Bound books

Phantom · Post by **Phantom** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 8:12 am

Love your dust jackets Stevetrooper!
Prefer the black, but your collection of all in blue looks amazing.

Still keen to figure out a cheaper way to bind the books , even if I do it myself.

Love cruising this thread and looking at your photos of your hardcovers.

IanAlaxander ~ have you got your latest returned yet?
I thought you sent of more to be bound?

yardstick · Post by **yardstick** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 1:25 pm

Phantom wrote:Yeah, the reason why is that you are not getting 45 copies of the same book printed and bound. No volume discount for one-ofs

no I don't think that is the issue with these guys. I think they charge what they can get! They have 8 staff that I saw, and Cambridge is a place where their is ALOT of business. Thesis binding, rebinding text for universities, self publishers and binding special editions for cambridge university press.

Every book is hand stitched, and they are no short of work. When I mentioned approx 90 in total, they didn't raise an eyelid. One guy overheard and said, not to go for leather as for 90 they cannot garantee consistancy on colour.

Anyhow ~ where their is a will their is a way

In that case, you are paying for custom work / skilled labor. Which, from a manufacturing standpoint, is still one-ofs with costs/prices accordingly.

Phantom · Post by **Phantom** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:00 am

wher their is a WILL there is a way.

Hopefully I am in some WILLS, and where their is a will there is a way

.

As sooner are latter

thats quite rude actually.

No what a realy ment was, I am sure I can do it myself

.

NB ~ when you bind your collection to you still keep a full run!
Was thinking of binding my collection and just keeping primium issues golds, vcss, rare alternate covers to one side.

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:12 am

Thats what I plan on doing.. I wont be keeping any singles around, unless I think they might sell at a higher price at some time in the future.

Last Friday I received a call from my bindery and I paid for my books. Im hoping that they will be arriving in the next several days.. then I can send out my next group of.. maybe 4-5 books this time

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:03 pm

Good news! I received my 2 books in the mail. They are: Geomancer and Psi Lords!! Everything looks perfect!!

Ive learned something that I hope YOU can work around. Although my Psi Lords books is fine, my Geomancer book is pretty wimpy looking. With only 8 issue worth of material it looks like a runt hardcover. It seems that Library Binding used the same harcover thingy.. I cant remember the name of it..on both books.. so my Geomancer books kind of flares at the spine. So the spine is actually thicker than the books.

SO......

You may want to combine this book and another. Perhaps put Geomancer in the back of another books.. set it upside down even to read it that way. COuld maybe even have the bindary place a second ribbon in it on the bottom???

Comments?

Steve Topper · Post by **Steve Topper** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:35 pm

That is EXACTLY why I bound mine as Geomancer/Psi-Lords. I had previously bound Trinity Angels and Doctor Tomorrow as 12 issue books and they were just at the cusp of being too thin for my tastes.

Knowing that Geomancer was only 8 issues, I knew that would definitely be too thin. Same with Psi-Lords at 11 issues (including Destroyer). We even discussed it in the Mapping Titles thread. At 19 issues, this is still a decent sized book.

I started the book with the entire run of Geomancer and then followed it with Psi_lords. I'm still designing the dust jacket and have an interesting idea for that (well, at least I think it's interesting!)

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:11 pm

Hmm.. well, I might need to send those back in. Im not real happy with how the Geomancer book looks. Like I said, it looks like a runt!!

Steve Topper · Post by **Steve Topper** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:16 pm

Here's what I am thinking about for my dust jacket:

Based on this:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/tales ... e/66-1.jpg

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:00 pm

Thats a pretty cool concept.. but I dont think it will jive with the rest of your Valiant covers.. but maybe your not worried about it..

Pretty cool!!

Yes, Im seriously thinking about sending my two books in for a rebind!! LOL

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:30 pm

Or .. I could sell them and send in another set

I probably wouldnt get enough for them to recoup the costs

Steve Topper · Post by **Steve Topper** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:43 am

A friend has been selling his bound volumes on ebay because of a medical necessity and they seem to be selling pretty much at cost. One book of his I was interested in sold for $61 (13 issue Spider-Man Chapter One). Another 19 issue King Conan volume sold for $79.00.

You might not make anything but say you get $40 for the Geomancer book. That's $20 for binding and $20 for the eight issues. Then reacquire and bind and you really haven't lost too much, except time.

