OOC - hardcopy of Sythyry's Journal

[sythyry]

It wouldn't be amazingly hard for me to put the backstory of Sythyry on a print-on-demand server. It'd probably come out costing $17-20 for a bound hardcopy of the story so far. (That's about $5 for the binding, $10 for the printing of the pages, and a couple bucks for me.)

Now, this wouldn't be anything that you couldn't get here for free. It would be in better shape than the current story so far. And of course many people find it more pleasant to read paper than screens, etc.

Are you interested enough in this for me to put the energy into doing it?

(This is not to be confused with real publishing, of course, no matter with what the print-on-demand server web site says.)

[Poll #619611]

Comments

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

1. Probably
2. Whatever is least likely to fall apart. (No plastic spiral binding.)
3. Why would anybody want that?
4. Maybe if you left a copy around their place.
5. Don't see why not.
6. Bloody norteamericanos!

[zeeth_kyrah]

Saddle stitch is probably the most durable, but I've got 400-some-page tech books which are perfect bound and have recieved a decent amount of use. Good quality binding is going to last longer no matter what.

Perfect binding is cheaper, yet doesn't imply the kinds of things that spiral-bound often does. Spiral is for books that are meant to be folded back on themselves; and because of low cost, it's also used for low-quality or unfinished works when staples aren't enough.

But if your attitude is that you aren't doing any real publishing, then go ahead and do it spiral bound. You already have my preference registered.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

I'd go with perfect-bound. Are you sure they'll even do saddle-stich for such a large book? Most publishing places I know would only do it for the smaller books, typically under 100 pages (of course, I know very few :-).

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering about the same thing...

For a project the size of Sythyry's diary, I think that you have to go with perfect binding or case binding over saddle-stitch. (I'd hate to think of the size of staples for saddle-stitch.)

On the other hand, I really do not like spiral plastic binding. (The spirals always get caught somewhere.)

[zeeth_kyrah]

Before the advent of perfect binding, most books were saddle-stitched into their bindings. It's not just a staple in the crease.

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Okay. I'm showing my ignorance, then...

How would a saddle-stitch work in a book about the size of Sythyry's diary?

[zeeth_kyrah]

Proper saddle stitching bundles the pages into groups, sews the saddle of each group together, then sews the groups together and into the inner cover of the book. That inner cover is then pasted and/or sewn into the outer cover.

Stapling, as with most cheap comic books, just drops a staple or two into the saddle of a single clump of pages.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Hm. Found Lulu's help on bindings - from the picture, it looks like the saddle stitch they offer gathers all the pages into one group and then binds the single group as I described. I'm guessing the hardcover is the full-effort version of that (which is why it costs $15).

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Thanks for doing the research. As I said, I'd rather not think about the ONE set of staples that they'd use for a book the size of Sythyry's diary.

(When it's the size of a comic book, or a throw-away magazine... that's fine. But not when there's over 100 sheets to staple!)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

There will be cover art, right? };)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It would be entirely fitting for there to be cover art, I should think! Any suggestions? [Bard looks as innocent as possible.]

(I can't offer you a cameo again -- your cameo has turned into a regular, important character!)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I could manage something, if you don't have other people beating down your door to offer something! What kind of time frame are we looking at and in what sort of media?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

My door is not badly damaged. Email me at bard@bestweb.net to discuss things.