[FM Discuss] book making

[adam hyde]

On Mon, 2009-04-20 at 17:36 -0400, Emma Jane Hogbin wrote:
> On Monday 20 April 2009 5:23:38 pm adam hyde wrote:
> > As for the book making itself. Adam Thomas, a friend from Berlin, and I
> > have made some nice books with a bound spine. Its a very simple method
> > but can look very nice if done well. The thing is, it brings the cost of
> > the book to produce under what Lulu can produce them for. So I am
> 
> This is probably only true if your time has no value...

We can make a book for less than 5 euro. lulu sells us the same book for
10-12 euro. I think at the beginning stages we can make 4 books an hour.
If we sell for 15 euro, thats 40 euro an hour minus the time it takes to
package. If the buyer pays for postage then we are doing alright

i uploaded some pics :
http://adam.engagetv.com/bookbinding/

Adam Thomas is pictured making the books

adam



> 
> Binding books by hand is a lot of fun and can be very rewarding (I was a fine 
> bookbinder for a number of years), but it isn't a task that should be taken on 
> lightly. Things that will seriously affect hand binding:
> - number of pages (printing 2-up x 200 pages is a lot of printing for a home 
> printer and if one sheet mis-feeds you can potentially wreck a whole print 
> job)
> - grain of the paper (assuming you are making "classic" sized books that are 
> merely A4 or US Letter folded in half) a book can end up refusing to close 
> nicely, open flat, or worse, tearing itself apart if the paper grain is running 
> perpendicular to the spine
> - space (making one or two books on a kitchen table is no problem, but making 
> as few as six can require an infinitely larger space)
> - cover materials (hard cover can use framing board, softcover will be flimsy, 
> etc).
> 
> For a few tutorials on hand binding you can check out the PDFs that I've 
> uploaded at:
> http://emmajane.net/tutorials
> 
> The most appropriate binding is probably the Coptic binding which uses no 
> adhesives, but does require the pages to be printed in signatures. This one 
> can be downloaded directly from:
> http://emmajane.net/files/coptic_0.pdf
> 
> 
> regards,
> emma
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-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
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Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
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