#whoof sorry for how long this got lol

[facelessoldgargoyle]

Hi, i saw your wonderful work in binding podcast transcripts, and as I've been trying to to the same to the audio transcripts of tma, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.

How do you print and bind the pages together?

How many pages can you bind together in a book?

Around how much does the whole process cost?

Thank you so much for your time!

I got into binding books because my partner @scoliosiswidowmaker wanted to print out an unpublished web serial (Worm) to read on the plane, and it ended up being a lot easier than I expected! Frankly I’ve been looking for an excuse to talk about it, so thank you lol.

There are a lot of tutorials out there about how to sew pages together, and that has the advantage of the pages being able to lay flat. I decided that would be a lot of work. Instead, I do perfect binding, which involves clamping the pages together and pasting a couple layers of glue on the spine. I use two 2x4’s and two big screw clamps from Ace Hardware as my book press, to hold the pages together, and that cost about $15 total.

I’ve tried a couple different types of glue. Super glue worked fine but fucked up my fingers. There was a type of all purpose glue, E600 I think, that we tried that stunk so bad we had to bind books out on the porch, and some of the books still smell bad lol. My favorite glue is this craft glue that comes in a pen with a broad applicator tip. It dries thickly, which makes sticking the pages to the spine of the cover easier.

[image ID: screenshot of Tombow Aqua Mono Liquid Craft Glue. It costs $3.19 /end ID]

I format the transcript in Google docs, download the document as a pdf, and then print-to-pdf as a booklet. This automatically formats the pages so that they’ll be in order if you fold the stack of paper in half. However! This process shrinks your text, rather than scale it, which means that if you want your final product to be 11pt font, you need to format it using 22pt font.

[image ID: screenshot of print screen with booklet option highlighted /end ID]

When my partner started, they printed the books at UPS, since we didn’t have a printer. This cost approximately $10 per hundred pages, but UPS will also tell you on their website what the cost per page is. When it became clear that we wanted to keep binding books as a hobby, we bought a printer. The first printer was $60 from Cannon and it misprinted often enough that we returned it for one with a automatic double-sided printing for $100. Seriously, that printer misprinted the silt verses 3 times. I cried over that thing. Now printing costs probably $4 per hundred pages, given the fact that a 500 sheaf of paper costs $7.50 and a $20 ink cartridge will print around 600 pages. Much cheaper and now we don’t have to walk to UPS! If you can afford it, I’d recommend a printer.

So, I bind books with hard covers, by gluing fabric to cardboard that I’ve cut to the right size and then fitting the bound pages into the spine and glueing the start/end pages to the fabric. This means I can make the bindings as big as I want them to be. This means that I haven’t run into a maximum page limit yet.

My partner binds with soft covers. They found a pad of pretty cardstock that’s 12x12”. They can only print books up to around 350 pages (that’s about 175 sheafs of 20lb paper, given that they’re printed double sided.)

In total? The homemade book press cost $15, UPS charged $22 to print Brimstone Valley Mall (200ish double sided pages), the printer cost $100, and it cost about $10 in ink/paper to print The Silt Verses (220ish double sided pages). So I guess I personally have spent about $90 (printer/materials cost divided between me and my partner) to bind 2 books, but from here on out, I expect transcripts to cost $10 to bind. High up front investment, low maintenance cost.

Also, I love picking out front pages from Michaels. God I love fancy paper.

[crisisoninfintefandoms]

This is so interesting, and bless you for sharing this story omg. 

For no good reason, I guess I’ll say how I first got into Les Mis too, on the slim chance that might be helpful to anyone trying to lol. 

I was a musical theater nerd, through and through, and a pretty common thing for me to do with my allowance or birthday money or whatever was to go to a music store and pick up a soundtrack of a musical I hadn’t seen or heard before. So when I was about 10, I snatched up the CD soundtrack of the 10th Anniversary Concert version of the Les Mis Musical, which I’d probably heard of before that but hadn’t really been exposed to. I was immediately enamored, and eventually got the full filmed recording of that performance as well (I believe that’s actually available in its entirety on youtube, if that sounds like something you might be into. It is a concert, not a full performance, but clearly that wasn’t a deterrent for me, so just throwing it out there as an option lol.) After that, I checked out an original cast recording, then had the opportunity to see it live in London, and was by that point clearly firmly in the Musical Les Mis bandwagon. 

In highschool, I managed to find a little group of friend who were also musical theater nerds, also into Les Mis the Musical, and also also shared some of my obsessive, hyper-fixation tendencies. We, together, decided to check out the copy of Les Mis that was in the school library and read it together. It was, as many can attest to, an experience, but one we all thoroughly enjoyed, tho that might have partially been cause we were doing it as a “teen friend group thing” and just having a lot of fun with it all. We poked fun, did dramatic readings of descriptions of sewers, and generally had a blast. As light as we made of the book in a lot of ways, and even tho we’d definitely come to it through our love of the musical, I think we all also genuinely enjoyed it, and appreciated it on its own merits. There are a lot of aspects I genuinely like better in the book more than the musical--or any adaptation I’ve seen, tbh --even though I still adore the musical, and of course that was how I got into it to begin with.

