MikeH, Author at Postcards From Across the Pond

In addition to writing books, I also make books. This is a hobby that sorta sneaked up on me, but it has pretty much become entrenched at this point.

I started making books as a direct result of writing books. Back in 2016, as I finished up The Bard of Tilbury (The Talisman – Book IV), it occurred to me that, since it was about Shakespeare, it would be nice to present the book in a hand-made, leather-bound version. To facilitate that, I took a course at The Weald and Downland Living Museum—the same place where they now film the popular Repair Shop program (if you’re in the US reading this, I’m sure there’s an American version of The Repair Shop by now).

_{Great place to visit, or take a “Heritage Skills” course.}

_{No, these people were not there when I took my class.
Too bad; I may have learned something.}

At any rate, even without the help of The Repair Shop crew, I managed to learn how to make hand-bound books, and completed my project for the G-boys by making books—containing the full text of the novel—that definitely looked hand-made.

_{The end result looked a bit rough, but then that was the idea.}

While this was the whole point, it occurred to me that it might be nice to try to make a book that didn’t appear quite so…rustic. To this end, I began making blank books to use as journals, which I gave as Christmas gifts to whoever I could dump them on.

My early attempts continued to look hand-made, but then a curious thing happened: I got better at it. And my most recent attempts looked less hand-made and more like something you might find in a shop. So much so, that a friend of my wife asked if I would make her a few, which I enthusiastically agreed to do.

_{Pretty nice looking, if I say so myself.}

Oddly, the most challenging—and expensive—aspect of this project was sourcing leather for the covers. Long story short, I finally found a supplier that provides the right weight of leather, that is a dream to work with, that I can bulk-buy, making it a lot cheaper per book. And this got me thinking.

There is a quote about writing, attributed to Molière, that goes like this:

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, then for a few close friends, and then for money.”

So, perhaps, the same can be said about making books.

Having been doing it for the love of it for years, and now having done some for friends, I can finally branch out and do it for money.

I don’t anticipate making a business out of this. What I am mostly interested in is not allowing my limited office space to fill up with unwanted hand-bound, leather journals, because—even if I can’t sell them or give them away—I’m still going to make them.

Details to follow. But if you do want a quality, 200 or 400-page, hand-crafted journal, just send me an email. Off the top of my head, I think I can get my investment back by charging the following:

400-page A5 Journal (approx. 6×8): £25 / $30 + S&H
200-page A5 Journal: £20 / $25 + S&H
200 Page A6 Journal (approx. 4×6): £15 / $20 + S&H

Now, back to the writing.

But, in case you are interested:

_{Then you fold the “signatures” using your bone folder.}

_{Poking the holes and sewing the Text Block is the most}
_{time-consuming, but gratify, part of the project.}

_{With the new leather, putting the cover on is a breeze.
But I still had trouble embossing, until I
figured out a way to make it less challenging.}

_{The pages are 100gsm for minimal bleed-through.}

And, if you are really interested, look up some tutorial videos on YouTube. It’s really dead easy, and very satisfying.