Update on Printing and Binding my Poetry Book, The Weeds Grow Anyway
It was around a year ago that I decided to print and bind my first full-length poetry book, The Weeds Grow Anyway! In honor of that, I'd like to share an update on where things are at, some of the physical and mental challenges that have arisen through the recent months around this project, what is coming next, etc. I especially want to document this, in case any poets or writers find themselves also interested in producing their own books.
In June my partner and I printed the covers, with huge thanks to a residency offered by The Press at Colorado College. The covers are three layers - a yellow layer, printed with risograph at Ladyfingers Letterpress in Colorado Springs, and a green and blue/black layer printed using linocut on the Vandercook press at the college.
Despite the long hours of carving the linoleum and printing all the copies, this turned out to be the easy part!
After that came the time to finalize the manuscript and make some production decisions regarding how I would bind the book. The editing was its own challenge, as it was a time in which I experienced (and admittedly, continue to experience) the usual anxiety many writers feel when the time to share our work with a paying audience is impending. It is a joyful thing, but also, terrifying.
Beyond that, my hot glue binder was not providing a binding I felt great about, and I think I've landed on the plan to stitch the books using a saddle stitch. This does prolong the release date. I initially planned to release the books this fall, but I think that I will instead be aiming for a spring or early summer release date to allow me the time to stitch the books. This might also allow for the possibility of an outdoor release show, which would be my ideal situation, both for covid safety reasons, and because it will match the climate of the book itself, so to speak.
I do want to be careful, knowing that my tendencies toward both procrastination and perfectionism can absolutely create situations where the work expands to fit the time. I think setting a deadline will be good for me.
So here is what is left to do, which I figure I'll share for my own internal organization, but also to share for anyone who also wants to produce their own book!
Schedule the release show, and promote it.
Make a few more book mockups for reviewing and editing the book, and to practice the bookbinding technique.
Finalize the manuscript and formatting. Determine whether I want a foreword or introduction.
Print the text blocks, either using my fancy new-to-me printer, or sending them to a local printing company.
Trim the text blocks to be slightly bigger than the final size.
Bind the text blocks with the inner cover paper.
Press the books using a book press.
Score and fold the outer covers.
Sleeve the books in the outer covers.
Ship out any remaining books.
Amidst all this, I'll also reach out to venues and poetry shows in the region to see about featuring and touring the book. I'll also reach out to local book stores about selling the books.
I think the hardest thing about all of this has been the promotion of it. My relationship to social media has been slowly dwindling, and I have not quite figured out how best to share about the book and the process in a way that fits the best practices of frequent, video-based updates that most social media sites reward. So hence why this update is going on Tumblr, and maybe I'll share screenshots to my Instagram story, or something like that.
If you want to preorder the book, the link to do so is here!
