A Fanfic BookBinding Experience

Hi!

Hello! Welcome to my Virtual Stall for the 2023 Fandom Trumps Hate Fan Crafts Bazaar!

How it works:

Check the spreadsheet below for the current high bid.

Fill out a form with your bid that is at least the minimum ($15 USD) or above the current high bid.

The winner donates directly to charity.

I'm provided with proof of the donation.

I will typeset the fic and make a custom fanbinding for you and send it to you.

Please Note:

The requested fic must be between 25k and 80k words. It can be a series that fits that range as well. (If it's super close and you want an exception, message me first for me to verify I can make it work.)

I will ONLY bind fics that were authored by the winner or that the winner has explicit permission from the author to have bound as thanks for a charity donation (a blanket permission statement will suffice). The winner is responsible for providing proof of this permission prior to the book being made.

I will bind Explicit fics, but only for someone over the age of 18. Please truthfully verify your age in the bidding form.

I will make the final design decisions. You may make suggestions and I may ask for your input, but ultimately the final decision will be mine based on what I have available, can afford, can access in time, and can make work.

The process to get materials, typeset and create the book, and ship it may take one or more months. I will keep you up to date on the progress and changes to estimated completion schedules. Most likely, I will be able to complete this during the summer months due to my work schedule.

I will pay for media mail shipping within the US. If you would like priority shipping or are outside the US, please note that you will be responsible for those shipping costs. Consider the cost of shipping before making your bid.

Fandoms:

Check Please

Shitt's Creek

The Old Guard

Our Flag Means Death

Dice Punks

The Magnus Archives

Message me first for any others

Will Not Bind* fics with:

A/B/O

noncon/dubcon

Incest

CSA

mentions of sex between characters under the age of 16

Explicit sex between characters under the age of 18

Torture apologia

Slavery

Significant racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia

Un-negotiated kinks

Zimbits or Bitty focus for Check Please fics

Links:

Examples of my past bindings

Auction Form

Current Bid Spreadsheet

The FTH Fan Craft Bazaar (including other people's auctions)

Auction Close:

I will close the form approximately the same time the main Fandom Trumps Hate auction closes. 8 pm EST March 5.

The @renegadepublishing Bound Book Exchange is complete and the books I made have been received.

I was very lucky in that my recipient, @rhipidurafan, had multiple amazing picks for fics she'd like to receive and two spoke to me immediately. I got even more lucky when both @neverwaswise and @shinyopals gave me permission to bind their fics for this exchange.

I got less lucky when my Cameo 4 decided it wasn't going to foil my titles and tentacles for me, but I think it came out Not Too Bad doing it by hand.

Ship In A Bottle by Neverwaswise (rated T) is a modern AU for OFMD and it starts with Stede moving into a lighthouse and doing some interior decorating. This decorating scheme influenced my choices for the case where I tried to match the paper to the wallpaper he was installing and the bookcloth and endbands to the orange brick of the interior of the lighthouse. I also knew early on that I wanted to reference the kraken tentacles on the case or end papers, but I couldn't find anything that felt right, so drawing my own tentacles it was. I'm so happy that the two that ended up making a kind of heart shape wrapped around to be on the front of the book.

The Magnus Institute vs the 21st Century by Shinyopals (rated T) is a series of four epistolary fics (well, 3 epistolary fics and one scriptbook style fic). I discovered very early that there is a very disappointing lack of good eye imagery for decorative paper and cloth options. I decided to lean heavily into the fact that the Magnus Institute may be dragged into the 21st century against their wills, but that doesn't mean they won't still keep things as old school as possible. For the emails and IMs, I tried to replicate the fonts that would be used in Outlook and on the cellphones, and then I matched fonts for the scriptbook as well.

But for the titles, I picked out a nice crunchy Punk Typewriter font. My Cameo 4 tried its best to destroy that on the spine, twice getting caught in one space and ruining it. And foiling by hand made it a little extra crunchy but I kind of enjoy the effect that happened. Yes, technically it's not perfect. But by this point I'd already decided on making my own cover paper art as a manila folder with post notes on it, so I actually enjoy the way that the imperfections in the spine titling make it look even more like this book is the result of the archival assistants printing off all the emails and IMs to file hard copies and then needing to hand adjust when the typewriter didn't quite label perfectly.

I also had a lot of fun coming up with some of the things to have on the post notes on the back cover.

And what would a TMA series be without some tea? I made the little tea bookmark and realized I didn't have any particularly tea colored size 10 crochet thread, so I did the reasonable thing and used gold with metallic and it's fancy tea. That's my story.

In my First Big Bookbinding Spree which included binding 15 books for Reasons TM, I bound 5 D&D Journals for my players.

At the start of the summer, I started DMing a Dragon Heist campaign, and this is my first real go at DMing an ongoing campaign, so I wanted to show my appreciation and love for my players and make them something nice. I super secret squirrel asked them each to pick a color that I could use as the spine color, and even though I gave the rainbow worth of options.... they all picked either red or green.

Trail Magic, with a learning curve.

I didn't get it lined up very well for where I wanted the title. I used a heat pen to transfer the foil using a printed copy of the title as a guide. It's not terrible, it's just not really where I wanted it.

