actually living a carefree and gay seaside life, and that running away from the Wixen world has exacted a price from him.
And, listen: this is wolfpants. So there's also sparkling dialogue, brilliant characterization, adorable sausage dogs, and amazing sex scenes.
The typeset I used here is one I made earlier in my fanbinding journey, with only a handful of tweaks to the layout because I was still learning and there were a couple goofs.
The cover is new, but picks up the texting theme from the hardcover version and lays it over a pebble beach that (I hope) evokes Brighton's seaside vibes.
I feel like I've cracked the code on soft touch lamination, or at least have improved a lot, but I'm still working on the paperback technique in general.
Following tips from the paperback genius @jmbinding, I use my thermal binder to bind the text block into a piece of plain/blank presentation paper (same stuff I print onto for the cover), trim that bound block, and then glue on the laminated cover over the thermal bound plain one. Finally, I trim the cover to fit the trimmed book -- which is the step I'm still not super great at! (Don't look too closely at the edges or you'll spy my mistakes.)
Mandatory flip-through video because the floppy give of a paperback is still incredibly pleasing for me.