This was originally posted on my Dreamwidth.

99% of what i learned i learned from armoredsuperheavy's tutorial, here! they know what they're doing and their books are nice. i don't really know what i'm doing and my books are just okay.
anyway! self-deprecation aside! join me on a journey as i make a fanfiction into a book!

this time i'm going to be combining a whopping TWELVE fics into one tome! maldoror's six-fic duty and bloodshed series about cp9 from one piece, plus an additional 6 of her cp9-centric stories that i also really like! this puts the estimate wordcount of this project at about 75,626 words. that should make a good-sized book. this is the first time i'm combining multiple fics into one book... exciting times.

step one: saving the fic. this consists of, excitingly, copy-pasting the fanfictions into libreoffice. (i use libreoffice because it's free and i don't like word. i didn't even use word that much in college when i had it for free bc of being a college student - i might still have access to it? don't remember. regardless.) (libreoffice is what openoffice is called now btw)
i don't think this step really needs a screenshot, but here you go. looks like shit!



step two: TYPESETTING. aka formatting the text so that it can be printed. this can be variably quick, depending on how much of a mess has been introduced into the formatting of the text. stuff can get janky when it gets uploaded to ao3, and that jank can translate to even more jank in the document. fortunately this looks pretty good, all things considered!
i checked it over to make sure italics and such were preserved appropriately, then got to work with cleaning.
now the fic is all clean. now that i've done the "taking away" portion, time to start dressing the fic up to look nice for its big day in print. this is another collection of small steps.
decorative separators are sooo fun. i thought about doing different ones for every fic, but decided that it'd look a little too crazy. this is the one i picked:


"dropcaps" are the big letters at the start of a chapter, like this:



i went with two different dropcap fonts and alternated them from fic to fic. they add a bit of FLAIR. this is my first time using them! aligning them was a bit fiddly.
with all that done... more fiddling with page numbers in the table of contents, figuring out what i want the individual fic title pages to look like, changing the font back and forth on the title for no reason. that sort of thing.
eventually everything aligned, decorated, numbered, proofread, etc etc etc... i have a printable book!
typesetting this took hours... i waaaay underestimated the amount of work that a fic collection would take. but it's done!
i considered adding more decorations, but i think i don't want to make things too elaborate and cp9 are not very decorative people.

step 3: printing.
the libreoffice document gets exported as a pdf. the pdf gets plugged into this, which is called an "imposer" - it helpfully arranges all the pages into the way they gotta be. this fic is... drumroll... 264 pages, which is 66 pieces of paper!
now, there are two ways i could print it. i can tell it to print single-sided, print half the pages, flip them over, and print the other half the pages - this is the only way to make brenna's printer print borderless, thus preserving the specific margins and centering i set up - or i can just print it double-sided and have slightly different margins. since i dont care that much and am lazy, i'm just gonna print it like normal.
i probably could (and should) adjust the margins in the document to account for the printer-added chunk. it makes it so that the margin in the center is slimmer than the outer margins, when if anything that margin should be wider... but! i don't feel like it.

here it is all printed!



step 4: folding, hole-punching, pressing
after it's printed, i separate the sheets into "signatures" and fold them with my BONE FOLDER. this is a tool for folding paper traditionally made of bone. i think this one is made of plastic though.





sidenote, here's a picture to demonstrate the margins issue i mentioned earlier. i dunno, i can see it but it doesn't bother me a lot. just a little bit. it's fiiiiine.



once all the signatures are folded and stacked, i press them for a bit under a big pile of books. these are all books i ripped the covers off so i could use their bookboards. they're pretty heavy all in a pile like this. i sandwich the pile between pieces of bookboard so they're flatter and easier to keep track of.



post-press:



after it's been pressed, i take this bit of paper i made as a guide and poke holes in each signature for sewing. the guide makes sure they're the same every time! or... you know, mostly the same. there's still room for user error haha.



the fold on the guide lines up with the fold in the paper like so





this step is hard to take good pictures of because i kind of hunch my whole body over the paper and stare at it up very close lol.

after the holes are all poked, i press the stack again so it's not all fluffed up.

