But didn’t even know it. All three of you that still read these posts.
Here it is. The project I’ve been working on for a few months:
I created my own special edition physical copy of Soulformer! I’ll go into detail on how I did it below, but essentially, I printed it out and learned how to bind books through YouTube (HUGE shoutout to Nerdforge, the channel that provided the tutorial I followed. It was invaluable).
I know that the book isn’t finished, that there are typos and grammatical errors (I found one on about the third page after making the first physical copy) and plot issues that need to be ironed out. However, I have always wanted a copy of my own book to sit on my bookshelf. It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a little kid. And just in case I never end up officially publishing anything or even coming back to this story, I wanted something to commemorate it by. This is my first, official, full-length novel and it’s special to me. So, I made one.
But first, I had to practice by making a couple as Christmas gifts (only joking, I always intended to make a couple as gifts, though it was good practice). I have some pictures below to go along with the journey that is bookbinding.
First and foremost, obviously you have to print out the book. I found a free program that takes PDFs and turns them into signatures (fancy word for a group of pages bundled and folded together). Once I had that figured out, I printed it out 32 pages at a time (2 pages per side, 2 sides per sheet, 7-8 sheets per signature) and proceeded to manually fold each and every one of the 108 pages by hand. I used a bone folder to make sure the creases were all straight and as flat as can be.
Next up, I had to sew and glue everything together. I made myself a little homemade sewing loom and book press for just such a need. First, I had to measure out where the cords would be that I was going to sew all the signatures to. Then, one signature at a time, I sewed them all together.
After it was all sewn up, I used a special bookbinding PVA glue that bonds things like paper super well but is also very flexible, so it won’t become brittle and break with old age. I put the newly sewn book into my homemade book press, then glued the spine together.
Next up, I had to add the end pages, glue on the bookmark ribbon, and sew the headband and tailband. Other than the sheer monotony and repetitiveness of folding each sheet by hand, the head and tailbands are by far the hardest part. But, with that done, the ribbon secured, and the cheesecloth glued on to strengthen the spine, it felt much more like a real book.
Close to the end now, we have the covers to make. I found a really thick cardboard that is often used in book making, measured and cut it to size, drilled holes for the cords to go through, then glued it all together. It may not be pretty, but it’s a real book now!
Finally, to make it pretty, I had to glue on the cover material. My original intent was to make a leatherbound version, but it was a little intimidating. For the first batch, I only used a special velvety book cover material that I found on Amazon. However, I still think it turned out pretty dang cool.
So, there you have it! From start to finish, it took me about six to eight hours to make one physical copy (not to mention the nearly three years to write the dang thing). I gave these out as Christmas gifts, but it was all leading up to this…
Here is the leatherbound version, before it was fully dyed, but after I had carved the title. Let me tell you, carving leather is no joke. My wrists still hurt from tracing the letters, pushing it down, then cutting around the edges. It was tough, but it was all worth it for the final product.
Here she is, in all her glory.
Now, the leather staining and the gold leaf wasn’t perfect, but I still love it. I get to put my book, something that I wrote, on my shelf next to my favorite authors. Such a cool experience. All in all, I’d say this version took me at least ten or more hours. I was thinking that maybe I would try another one since I have extra leather… but I think I’m gonna leave this one as a 1 of 1.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can get down to future project updates!
As I suspected, I did not spend as much time on writing, specifically the sci-fi horror book and outline (it was the holidays, and I spent a lot of my free time making those books).
I did get a good chunk of the chapter outline finished and some good research to make sure the book is as accurate as I can make it, but I still haven’t finalized the outline all the way to the end. I do know what’s going to happen, but I need to go chapter by chapter to make sure everything flows and matches nicely from start to finish. This process is important to me, as it helps me think through the entire plot at a high level and make sure certain plot points are telegraphed effectively and that all aspects of the story work together. I’ve already found one or two small issues that I had to go back to previous chapters within the outline to make sure I mentioned them previously.
Once that outline is finalized, I will go back through and make sure everything plays nicely, add in (or take out) anything that doesn’t fit, and then I’ll start fully on the first draft. Like I said in the last post, I technically started the first draft in November, but it was only 4 or 5 pages, and I haven’t really touched it since.
So far, the outline has got me pretty excited. I’ve got the first 12 chapters outlined which is probably a little over the halfway point. That may seem like this book is going to be significantly shorter than Soulformer (that story has 43 chapters including the prologue), but I am actually planning on each chapter being a bit longer than the 8- or 9-page average in Soulformer. This book is going to be an intense, atmospheric, dread-inducing story (at least, that’s what I’m hoping it will be). Because of that, I didn’t want as many sudden story breaks with new chapters. We’ll see how it works.
Now that I’m done with my physical edition project, I can turn my free time’s full attention to finishing the outline and starting on the draft. Hopefully you’ll get to see that little project status ticker on the home page going up throughout the month.
Out with the old, in with the new!