My personal goal is to try and make fanfic binding as accessible to everyone as possible, so here are some resources on how to make a fanfic hardcover for under $25.
This is a barebones bind for the broke college students and such. Happy to field questions, too!
Here's a proposed budget breakdown:
Loosely organized thoughts:
Fanfic bookbinders often share typesets amongst each other. Never pay for a typeset for a fanfic.
You'll hear a lot about grain direction for your printer paper, but as a newbie on a budget without your own printer, settle for some nice 92 bright paper. If you like the hobby, splurge after but expect to pay at least 2-3x more for short grain paper.
Printing is a pain because some copy shops won't let you print intellectual property smut, and it's very expensive. You are better off bartering instead or looking for a free printer on Buy Nothing.
You know the thick paper wrapping that comes with online orders? It's a good weight for endpapers if you need to scrounge. Paper grocery bags or gift bags (birthday presents) might work, too.
Ask your local library to give you covers from books they are throwing out. Ask for outdated textbooks (those covers are built like tanks) or three-ring binders that are too busted to be binders anymore.
Obtain a used book that was mass produced (so your destruction of it does not impede anyone's access) and maybe even become a little vindictive with it.
If you can afford it, I recommend the Olfa SVR knife (~$10)
If you can afford it, upgrade your ruler to a t-square.
I really hope this resource is helpful! I want to stress how possible this is and encourage people to cherish what they love through art.
If you are interested in fanfic binding and have a little more disposable income, I have an affordable Fan Fiction Bookbinding Starter Pack that I carry on my site. I pack them myself and drop them 1x/month on the 15th.
this is just about primary colors and gorgeous paper for three of my all-time favorite comfort reads, posted around 2011-2012 (except for 'dinner at last', a little outlier adn should not be counted).
the stories
the dinner 'verse by lyaka rewired my brain chemistry when i was in a deep funk and i can never thank it enough. it gave me a place to live and wallow and even got me writing--in my notebooks, on my computer, during work, when i was home--working on my own version of how these stories would fit into a wider world. they're lovely. sailor moon, senshi/shitennou, exploring a series of scenarios post-canon between the senshi and the generals and how their paths would have crossed again. questions of fate, memory, history, illusion, truth, etc. simply delightful.
the binding
these are all sewn board legal quartos, a matched set with identical typesetting details. marbled papers (from mulberry papers) in senshi-inspired colors. paper spines in glitter cardstock.
Using a ruler helps but sure does not guarantee cutting in a straight line. I keep ending up putting stuff through the paper trimmer to try and even things out.
So the super I own has a grain direction. Most that I see online seem to be a plain weave with no clear direction, but mine is different. Here's a picture:
It bends far more easily parallel to the stripes than perpendicular. Is this another case where you want your grain direction to all run head to tail? Or do the stripes have a function like sewing on tapes, and want to run across the spine for strength?
For now I used it with the grain out of concern that it would make the spine too stiff otherwise.
Pulled out the text block I sewed months ago. In less than two hours, I:
Glued the spine, then pressed the book
Cut out the end sheets from the big decorative paper
Glue on the end sheets
Cut out the super for the spine. There were problems here.
Glued on the super
Cut out and attached the headbands
Put the whole thing back to be pressed
So next I'll make to make the case and then case in. We'll see if that happens any time soon. I'm thrilled to have completed the next big chunk of the binding process, though!
A shorter pamphlet-bound fic! Winter ghosts that steal the warmth from your stove, very seasonal right now in my hemisphere.
The Guests of Cloud Recesses by cafecliche is a post-canon MDZS casefic and ghost story set in the winter, with an unfolding mystery, and some solid Wangxian relationshipping. I love both those things! There's some lovely evocative details here, and clearly I rec it.
I miraculously had enough decent daylight to get some pictures, since it's been pretty gloomy here this week. The cover is waxed cardstock, the thread I bound it with is some leftover navy cotton from a weaving project, and both pieces of art are woodblock prints in the public domain.