My first binding project was a fic of my own. Trail Magic (title is link) is a very important fic to me and I love pretty much everything about it: the amazing gif artwork (link) by @tangotangredi that inspired it for the 2019 @omgcpreversebang; the story I managed to put together; the memories of loved ones that I included in it; the memories of talking with friends as I wrote it; the responses I've gotten about it.

It was definitely the first one I wanted to bind.

I actually printed one too many copies of it when I was printing, and then I messed up on punching the holes for sewing on one of them. I used that as a practice for ever other step along the way, so one of these is that one. I'll give it it's own post though.

Trail Magic as intended to be bound below the cut.

So. This is what I've been up to.

Gave in and ordered a guillotine cutter. I'll have to find a place to store it when not in use, but that's a problem for Future!Den who has finished making a bunch of books.

This test block that I'd already trimmed with the chisel still isn't perfect.

But it is a hell of a lot better.

It also now has a bookmark, and as of tonight, endbands!

Okay. This was my first attempt at an endband and it was not great! Not great. the threads pulled, it was bulky and there were so many ends on the spine that I'd need to glue down. not a fan.

Still not perfect, but much better, in my opinion.

And the matching headband is even better. So, I'm pretty confident I'll get better with more practice. I just, would really prefer to already be great? Alas, hobbies take patience and practice to be good.

Bonus: Lily micromanaging my progress.

I did some test prints on regular copy paper, and practiced folding signatures from them a few days ago. Realized that I don’t like how they end up if I try to fold the entire signature (6 sheets of paper) at once, no matter if DAS Bookbinding can manage it. I’m not as practiced. 

Then I started trying to print on my good paper, 24lb EarthChoice Multipurpose cream, that was 11X17, cut to size so that it’s 11X8.5 short grain. And I ran out of toner partway through. I’ve laid on the floor about it and probably will again. But, that’s what I get for doing so many test prints I guess. I will order some more toner on payday next week so that I can finish printing. In the mean time, I folded the signatures one sheet of paper at a time, which allowed for a lot more control in getting it to line up. Still not perfect. still going to have to have the edges trimmed, but honestly I think close enough that I could probably get away with just the fore edge being trimmed with a guillotine or attempt at a plough? or maybe I’ll try trimming with a knife on each individual signature. I’m worried about trying that because I don’t want to ruin them through inexperience.

Why is it only possible to get good at something by sucking ass at first and continuing to practice? I just want to make nice books.

anyway. I folded all the nice paper and they are very nice and being squished between two bamboo cutting boards under my heavy container of paper.

Last night I broke out the punch cradle and practiced punching through the signatures. A few of the punches felt like they weren’t exactly mid crease from the inside, but most appear to be in the correct spot on the outside, so that’s good. and it’s a bit of a learning curve on getting them to be the correct spacing where they will go around the linen tapes, since they need to go around the tapes without pinching them but also be very close to the tapes. I think I might like having some kind of band or something to help hold the signatures to the punch cradle because as I punch through, they want to push down between the cradle sides. I think I got pretty good at holding them in place and getting the holes lined up well, but it would be nice if the would stay put.

[image description in alt text]

First two images:

My first attempt at cutting book boards. It did not go well. I evened them up a bit later, but overall, they are not square, they are not the same size. I can only get 4 out of the quarter sheets that get sent and I’m not sure any of these are usable on actual books. I plan to keep them for helping to squish things. Maybe use a set for creating some DIY shoulder creasing boards with knitting needles as per DAS Bookbinding’s youtube video.

Decided to try again today. I had a total of 6 of the quarter boards from Hollanders, so while I definitely intend to buy some precut ones on payday and only get precut boards from here on, I figured I could at least try to make use of the other five. Go slower, get a better angle.

I haven’t cleaned them up yet. Tried to even them out or get a more precise cut. But two of them are pretty well matched, I think. The second long cut that I made, though I cut them on the short cuts before going back to the first section. The first long cut did not go nearly as well. I had to shift positions a few times to get a spot where I could put enough pressure to hold the board and square in place and also easily reach to make light, smooth cuts, and I had a bit of trouble before getting to that spot of keeping the blade against the straight edge. I’m not surprised that those didn’t end up perfect. But they are slightly too big, which is definitely preferable to being slightly too small, so I will see if I can trim them down and if they will be matched and usable when I do.

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Made some bookbinding equipment using the Tony Firman DIY guides.

[Image Description: several pieces of wood laying on a table protected by brown craft paper. Some of the wood has been formed into frames or other bookbinding equipment. They have recently been stained and are drying.]

Things are progressing on the “I need tools to make books” front. Decided to stain the punch cradle, sewing frame and two lying pressing with some stain I picked up last year or so. Says it’s red mahogany color, but it seems much darker than I expected, even after wiping off excess. Although, that’s more true on the plywood items.

If I wake up before it’s too hot for varnish, I’ll try to get a coat of varnish on all the pieces tomorrow, then finish up the side that they rest on, on Monday. Which means with dry time, I might have items ready to make books on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I really wish I could make myself a standing press or nipping press. and I suppose I could, especially with the bar clamp method, but I’ve asked my niece if her metal shop class would be willing and able to make one for me, so hopefully I’ll have one this fall.

I guess next on my wishlist for making is a hefty lying press with plough. but a) that wood is going to be much more expensive and b) pretty sure I’d have to actually thread some wood rods based on what I’ve seen everyone else make and c) besides not having whatever is needed to make the plough blade assembly I don’t even know what it would be.