 



step 5: sewing
after re-pressing for a bit, time to sew the signatures together. once the signatures are sewn it is a "textblock". i enjoy this part a lot! it looks really tidy when it's done, and even if it ends up kinda crummy it doesn't super matter since it's also gonna be glued and then covered.
i don't have tapes, so i don't use them. i think other things can be diy'd in place of linen booktapes, but ehhh. they seem like a good idea for bigger books (as i understand it they add additional support) but not for something this size.
i use a kettle stitch, which i learned from this video! i think i watched some other ones as well, but this is the one i go to for reference when i forget what i'm supposed to be doing. it's nice and up close and goes slow.

i use embroidery floss, because i have a big sack full of it. measure out a long bit of it, cut it, then split it in half so it's three strands - less thick than six, but feels sturdier than one or two. bookbinding thread is waxed cotton or linen, i think, but i don't have any wax or any bookbinding thread. this works okay! i think wax would help it not get tangled, which would be nice...
i picked out this scarlet-red for this book! it's not quite blood color, it's a bit more orange-toned, but i think that's appropriate since kaku (who features in all the stories) has orange hair.



when i tie the knot at the end i also wrap it in a little bit of washi tape to make 100% sure it won't poke through the hole and ruin my whole situation. the first time i sewed a textblock the knot KEPT GOING THROUGH THE HOLE and had to start over like four times. so now i do this. i use the washi tape to keep the end knot out of the way as well, like so



here it is halfway done...



and here it is all sewn up!



...somehow it ended up tighter on the right side than the left...? oops.
various sources warn against sewing the textblock too tight, but i'm not really sure how tight is too tight or what negative effects might result from it being too tight. i tend to sew pretty tight because that seems right, and it still has some give to it. idk.
i ended up with two knots in the thread - one where i had to attach another length of thread, and one where the thread tangled and i couldn't get it untangled. here's what that looks like:



theoretically i think the sewing shouldn't be visible if you put the book together right, but it is in all of mine... i think it's something to do with getting the measurements for the case right, which is the hardest part.

step 6: GLUE

time to glue on endpapers! i've been using plain printer paper for this and frankly it's not a good idea. it always wrinkles. i need to get some cardstock, but yknow. i don't get out much, and paper's heavy to ship, etc etc... hopefully for the next book i'll get some.
anyway! laid down scrap paper underneath. put the paper on it. put more paper on the paper, so i get a very small line of glue, then glue the paper to the other-other paper.



the glue goes on that little sliver at the edge!



here's the block with the top endpaper glued on. computer, enhance!



pretty good. i think i got it aligned nicely. obviously i smoothed it down after i took this picture. flipped over the block, did the same thing to the back.

behold! the left half will be glued to the cover.



these are often decorative or colored paper. i think nice endpapers really class up a book! i thought about printing a design of some kind, but i couldn't think of anything that would feel appropriate for cp9. something giraffe-related....? idk. they have such a funny mixture of serious and silly that it's hard to pin them down with an Aesthetic.
i guess i could've done leopard spots or giraffe spots, since lucci and kaku both turn into animals with patterns...
(spent a bit tooling around looking for opensource giraffe patterns, making some black-and-white, etc)
i dunno, might look stupid. also it's too late!! PVA glue dries FAST and if i try to remove the endpapers i glued on now, it will rip. it'll be a mess. BLANK ENDPAPERS IT IS.

with the endpapers glued on, i clamp and glue the spine.



for this i take two pieces of bookboard, fold wax paper over the ends so they dont get glue all over them, and sandwich the textblock between them. then i clamp the whole thing with these clamps i found in the basement.  i use binder clips for smaller books.

i squoosh out a bunch of glue onto a scrap paper and slather it on the spine with a paintbrush. then i tear off another bit of scrap paper and dampen it a bit and glue that to the spine. i don't have any "mull", the loose-weave fabricstuff you're supposed to use for reinforcing a bookspine. supposedly it's okay to use paper instead. it remains to be seen how true that is... anyway, that's what i have so that's what i use.
the theme continues to be: "it's probably fine."



i smoosh that on, put some more glue on top to get it really glued, and run my fingers over it to press it down and really get it to conform to the spine, push out any bits of air, etc. then the whole clamp business gets set aside to dry for a bit again!

...oh i forgot i wanted headbands on this one. never mind it's not done.
headbands! i grab some, cut them down to the width of the spine, and glue those on the ends. also, i measure the spine, since i forgot to do that too and i need to know how wide it is so i can cut the spine piece of the case. this is a little less than 3/4 of an inch now that it's pressed and glued. i thought it'd be wider!






little too wide. gotta trim a little bit off the edge.

step 7: boards

get ye bookboard. one COULD buy some from a bookbinding supply place; i have not done this. instead i raided a bunch of little free libraries and stole all their shitty hardcovers! nobody needs business management advice inspired by the military, but i need board. to prepare them i just rip out the textblock and use my xacto knife to rip and scrape off the previous bookcloth and cover paper. how easy that is is super variable! depends on how old the book is, what kind of glue they used, etc... it's super quick and easy with cheap new books.