There are people who want to live forever, and then there is Shinichi, who just wants to live a little longer than this.
this bind has been in my head since i first read the fic like, three years ago. i dreamed up so many ideas for it, for so long, and now it's finally done! the typeset was actually done in early 2022, back when i was still using google docs, but it went through a few iterations because i was just. so. fiddly. with every aspect of this book. it needed to be perfect (as close to perfect as i, an amateur bookbinder out of my depth, can get) and it had to be absolutely over the top, to reflect the insane amount of love and care that the author put into the fic itself.
the first time i read this fic, i barely knew what detective conan was, much less all of the intricate plot details; i was just along for the ride, but by the end i was completely invested. i went back and watched through the anime as well as a few movies (it took me six months) and then read the fic again. and then a few more times. kaishin and the world of dcmk has utterly gripped me. it's 100% this fic's fault and i love it so, so, much.
i went through a few iterations of visual designs and i'm really happy with the little details i managed to squeeze in.
the entire color scheme is based around red, because 1) it's a murder mystery, 2) for scarlette shinamoto (and the title of the fic as well as the original holmes novel it references), and 3) the irony of "lady red" actually being red. the secret fourth reason is that i think red/gold is a super sexy color combo.
i sewed the textblock with red thread to reference holmes' "scarlet thread of murder".
another detail i love is the five yen coin bookmark, it was one of my first ideas and it turned out even better than i thought.
i wanted the endpapers to evoke a sense of the white marbled floor of the ballroom, with the glow-in-the-dark kaitou kid caricature being the luminol on the floor, and the little pops of red looks like blood that's been mixed in. i lucked out in that the other side of the endpaper was like a lavender-purpley color, i like to think of it as a little wink wink nudge to the color of the actual Lady Red.
the chapter pages got a few reworkings, but i'm happy with the illustrations i ended up doing for each of them. the chapter titles are one of my favorite things about the fic, each one has so much meaning packed into it and flows so beautifully, and i wanted to put as much care into making them pop as possible.
the cover was a linocut carving i designed and carved, which i then printed onto the bookcloth, and ironed on htv on top.
i also threw in a couple of my drawings of my favorite scenes.
this is getting way too long, so i'll end it here. i'll have a separate post detailing the process every step of the way, if anyone wants to take a closer look. this fic is kind of directly responsible for getting me into fanbinding, so it's safe to say it altered the course of my life. i now spend way too much time (and money) looking at book stuff.
kittebasu, if, somehow, you see this and would like an author copy, i would be honored to make one and ship it to you; i would be overjoyed to gift you with any art i have the ability to make, because the fics you wrote have irreversibly altered my brain chemistry, and being able to give back in any capacity would be a dream. (thank you.)
a few postscripts:
i am not selling any copies of this fic. partially because i believe in the gift economy of fandom as well as firmly keeping fanbinding a hobby that will stay unmonetized, but also because it took me months (years, if we are counting when i first finished the typeset) to finish this and i do not have the strength.
however, if you are also a fan of this fic and would like a copy, i honestly, fervently, encourage you to give fanbinding a try! renegade publishing and its discord server are an absolutely wonderful and free resource. i knew nothing about bookbinding and had zero materials when i first started, but i've learned so much thanks to the lovely people there. if you're still apprehensive about getting started, i'd be willing to share my typeset of this fic as well as answer any questions about the making of this book if you DM me.
Not a fanfic binding, but my brother's birthday was coming up and he was insistent that the one book he wanted me to make him was this one.
The cover is Colibri elder bookcloth, hand foiled in silver. Spent at least 4 hours in Affinity Designer on the cover layout and I'm quite happy with it, even if it was a pain in the ass to foil all that.
I used a fountain pen ink on the edges which worked really nicely, and I sealed them with wax. The starry endpapers I've been sitting on for a while, but they seemed fitting.
Here is a quick little tutorial for how I do the titling/designs on my books! All you’ll need is a printer, some white chalk/pencil graphite, painter’s tape, a tiny paintbrush, and some fabric paint! You’re basically going to make some homemade transfer paper in order to transfer the design to the cover and then carefully paint over the design once you’ve got it on the book.
First, you’ll print out whatever design you want to have on your cover (this can be lettering or pictures–just remember you will be painting over this so you want it to be a big enough size that you’re confident that you can paint over it and still have it be clear). Then you’ll flip the paper over and rub either white chalk or pencil graphite on the backside of the design you want transferred (white chalk for dark bookcloths, graphite for light colored bookcloths). Next, you’ll tape your design down where you want it on the book using painter’s tape with the chalk/graphite side facing the bookcloth. The next step is to carefully trace over your design with a pencil–this transfers the chalk/graphite where you trace to the bookcloth.
