#also u can tell ive been busy because zero books have been made in the past few months...

[roseserpentpress]

Hey 😊 I'm very interested in getting into fan binding, and I love your work! I wonder, how much does it normally cost you to bind a book? I see you made quite a few in 2022 and I would love to hear about the average amount you normally spend :) best of luck on your future projects!

Aww thank you for the compliment! ❤️ I'm also really terribly sorry for how long it took for me to write out this response--I've been really busy lately, and properly calculating what actually goes into my books is something I haven't really done previously, as I typically engage in fanbinding as a hobby, and I don't usually keep track of how much is going into my books. It's also a bit difficult to exactly calculate materials wise as often things I buy end up going a long way... so breaking down the prices can be difficult as you'll see below.

Anyhow! Fanbinding is a really lovely hobby, and highly encourage you to get into it when you have the time and energy! If you are interested and haven't yet joined the Renegade bindery discord (18+ however!) with all the lovely fanbinding/bookbinding enthusiasts, I'd highly recommend you do as they have a bunch of resources for beginners and are an absolutely lovely community.

To properly answer your question, what one spends on making books can really depend on the materials you use. Hell, there was a document from Renegade on how to make really low cost book out of materials you just have lying around at home, which I unfortunately can't find right now. Personally the cost has also varied depending on where I'm getting my resources, and as you become familiar with whats in you area, you can also minimize cost for certain resources. Below the read more I'll actually give a break down of what generally goes into a 100 page (about 100k) A6 book. Everything will be given in CAD as I live in Canada.

Basic A6 100 pg Book:

Paper: 1.7$ as 100 pages would be 50 sheets of paper. It's 17$ for a ream (500 pages) of cream paper. I'm not sure the exact price for the printer, as that I own my own printer. I know that for just plain bright white and black and white text you are charged .20 per page at Staples, which for a 100 page book would be 20$.

Bookboard: .80-3$ I've had quite a variety of bookboard I've bought; currently am getting 9$ for a pack of 6 chipboard which makes about 12 a6 books; so about .79$, but I've previously bought chip board that is much more expensive (15$ a pack for about 4 books, which would be 3.75$ per book). I've also used the back of old sketch books, stiff and flat shipping envelopes for prints,and I've recently seen that someone recycles old books from library sales where the books are just going to go to the landfill.

Endpaper: I like coloured end and cover papers; per one sheet, it is usually about $5-10. Depending on my use of the paper, usually I can get about two A6 book worths out of the paper, which means about per 1 a6 its 2.5-5$ for the end paper.

Cover paper: For cover paper I often use a mix of paper. I also usually use the same type of fancy papers as the end papers, so thats an extra 5-10$, which can be halved. However, I often mix this with simple single coloured cardstock paper for scrapbooks. Normally, since I'm cheap, I buy the dollar store paper which is about .75$ per sheet. So about cover paper goes from 3.5-6$.

Ribbon: I like to make my books with ribbons so they are not just supported by sewing. Again, I'm not fancy so I use micheals/dollarstore polyester ribbons; a roll costs about 1.5-3$. For spine ribbons, getting a white or neutral colour is best as that in-between the signatures the colour isn't obvious. However, for adding ribbon bookmarks, it's nice to have a colour that matches the colour scheme of the book. The rolls obviously end up being used for more than one book project, so it's somewhere in the cents for the ribbons per book. I like silky polyester for ribbons as for those used as a bookmark, you can easily ensure the end doesn't fray by using a lighter to melt the very edge.

Thread: I just use sewing thread that I double when sewing the signatures together. It's about 3$ for a roll of white, and will last a very long time. I do like to add beeswax to the thread, which is somewhat optional. You could probably also use other soft waxes such as those used in candles if you don't specifically have beeswax. That cost will be under beeswax though.

Backing cloth - I purchase micheals squares of linen fabric, which you can buy for $2-3 for the cloth backing of the spine. Again, you can get quite a few cloth backing out of one square of fabric. You can also choose to use cloth instead of paper for a book cover, which then you would swap the coverpaper to the price of the cloth. Again, purchasing a neutral cream-white for the cloth is the best for the backing for the cracks between the signatures. I also know people will use misprint paper for backing, which would be even cheaper.

Paste: Personally as I'm cheap, so I like to make bookbinders paste at home; this is made by boiling a flour-water mixture. However, bookbinders paste takes long to dry, and for the first time or two might be more damp then you want and can leave your pages a bit wrinkly; as well, I'm not sure how acid free it would be considered in the long run, and its not a strong bond if it's not a large surface area that's paper-paper. Lots of people like to use ph-neutral PVC glue instead, which an art store near me sells around 10$ for 8oz, which is definitely pricier in comparison, but you'll end up using it for many books, so it can pay off. I've also however used simple Elmer's glue a couple of years ago in my first bookbinding forays, which is also cheap.

Head bands

Twine: lots of people use different types of cores for their headbands, but something that can remain an even width is good. I use this type of twine, which costs about 12$ per roll. The one I use is one I already had at home. Obviously you can get a quite a few headbands out of a ball of twine.

Embroidery floss: about 1.5$ for two different colours. Again, you'll only be using part of the whole embroidery floss for the endbands.

Beeswax proofing

Beeswax: 7 oz for 7$. Again, a fraction of one of these bars is used per book.

Mineral Spirits: also a fraction required for the a single book. A bottle however is about 11$ for 4.2 oz.

So if you are going by the bulk items, without anything at home including everything and going middle of the road for prices, that would be about $84... however, most of these costs are negligible in the long run per an individual book, plus often you may have some of these lying around already, which can significantly cut into these costs. As a result a more accurate cost of materials per a single individual book would be about maybe $30.50 on average, and going by middle of the road for some prices, and utilizing the 20$ for the text block via staples. The heaviest cost will always be printing out your textblock, which can be minimized if you have your own printer at home (but then you need to invest in one...).

However, cost again can really quite vary, depending on what materials you are using! Starting off with things you already have at home significantly cuts into material costs, and starting on smaller projects will make the material cost cheaper. Plus, some fancy paper can be bought in packs for cheaper then they type of paper I tend to purchase. I hope this was at least somewhat informative, even if it took forever for me to write this up for you, apologies again about that!