So, that was my trajectory. I’ve also watched the old miniseries (which was...fine), the 2012 film version of the musical (which I didn’t really like at all, personally, but I know others feel differently), as well as couple other adaptations here and there, and I’m currently slowly making my way through Shoujo Cosette (which I’m actually really liking???), but my initial exposure was definitely the musical, and specifically the 10th anniversary concert (which I can’t help recommending--like ugh, it’s still one of my favorite renditions of the musical, even if its somewhat incomplete and “only” a concert and all), and I would also say reading the book is what truly solidified my place as a fan of the story. As much as I love the musical, I just don’t think I’d be digging through as much fanfic (or making up my own plot bunnies I’m too scared to write lol) or squeeing over fanart or otherwise engaging in the fandom if I hadn’t delved into the book. 

Anyway, whoof, that got long, so sorry about that. But I hope that helps at all in figuring out what would work best for you and how you might want to do that. My best “advice” would probably be to try not to be too intimidated and just dive in--and remember of course to have fun with it. Cheers! 

Truth be told I have not seen Les Mis in it's entirety - but you have me curious! Eventually I'll see if I can find a live performance somewhere near me! That aside, how did you get introduced to Les Mis?

aSdfsfsdf cool thanks!! 

I’ve actually never seen a live performance of Les Mis (I’ve just seen bootlegs!)

My introduction to Les Mis was reading the entire unabridged book when I was like 13. I went in blind, no spoilers.

However I do NOT recommend doing that, lol. Like, there is a reason the fandom has nicknamed the book “the Brick.” The book isdifficult to get into and features a billion characters and a billion digressions that have very little to do with the main “plot,” so unless you’re already familiar with the story it can be very difficult to follow or get invested in.......I say that I first “read” the book when I was 13 but I honestly did not understand/appreciate 90 percent of it. :/

I remember I was borrowing the book from a friend and when i gave it back, I told them word-for-word: “this book almost broke me.”

HOWEVER

I did still enjoy the book!

Like I remember I literally gasped out loud when Javert let Valjean go........literally............I went in blind, no one had ever spoiled the book for me, and I honestly didn’t expect that to happen. ;_;. And I still have never gotten over that moment tbh!!!!  I can’t believe Javert just let him go, even though Valjean himself believed that no one who knew his past would think he was worth saving, and I could go ON about this forever and

But I honestly don’t think I appreciated the book until I watched the 2012 movie and then started listening to the stage musical/watching bootlegs of the stage musical! Listening to the musical is what got me invested enough to reread the book later. The book is my favorite version of the story, but the stage musical is why I was able to get invested in the book. 

Also like. If you get into the Les Mis fandom on tumblr...a ton of the content is based on stuff that isn’t actually in the book or the musical or any adaptation???  It’s hard to explain to someone who’s not in the fandom!! 

But basically: in the book there’s a group of Student Revolutionaries called Les Amis. The most famous guy is Enjolras, because he has a big role in the musical

And at least half of the content in the Les Mis fandom centers on the minor characters of Les Amis falling in love or being friends, usually in a modern setting, often in ways that play very fast and loose with “canon.”

So yeah it’s a running joke in the fandom that “Enjolras is the real main character of les mis” because so many people find the story of Les Amis far more interesting than the story of Jean Valjean.....and it’s very valid, but I’ve personally always been way more invested in Valjean. Anyway but now I’m digressing!

I guess the point is that there’s no “wrong’ way to be in the Les Mis fandom, lol....ya just gotta get into whatever you want to get into

So TL;DR:

i wish I could give advice on “how to get into Les Mis,” but I can’t really? I read the book first, and the book is my favorite version of les mis, but I do think the 2012 movie and the stage musical are better places to start! 

I could also dm you a link to a bootleg of the stage show if you want  :)

I don’t really know how to get into Les Mis.......all I know is that I can’t get out lol

[anyu-blue]

So I dreamt I got to say what was on my mind...

In one of my feverish half sleeping weird state dreams... I dreamt I got to say to my liar of an ex my entire- "You wish you were shit, but you're not because shit actually provided nutrients at some point along the way and still will after being excreted" blah blah blah spiel...

Cool!

His reaction was to tear up while I got a shit eating grin on my face-- full of teeth and health as an added Insult I found a way to get that issue fixed and the last time he saw me was without and all blah XP (we're in the middle of fixing my teeth issue and health right now!!! So woo!! Perhaps deja Vu?)--- aaaand everyone else was completely horrified with me. Not that I cared because I finally got to say it. (I'm hoping since that was so satisfying in my dream- and so evil ngl- I won't have to or really feel the urge to if I ever see him again. Hopefully I got it out of my system so to speak).

