Self-Published Books
Right-click on photos to view greater detail
The Photos below illustrate most of the tools, materials and assembly for self-publishing a book. This method produces a book with page dimensions 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches.


Most of the tools required for this method are commonly found around the house. Less common tools may be purchased from Wal-Mart. The tools that I used were: Medium binder clips from Wal-Mart, manual drill, 1/16 inch drill bit, waxed dental floss, large sewing needle, hand saw, Elmer's white glue (the photo erroniously shows carpenter's glue) and an inexpensive paper cutter from Wal-Mart.


One-eighth (1/8) inch thick fiberboard purchased at Lowe's. The 4 feet x 8 feet sheets are inexpensive; Lowe's will cut the sheets for you to simplify transport. The hard binding is cut from this material. To protect the book pages, the binding is sized to extend approximately 1/8 inch beyond the top, bottom and open edges of the book pages.


Manilla folders are cut to form a paper binding.


The outer cover of the binding is covered with contact paper and is oversized so that an approximate one inch flap may be folded around the binding edges. The contact paper is notched at the center of its longest edges. Also, small triangular pieces are cut off the corners to minimize overlap when the contact paper is folded around the binding edges. The book spine is formed by cutting a narrow strip from thin poster board or paper board, and bending the long edges to form a trough - a remnant of paper board as might be found in a new shirt package or cereal box is pictured.


Two consecutively-numbered pages are printed on the front side of 24-pound inkjet paper. The heavier weight paper minimizes ink 'bleed-through.' See the photo below for reverse side (duplex) printing.


Reverse side printing of the previously-pictured sheet: Note that the front side of the sheet is printed with consecutively-numbered pages (eg. 117/118), but the reverse side is printed with following and preceeding page numbers (eg. 119/116). A down-loadable zip file is accessed near the bottom of this page. Examination of the printer files within that zip file will demonstrate the page sequencing used here.


After printing, the pages are folded with a smart crease; arranged in an edge-evened stack and secured in the stack with binder clips (left); holes are drilled at one inch intervals at approximately 1/4 inch in from the spine and tightly double-sewn with waxed dental floss (right).


A precicely cut paper binding is cut from manilla folder paper and folded around the sewn book. White glue is applied to the spine of the book and pressed into the sharply-folded paper binding. The folds should be spaced so as to fit snugly around the book. White glue sets up quickly when applied to paper - keep some tissues or paper towels handy to wipe off any excesses (squeezed out when pressure is applied).


Title page of completed book
Four steps are not yet pictured: 1) Gluing the fiber board covers to the paper binding with white glue. 2) Attaching the paper board spine to the book with Scotch tape. 3) Covering the binding with contact paper. 4) Applying precicely-cut paper sheets to cover the inside of the binding.


Index of completed book


Inside cover showing the paper sheets covering the paper binding and contact paper


Book edge with sturdy binding

You may download a copy of Tell Me a Story, Grannie by Kathleen Hall King; zipped, complete text in Microsoft Works Word Processor format - approx. 15 Mb, (c)2006 The New Pangloss Publications. There are 3 component files: a readable file and 2 files for printing (one prints the front side of the sheets, the other prints the reverse side of the sheets).

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