Steve Topper · Post by **Steve Topper** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:45 am

IanAlexavier wrote: Thats a pretty cool concept.. but I dont think it will jive with the rest of your Valiant covers.. but maybe your not worried about it..

Pretty cool!!

Yes, Im seriously thinking about sending my two books in for a rebind!! LOL

I'm still thinking about it for just that reason. I am still planning on keeping the spines similar and the rest of the dust jacket. Just using this as the front image. I'll probably finish it up this evening and see how it looks. I'll post it for comments as well.

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:55 am

Yes, I didnt even think about the spine being the same and the front being different. I think that would work out well! Or maybe something else that is a bit more Valiant-esque...

Still, it looks pretty cool!

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:24 am

Steve Topper wrote:Here's what I am thinking about for my dust jacket:

Based on this:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/tales ... e/66-1.jpg

That's pretty cool.

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:59 am

What do you think about my idea of having one title start from the front and then do a flip book approach and have the other title start from the other end?

You would need to place the pics of the issues covers somewhere on respective HC's cover..(lots of covers in that sentence

)

Hey if I sell the Psi Lords I would be able to incorporate the Valiant Vision books

Steve Topper · Post by **Steve Topper** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:06 pm

For a flip book, I think you'd have to really communicate VERY WELL with the binder and make sure they know EXACTLY what you want.

I'd probably split the books myself and lay everything out, then provide a very detailed explanation (with diagrams) showing how the flipbook would work.

And given the number of books per section (8 and 12 (if you include the Valiant Vision)) a decent cover design wouldn't be impossible.

greg · Post by **greg** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:31 pm

Since they're already paid for... you should put "2 Big Features For The Price Of None!"

yardstick · Post by **yardstick** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:05 pm

IanAlexavier wrote:Good news! I received my 2 books in the mail. They are: Geomancer and Psi Lords!! Everything looks perfect!!

Ive learned something that I hope YOU can work around. Although my Psi Lords books is fine, my Geomancer book is pretty wimpy looking. With only 8 issue worth of material it looks like a runt hardcover. It seems that Library Binding used the same harcover thingy.. I cant remember the name of it..on both books.. so my Geomancer books kind of flares at the spine. So the spine is actually thicker than the books.

SO......

You may want to combine this book and another. Perhaps put Geomancer in the back of another books.. set it upside down even to read it that way. COuld maybe even have the bindary place a second ribbon in it on the bottom???

Comments?

Hardcover flipbook?

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:23 pm

I think it would work fine. Just a note telling them to call you before they do anything, or explaining that the books need to be bound exactly how they were sent.

As far as a ribbon, just ask that the one they add to the front issues be placed a little toward the front.. and for the back, have them attach it to the bottom of the book more towards the back.. or front if the book is flipped over.

It COULD be done! I might be the one doing it!

Phantom · Post by **Phantom** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 2:51 am

Brian, it works in a comic ~ but a hardcover? I love the front and backs of ST's dust jackets, and the internal write ups, how to manage that on your hardcover?

Stevetopper.
The combo cover is cool, but just doesn't go with the rest of the collection you already have. I would make the titles bigger of
PSI Lords and geomancer. And leave out the tales of valiant universe.

And drop the black and white word ballon. The red scroll at the bottom is a nice touch as it matches the backgroud of the title area.

Just my thoughts.

Nb ~ I have no idea with photo shop, but is it possible to bleed the image together ? Or chose images that are similar colours and merge together kind of? Like over lapping, in the middle.

I love this thread and look forward to the comments

Hope I can show off hardcovers aswell soon.

Steve Topper · Post by **Steve Topper** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:01 am

Phantom,

Some good thoughts. I'll play with the image some and see how it looks.

Thanks

Phantom · Post by **Phantom** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:27 am

Its nice to see a fellow board member with a low post count ~ yet long time presence

Actually mine has climbed quite hight more recently.

TravAzz · Post by **TravAzz** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:05 pm

Alright guys, I'm sending this in for a spine logo. If anyone is interested in pitching in shoot me a PM. I'm going to make this available to the public, so everyone will be able to use it.

ncameron · Post by **ncameron** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:15 am

TravAzz wrote:Alright guys, I'm sending this in for a spine logo. If anyone is interested in pitching in shoot me a PM. I'm going to make this available to the public, so everyone will be able to use it.

That looks sweet, what did James quote you pricewise?

-neil

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:30 am

Can that go on the spine, or is it just for the cover?