...

But now that I'm awake and processing.. mostly from being half awake I feel... I've been hit with another, possibly even worse scathing idea that could come out of my mouth... And oh boy. It's a doozy...

Looking in the mirror I've been struggling a lot. A lot a lot lately. Trying to figure out where I fit in, yeah? What to do about/with myself and all that fun Jazz... With my ex on my mind while looking in the mirror and putting on a dress (it's hot and I don't want to layer up)... I remembered having sex of course... And... Part of the reason he may have dumped me/become a shithead in the first place...

He believes he may be sterile, or close to it. Okay...

So here's the thing...

With the gender identity and all that fun stuff...

It's rough. Sorry in advance.

Can you even be considered a man if all you shoot is blanks?

And I...

WHOOF.

This isn't coming from my own personal beliefs (obviously- I mean I've got the parts but I am not a woman in my mind AT ALL) but more along the lines of how I was treated and called by him and his family and all that fun stuff too... Like... Whoof...

He has some beliefs that differ from mine. He's a Trump sympathizer if that helps any... (though abjectly refuses to vote)...

And I suppose is probably more sensitive to the fact he might not be able to have biological kids than he lets on....

This insult would come out if he or his friends would bring up that I'm 'trying to be what I'm not' argument.. that I'm just a woman or something like that...

It would be in response... And designed to hurt more that really argue... But basically say- oh hey!! He can't have biological kids without scientific intervention (and possibly not even then) and yet still thinks himself a man?? So that means if I grow a dick that shoots blanks I'm a man too (possible with scientific intervention)!!

Or I'm more of a man because I actually communicate rather than cower and hide and run to the next comfort in life instead of facing my god fears. He's too much of a pussy to be a man.

It is literally the meanest possible thing I can think of right now... It's so mean.

It's partly from my bitterness of being treated like and called a woman based on things I can't control, and all the pushback I get when I tell people I'm not/try to be more comfortable with not being one over all... I know that's part of it. And I know another chunk is still me feeling so hurt by Everything he did and lied about... All the trust I had in him and love of sorts.

In the dream I was able to get out that I actually don't have such a jealousy streak as I thought I did.. that l, honestly, I'm cool with poly and open relationships and I'm not scared of that fact anymore. There was a rise in tension in the sense of 'oooh so it was okay I went with other women! Does this mean we can get back together?'.... Which was handily slapped down because 1) I'm not a woman, 2) it was NOT okay because lack of communication, 3) why would I ever want to get back with some spineless lying thing that thinks he's shit he's not?

There's... A lot of bitterness there. A lot of hurtful things that I conjure up after being hurt...

I believe if I ever have the opportunity to say these things I won't... Or if I try, I'll be tripping all over myself and it won't have the power it had while I was dreaming about it... So I can certainly Live with the satisfaction and all that evil existing only in my head and my dreams... Lol especially because I know everyone was so disappointed in me in my dream already 😅 imagine the real world consequences of my family seeing that.

I would literally be the awful person they think I am. (Many of my family see me as lazy, aloof, uncaring, and overbearing... Which I do have traits of- we all do, we're human- and neglect to see what I actually do, how hard I work to do what I do, how literally disabled I have been through my entire life and still am and will be, ect ect... I am seen as an evil in many eyes. Something I wish I could change and my family has actively caused me harm by perpetuating and believing--- though one happy side note is Tev's boss actually feels bad for having turned me away!!! I found that out not too long ago!! SCORE for my feels!! She thought I was weird and not a hard worker because my step mom and Tevs both claimed up instead of asking her to hire me... Which is literally all I needed to get the job, just one good word that I showed up to work!!!... And they didn't say I was reliable. They didn't say anything other than.. I'm weird.... And it actually has cost their workplace dozens of hours in training quitters and someone just as alert and willing to work as Tevs.. where if she had hired me well... I wouldn't have left and would have helped more than she ever thought. She actually apologized to Tevs because I'm spending more time with Tevs and hearing Tevs talk about me.. she's HORRIFIED by what I've had to go through in my life and realizes THAT'S why I'm weird. I'm not wishy-washy... I'm traumatized and scatterbrained because of it. But I always get my work done.--- if they stop and realized like I have that yeah I'm weird, but I love very hard... They would realize I don't actively do stuff like that unless pushed to the brink- where when they do it they've always had my open arms and mind to come home to... Talk about hypocrites :P)

Okay.. done rambling now. I feel better 😅

Though WOW I'm technically an evil person on some levels. WHOOF... But I can't say it isn't because I haven't been pushed there. I can say I mean well and genuinely try my best.