Fan Girl Ramblings

I instantly had the design for this cover in my head as soon as I compiled the fics. I knew Once Upon A Time on Omega was going to be the title from the moment I set out. I struggled more with designing the back cover — I wanted to include a synopsis of at least four or five of the stories, but HTV and small letters is a tough combination, as anyone who's ever tried will tell you... Similarly did I have to give up on my dream of QR codes linking to each of the fics on the back cover; I'm still learning what I can and can't do with the tools at my disposal, especially the plotter, but with where my skill level is at right now, I'm more than happy with how this turned out.

This is probably going to become the most reread book I own.

This is the back. It was a painstaking process to cut this out with a fine-bladed xacto knife but it was worth every second. The scraps I had were identical, but it was really important to me that the front and back were not the same, and this is what I landed on. The cover (and the endpapers too, when we get to those) were inspired by a scene later in the fic when Crowley is showing off a rooftop garden paradise that he's made. This seemed like the kind of cool, lush, luxurious thing he might have in there. And I have to say it exceeded my wildest expectations. I didn't know I had it in me to make this.

And then the HTV got warped going onto the spine and I ended up with a wonky "o". We must remain humble. It's honestly still lovely though, I forgot it was there until I started writing up this post. I got a very good round on this text block, almost no swell (even after rounding, my books often have some swell, though it's only noticeable when I stack them). And the endbands came out unusually well. Those are, as always, custom made. They look good with the cover, though they were designed to match the endpapers:

These are that thick soft artisan paper that Joanne's used to sell. The gold bits are shiny foil. Again, secret rooftop Eden luxury vibe here. I have no regrets about this bind, though if I had it to do over again I might choose a solid color instead of a pattern here. Maybe. Maybe not. On the one hand I really like the pattern but on the other it is kind of a lot with the cover.

Couple of quick shots of the interior. I kept it a bit simple, honestly, which makes a nice contrast with the cover. That wasn't intentional but I can't say it doesn't fit. Feels balanced. Let's see, what else? There are, I kid you not, over 450 footnotes in this fic and those took some wrangling to get in line. I think that's the most footnotes I've ever dealt with in one story. Oh, and there's an extra chapter at the end which is a deleted scene that I had to track down on the author's other fanfic account (listed in the notes at the top of the fic) because they'd removed it from Ao3. It's public, it just needed a bit of extra leg work.

In order of appearance, here are the chosen fics:

"All He Thinks About Is Me", by @separatist-apologist: in which Rhys shows his darkest nature in some delectable non/dub-con UTM.

"Hate Me Instead", by @popjunkie42: in which Rhys acts more like a normal person and less like a douche and actually helps Feyre with all the UTM PTSD.

"The Portrait of a Male", by HopeLions13: in which Feyre goes UTM to save Rhys, and him and Tamlin get to have a much needed têta-à-tête.

"I Was Enchanted To Meet You", by @separatist-apologist: in which Rhys shows his darkest nature (yes, there's a pattern here), but now post-UTM.

"Chains", by @popjunkie42: in which Lucien succeeds in kidnaping Feyre back to the Spring Manor and some truths are revealed under the effect of substances.

Feysand's story is inevitably one in which Feyre transitions from Spring into the Night Court, and I wanted to bring that to the center of this book - as if she could look straight at Ramiel from her window in the Spring Manor ✨

The first endpaper is a collage of the Prythian courts symbols (made by me, inspired by those depicted in the back of the official Prythian map) beside this beautiful Velaris backdrop, created by GioSketches.

Cover was hand-painted - and that just goes to prove that you really can do any new technique if you set your mind to it!

Left: anthology title page. Right: Brazillian editions of ACOTAR books.

Brazillian ACOTAR fans may recognize the title font - because yes, I tried my best to emulate these beautiful editions from Galera Record, the best ACOTAR editions in my opinion.

I also incorporated the Brazillian edition's style of chapter headers, using a different element for each story.

This may be my favorite typeset so far, with all the little details added - the Night Court-themed dividers, and going full color explosion on the story title pages, really made it worth it to spend a year working on this book!

I really have to thank so much to all the authors featured, first for sharing their precious writing with us and then for giving me permission to bind their works 💞 This truly was a passion project if there ever was one!

It never goes without saying that all fanfic is and should always remain free: from fans, to fans, for free.

Materials & Techniques:

Endpapers: Velaris landscape by GioSketches; Prythian courts icons by me (made in Canva); Prythian map colored. Printed in matte photo paper.

Endbands: faux double core, made from wool-like multicolored thread.

Typeset in MS Word; printed on 80gsm white paper on an inkjet Epson ET-2850 printer.

Scene dividers and title pages made in Canva.

Bradel bind with 2mm bookboard, case covered in black faux leather and painted by hand using acryllic and fabric paints (and the tiniest brush you've ever seen).

For this slipcase, I made my own bookcloth by printing on 185gsm cotton canva and use heat n bond + tissue paper to back it with paper. I will make a separate tutorial on how I set up my files for wrap cover and then get my stuff printed.

Make sure that your cloth is enough to fully wrap around the slipcase, and has enough excess to cut out pieces for the top bottom part.

I start by gluing down one side to the cloth. Make sure there is enough excess fabric to fold the cloth over the board into the inside of the case

and then apply glue the cloth to the spine, and then over on the other side. Make sure to go over the cloth with your bone folder to make sure it is properly sticking to the boards, and then wait for the glue to dry.

After that, it's time to start trimming off the excess cloth.

in DAS video tutorial, he shows you how to trim cloth for the top and bottom pieces in a way that glues together seamless and has no cloth overlapping each other. I don't do that because that is too much precise measurement for me and I don't mind the overlapping too much.

along cloth of the long edge, I use a pencil to draw a square of the same thickness as the board (2.5mm)

I do this so that when I fold the cloth other, it doesn't get scrunched up in the corner. Especially with my DIY cloth, the material is thicker than normal purchased bookcloth, I do this. Sometimes I'm lazy and skip this step when I make a bookcloth with book cloth that I purchased

I measure out the center point of the long edge and glue the ribbon to the paper-backed side of the cloth. It's admittedly not the most secure method, as the constant pulling on it over time could make the cloth detach from the board. It's probably better to have the ribbon be put inside the board, buuuut I have not tried that out myself yet

side note make sure you replace the blade tip regularly lol

I glue down the cloth on the top and bottom part like this:

The next step is cuttig out cloth pieces to glue to the top and bottom part of the slipcase to cover up the seams. This is the part where I kind of just skip the measuring. I place the slipcase on the cloth and then use a pencil to trace the outline with a pencil. However, when I cut the piece I don't cut it exactly along the pencil line, I move the ruler 1-2mm to the inside along the long edge on both sides and then cut it.

The reason I do this is that I don't want the top/bottom pieces to be the exact width on the slipcase, rather it's few mm shorter (see picture). and also make sure you have excess flaps to turn it over and glue it to the inside of the case

trim the excess flap and then glue it to the inside of the case. Make sure to go over with the bone folder to press the cloth down properly.

and with that, you've made a slipcase for your book!