You should now be left with the lettering/picture in chalk/graphite on the bookcloth! And then the last step is to paint over the design with some fabric paint (I really like the Lumiere by Jacquard metallic acrylic paints, as they are opaque but also a really nice thin consistency that’s easy to paint with and they’re designed for use on fabric…the non-metallic paints by Jacquard are also good but I like to thin them out a little with water because they’re a thicker consistency–I found these paints at Blick).
Here’s a finished example of what this ends up looking like!
Also called ‘lumbecken’ after Emil Lumbeck who’d invented this particular kind of binding, is a single sheet binding. No imposing for signatures, no sewing, just printed pages straight from the document and glued together to make a book.
(Of course mass market perfect bindings are still imposed simply for the fact of using larger sheets of paper and printing more than one sheet at a time, but it is a neat and very quick way to make a home printed book.)
Was reminded of the Dogs in Elk story so I wanted to preserve a little slice of internet history so I made an A7 softcover book of it.
Jacket is a red cardstock shot with gold (maybe I should glue it down?) and art card as the base covers. Had fun finding public domain images of said dogs to manip and lean into the LOL.
I made this for @leonarddaquirm in the bound fic exchange in the Renegade Publishing discord. It's a Rurouni Kenshin fic, where Kenshin's past and present selves swap places. I had fun stepping out of my usual fandom for this! (I've watched the anime, but I was never active in the fandom).
It's bound in red/blue Duo bookcloth with a cutout effect and faux stab binding around the spine. The title/chapter font is Harukaze and the body font is Cormorant Garamond.
Here is a quick little tutorial for how I do the titling/designs on my books! All you’ll need is a printer, some white chalk/pencil graphite, painter’s tape, a tiny paintbrush, and some fabric paint! You’re basically going to make some homemade transfer paper in order to transfer the design to the cover and then carefully paint over the design once you’ve got it on the book.
First, you’ll print out whatever design you want to have on your cover (this can be lettering or pictures–just remember you will be painting over this so you want it to be a big enough size that you’re confident that you can paint over it and still have it be clear). Then you’ll flip the paper over and rub either white chalk or pencil graphite on the backside of the design you want transferred (white chalk for dark bookcloths, graphite for light colored bookcloths). Next, you’ll tape your design down where you want it on the book using painter’s tape with the chalk/graphite side facing the bookcloth. The next step is to carefully trace over your design with a pencil–this transfers the chalk/graphite where you trace to the bookcloth.
You should now be left with the lettering/picture in chalk/graphite on the bookcloth! And then the last step is to paint over the design with some fabric paint (I really like the Lumiere by Jaquard metallic acrylic paints, as they are opaque but also a really nice thin consistency that’s easy to paint with and they’re designed for use on fabric…the non-metallic paints by Jaquard are also good but I like to thin them out a little with water because they’re a thicker consistency–I found these paints at Blick).
Here’s a finished example of what this ends up looking like!
Hello!! I'm a baby bookbinder, and I really loved the format in which you bound the three shorts fics in your 23th february post. I'd love to try and replicate this perfect format. Could you tell me the type of biding you used please? Thank you!!!
Hello hello! Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind words! <3
For those books, I used a modified version of @ashmouthbooks's super cool paperback format! They use self-ended endpapers, where you paste the first and last sheet of the textblock directly to the covers. I do basically the same thing, except I glue an extra sheet of Kraft paper to the cover paper to make it sturdier + add a hinge to help the book open a little easier. I talk a bit about this process in this post too, where you can see how I layer the scrapbook paper + Kraft paper, then mark the spine and hinge areas for creasing. (As you can see in the post, I actually sew the textblock with French link stitches, but you could definitely use perfect binding instead!)
I also do this with my digitally designed covers, printed on matte photo paper--here are the two layers pre-gluing and trimming:
You can also just nix the kraft paper entirely! Cardstock and scrapbook paper work really well on their own in my experience, since they're already a bit sturdier. One thing I've found really helpful also, if you have it, is to use a scoring tool to crease where you want the hinge/spine. This is especially helpful if you do end up adding an extra layer to the cover paper, because it can kind of difficult to get a clean crease without it.
Then after everything is trimmed and creased, I glue the cover directly to the endpapers, leaving the spine and hinge areas free so that the book can open easily.
