#bookbinding guide

How to bookbind your fanfic!

Part 1: From AO3 to printing

The necessary first step is turning your AO3 fanfic into booklets. Your whole book will be a bunch of booklets piled on top of each others and stitched together.

Booklet examples:

Btw, this is the official Word tutorial on how to make a booklet.

You can see there are different options. I usually do 8 pages, which is what you will see in the video. This means that a booklet of 8 pages is two sheets of paper, printed front and back, folded and one put inside the other. To have your word pages in the correct order you will need to format your word document.

Everything is in the video but here is the text for easy reading (btw the fanfic I used is Exit by schwutthing, an amazing Valjean/Javert fic)

Do not download the fanfic on AO3. Click on "Entire work" and copy paste it on word.

Format your word document. Click on File-> Margins. Select "Multiple pages: Book fold" and "Sheets per booklet: 8". Put "Gutter" to 1cm.

Double click on the empty area just above your text, on a random page of the document. This will make the "Do not download the fanfic on AO3. Click on "Entire work" and copy paste it on word.

Format your word document. Click on File-> Margins. Select "Multiple pages: Book fold" and "Sheets per booklet: 8". Put "Gutter" to 1cm.

Double click on the empty area just above your text, on a random page of the document. This will make the "Header and Footer" option appear. You can click on "Footer" and select the format for the pages' number. Always add the pages number, it will make your life easier.

Now you can justify your book. I usually justify (select all text with CTRL+A and click on Justify), but keep in mind that some documents might not enjoy passing through "justify" so double check your final document. For example, if there are lines of poetry and the author wrote into the next line without starting a new paragraph the justify option will make it weird.

Make your book pretty! I added some illustrations and blank pages. I also made the title of the fanfic bigger.

Fix the chapters' titles and notes. I clicked on Home-> Find and searched for "Chapter", so I could select on each chapter title and make it bold, and also delete the "Chapter text" added just after. You can do the same with "notes" in case you want to delete notes.

Now it is time to print! I prefer to save in pdf before, so I will do that.

IF YOU HAVE A PRINTER THAT DOES NOT PRINT BOTH SIDES

Click on print

Select "Microsoft print to pdf"

Select "Manually print on both sides"

This will create two different files pdf, one for the front pages, and one for the back pages.

Click on the file for the front pages and print them all. Do not panic if you see the pages number all over it.

Now take your printed (only on one side) block of pages and load it into your printer again, making sure that you will now print on the blank back. Open your back pages pdf file and print.

(you can do a trial with a few pages to see if everything is lining up correctly).

IF YOU HAVE A PRINTER THAT PRINT BOTH SIDES

"Click on print

Select "Microsoft print to pdf"

Select "Print on one side"

This will create a single pdf that you can print on your both-sides printer. You will see that the page are not in the order you had on the word document, but the whole file will start with page 8 (see video).

Now print!

What you want is this:

You can see that on the front you have page 8 first, page 1 after, because when folded it will end up with page 1 at the start of your booklet! And on the back of this first sheet you have 7 and 2, that will end up in the correct position.

Now you will have a lot of pages... time to fold and create your booklet! Every two sheets... you will fold as you see above.

Pause the video to read. Sorry for the crappy videos and awkward setting, I am moving and HAVE NO TABLE, so I am on the ground.

Here is part 1: from AO3 to printing

Part 2: Folding and stitching together the booklets

You will now have a pile of printed sheets (pages), front and back, previously organized in booklets. I used an 8-page booklet, which means that I will need to fold together 2 sheets, one inside the other.

Follow the numbers, so that you will have the lower number on the outside (on the starting point of the booklet, so on the left) and the higher number on the outside at the end of the booklet (on the right). Each booklet will basically be a "mini book" of only 8 pages.

Fold all the booklets and make sure to pile them in the correct order. Your pile will be your printed book!

Now that you have everything folded make sure to check that your first page and your very last page are blank. I forgot so I added a blank sheet (folded) at the start and at the end of my pile. The blank pages will be needed because they will be glued to the cover!

Now you can use a pencil to mark where to poke your holes. I usually choose 2,5 cm from each border and then divide the remaining page by marking every 4 cm, but it is up to you!

Next you will need to mark each single booklet. You can do that by measuring each with a ruler, or just using the rule while poking the holes - or, you can pile them all up, make sure they are well aligned, use a ruler as a guide to mark a vertical line that follows your previous measurements.

In this video I did a mix of the two, as some of my mark were not too visible, so while I was poking the holes I guided myself with the ruler.

Now, time to poke the holes! You will poke each booklet (two sheets, one inside the other) together. Open the booklet facing down so you can see the pencil marks. Make sure to add a soft surface underneath (I used some foam), and then use a needle or an awl to poke the 5 holes. At the end you should have a pile of booklets, all with 5 holes that can more or less (more is better!) align with each other's.

TIME TO STITCH THE BOOKLETS TOGETHER.

Stitching is probably the most time consuming step.

There are different way to stitch the booklets together but each one is fundamentally a version of a thread passing inside and out the holes you made in a booklet and then connecting to the next booklet and the next and the next. For this reason it is important to make sure you are stitching your booklets in the correct order.

As I said, there are different stitches so it is up to you what to choose. I personally use:

The video will also teach you:

How to start with the first booklet

How to change the thread when you finish it

How to secure the thread at the end

Other examples are the French stitch (video here) which is particularly pretty so probably best to use if you do not fully add a cover (covering the spine) but stitch a cover at the start and end like you see in the video.

The thread you use also depends on what you prefer. I personally use a waxed thread (more resistant) if I have very big paper. In the example I filmed I have extremely thin paper so I am stitching the booklet together with a simple embroidery thread.