Production & Assembly
• You want the document double-sided.
• You want it UNSTAPLED. Printers and job shops have enormous machines with expensive maintenance, and have to charge you through the nose for binding. 20 minutes and the cost of the stapler will come in far cheaper for more than 30 books in just about all cases.
• Remember to use the paper you picked out. Bring it to them if you bought it elsewhere, and show them exactly how you want everything printed. Any printer worth their salt will prefer an over-explained job to an under-explained one.
So now you’ve got your books back from – in the form of a few stacks of paper, probably in a box. Separate the covers, put the piles side-by-side on a flat surface you’re comfortable sitting at, and onto which you can easily apply pressure from above.
Pull out that long-arm stapler, load it up with Premium staples, set the ruler-guide to half the length of your book, set your cover over the guts and make one book. Fold it by lining up the edges and make sure the staples are appearing right on the fold. If so, keep going. If not, realign the guide until they do.
Here’s also the time to sew, glue, magnetize or divine an entirely new method of binding. If not stapling, do that now.
Now, the odds are not high that you have a ream cutter, though it’s possible you have access to one. If not, ask the printer how much they’ll charge per side to trim books for you. If it’s cheap, get the top, bottom and right sides trimmed; if expensive, go with just the right. It removes the affect of creep, which we discussed earlier, and brings out the class in a serious way.
If you don’t have access to a book clamp (known as a Copy Press), stack your books in reverse-facing piles of four and grab some dictionaries to put on top. Let sit for a few hours, at least, and serve.
Congratulations. You’ve now made books for your editor/readers. In just a few weeks, if you can wrestle them back with comments, be right time to edit.