And that's about it! I hope this was helpful, and thanks again for stopping by! :D
Finished binding @that-banhus's fantastic King of Infinite Space today! You ever get into a pairing fresh out of binging a series and read a fic that just solidifies the characters in your head? Like, they go from "funny lil guy I enjoyed watching on TV" to someone who could be real, someone you could know. That was this fic for me--banhus's Hob is such a delight to read, so vibrant and funny and optimistic. And of course Dream's voice in this is just *chef's kiss* pitch perfect.
Some process chatter, under the cut! <3
SIZE
So this was my first go at a quarto size on legal paper (8.5" x 14"), and I LOVE it. This size is perfect for that 10k-15k range, and with the community imposer designed by the lovely folks at @renegadepublishing (thank you, @simply-sithel and Cocoa!), it was such a breeze to figure out the formatting. (Printing, on the other hand, was a bit of a mess since my printer doesn't do duplex for legal sizes, but I figured it out in the end. And hey, I got a bunch of waste sheets out of it! XD)
BINDING
I did a variation of the paperback format I've seen floating around in the Renegade discord (@ashmouthbooks kindly explained it a few months ago, thank you so much!). French link stitching glued with PVA as per usual, although no tapes or mull.
The cover is made of scrapbook paper and is glued directly to the flyleaf (flyleafs? flyleaves?), although as you can see below I added an extra layer of kraft paper to give it more of a "board" feel:
The pictures in this post are of my second/author copy, with an added a half-centimeter hinge so the spine can open more easily. My first copy did not have a hinge so it's a little stiff when you open it, but it gets the job done baha. Now I know for future binds in this size: hinges are the way to go!
DESIGN (or, as I call it, VibesTM)
The first line of this fic has lived rent-free in my brain for months now: They sat at the New Inn until the afternoon melted into evening, the sunlight thickened to a rich orange, and the late crowd began to trickle into the inn in chattering groups. I remember reading it late at night and immediately sitting up and going "oh hell yeah." This fic gives me that "walking to class in the fall semester and feeling the whole world passing you by and you have books to read and papers to write but you see your friend from across the quad and they wave at you and you wave back and everything is okay, maybe, because the leaves are turning and you're going to make it, dammit, you are going to make it" vibes. So the cover paper is from one of Michael's paper packs, called "Autumn Blaze."
HOWEVER, Banhus also mentioned that the paper looks like a sandy beach, and I'm smacking myself over the head for not doing that intentionally because yes! There's a lovely lovely scene at the end where Dream and Hob are lounging on the shore of the Dreaming and are finally, finally figuring it out, and it's wonderful and so atmospheric and I am 100% going to pretend that my paper choice here was tailored for that scene specifically XD
Titling is permanent adhesive vinyl cut by my Cricut, Charlotte, with hand-drawn "bolding" around each letter done with my uniball Signo white gel pen. And since I've been trying to get better at documenting my fonts, the titling for this one was Perpetua Titling MT, and the body was my go-to Garamond my beloved.
As a bonus, here is my first go at binding this fic, but in quarto letter size instead of legal! Smol :3
And that's all for today! Thank you so much, Banhus, for letting me bind your work! It was a pleasure, and I can't wait for you to receive your copy <3
I’m moving house soon + I’ve run out of greyboard and long grain paper = I can’t order new supplies yet
these are A7 paperbacks, self-ended, utilising the same misprint cardstock running sheet for covers that I used previously for some spn and ocean’s 8 fics. I really like these small format paperbacks for short fics - these range 1,945-5,592 words.
feels like insomnia by skylights (Bond/Q)
million dollar question by skylights (Bond/Q)
the sheer lack of professionalism by scioscribe (Bond/Q)
I bound my first ever book! It's a little 5 hole pamphlet bind with some old printer paper that got bent when we moved. The cover is 100lb/270gsm acid-free cardstock. I used unwaxed linen thread to sew it. There's 10 sheets/40 pages in total. I wanted to make something simple that I wouldn't be afraid to mess up before trying any real fanbinding.
Definitely the messiest part was trimming the pages. Sanding it down afterward helped a lot, but I think I need a better/sturdier knife than my little craft blade.
For a first attempt, I'm really pleased with how it turned out! Not a huge disaster at all. Also, I discovered that the long thin trimmed bits of paper are irresistible to my cat, especially if I trail the tip through her whiskers.