anyway. here's two bits of bookboard. i gotta do some measuring and cutting!



my covers are a different size every time. i'm still trying to figure out what works. a little less than 9 inches tall is good, and width... is... (sighs and checks notes) width of text block PLUS desired overhang MINUS hinge gap
so. uh.. 5.5 inches plus .25 inches minus .375 = 5.375, which is five and 3/8.



i attempt to draw straight lines. i think these are straight. now i gotta cut along the straight lines, horror of horrors. i use a boxcutter for these instead of my xacto knife.





naturally, i fuck it up a bit.



auuuughhhhhhhh

anyway. i finish cutting the boards. they look like this now! confronted with my repeated failures at cutting straight lines, i take a moment to despair.



Good Enough.png

next is spine time. i cut the spine for this one out of regular old cardboard from a package of fruit gummies. i just trace the width of the spine directly, like so



tidy up the lines with a ruler. make sure they're straight, or as straight as i can make them. then cut!



AUUHGHHHHHHH



good enough. i guess. a wonky spine is gonna be pretty obvious, unfortunately, but what can you do.
i press the cut spine against the textblock to make sure it looks okay



seems okay!
i reflect on my measurements and think "wait, i dont think i allowed for enough overhang. it's gonna look weird."
but it is too late. the board is cut. i have made my mistakes.

step 8: covering!

time to pick a paper and a bookcloth!
bookcloth is sturdy cloth backed with paper. apparently it's not too hard to make your own, which seems like fun... i might try that sometime!
i don't have enough bookcloth to do a full bookcloth cover - i like those a lot, but i think i wanna wait to do those until i have a way to put titles on them. otherwise they'll look super bare.

here's what i have at the moment (more coming in the mail soon!)



definitely not blue for this collection. red or off-white, then!

flip thru my pack of papers. i think i like this one. black and white and grey with bits of dark reddish brownish.





it looks pretty good with red! ok. selected. now i have to measure and cut the bookcloth. 1.5 inches for the bit on the book cover, 3/8 inch hinge gaps, spine traced, and i think...... these lines don't look straight. the spine may be crooked or something. despair.



well what's done is done i guess. time for glue! glue gets brushed on between the lines. cover and spine get glued down. easy as pie.
i realized after glueing down one board and the spine that i forgot to cut the bookcloth at the edge and went and did that.
 dumbass....




covers glued to the bookcloth. fantastic! now the end bits get folded over. i use my bone folder for this even though it gets glue all over the bonefolder.



bookcloth: applied! flipped the case over to see how it's lookin.



COMPUTER, ENHANCE!!!!



ughhhhh i got glue on the bookcloth. i tried to be careful, but there you go. tried to rub it off with a damp paper towel, but i think all that did is embed some paper towel bits in the bookcloth along with the glue. despair once again.

testing to see how the textblock looks in the case sizewise - looks okay, actually! i think i'd like it to be shorter next time, it feels a little too tall.





alright. cover paper time. i fold the 12x12 page in half, tear it down the middle. no more measuring. we're done with that.



flip it over, paint the paper with glue



i take the clean/not-torn edge and carefully line it up over the bookcloth, then smooth it out from the edge outwards. this paper's a nice thickness and doesn't wrinkle or tear.



flip over the case again, cut the corners of the paper, and fold it in!






repeat for the other side and the case is done! wow!!!!

now the hard part.

step 9: casing in.

paint glue on the endpaper, pasting down the "mull" while i'm at it.



then you just gotta.... do it. turn it over and try to make sure it's centered, pressed up against the spine properly, etc. it's tricky and annoying. takes both hands and concentration.
pva is not super forgiving, and neither is regular copy paper - it's Wet with glue and will be shredded if i try to peel it off and make adjustments, so i gotta do it good the first time. weh weh.
it came out okay this time! wrinkly, of course, but not as bad as it could be.



turn the book over. the second endpaper is muuuuch easier; the textblock is in its position now. paint the other endpaper with glue and just close the book and press.

then.... it's a book!









tadaaa!!

the book needs to be pressed again, and after that i'll need to go through it and fix any pages that are glued together, but apart from that it's done!

i think it turned out okay! it's off-center again, and i think the boards are wider than i'd like. the overhang looks a bit too big to me. looking at it, i don't love the bookcloth color, actually... black would look better... mumble grumble... overall, though, a success! it's an object!