Gigabooks Hand Bookbinding Supply

        Quick and easy bookbinding for writers and others who want to see their words in print. Learn to make your own trade paperbacks and hardcover books.

Here's an easy way to bind together loose pages, multi-paged printouts, etc. It's ideal for binding together the printed-out pages of electronic books, so you don't have to read them on your computer screen. When I tell people about this, most of them don't believe me. But take my word for it, it works. It's exceptionally easy to do and will cost you less than $1 to try.

1. A self-sealing envelope, the kind with the peel-away, waxy paper liner covering a super-sticky strip of glue. The envelope can be of any size from 6" x 9" to 9" x 12".
2. Two blank pieces of paper, or lightweight card stock, for the front and back cover. If you want, you can print titles, etc., on the cover, but leave at least a 1" margin all the way around. For best results, the covers should be at least as large as the largest piece you're binding.
3. The papers to be bound. Each piece to be bound needs to have one straight edge (the one to be bound). The other edges can be crooked, ragged, torn, whatever - it doesn't matter.

Cut the flap (the part with the self-sealing strip) off the envelope. Remove the waxy paper liner and discard it, then place the flap, with the glue side UP, on a hard surface, such as a table or counter. Gather the pages to be bound and align them, with the edges to be bound at the bottom. These edges (the ones to be bound) must be straight. Bounce them up and down on their straight edges until the edges to be bound are even, then pinch each side of your pages between your thumb and forefinger, about 1" in from each side and about 1/2" up from the bottom. Carefully lower the pinched-together pages onto the flap, centering them as much as possible. (It isn't necessary that the glue strip cover the entire length of the pages to be bound. In fact, when binding 8.5" x 11" pages, that's seldom the case.)

This glue is sticky. I mean, really sticky. So when you lower your pages onto the glue strip, be careful. But once those pages are in contact with the glue strip, press hard. Push the pages, still held between your thumbs and forefingers, down onto the glue strip. Glue strip and pages are now stuck together. Pick the whole thing up and bounce it up and down, several times, on the hard surface, then run a finger back and forth along the spine, pressing the glue strip against the pages. Finally, wrap any overlap of the glue strip onto the front and back covers.

And that's it. Your pages are bound together, ready for reading, filing, whatever. And just how strong is this kind of binding? Surprisingly, it's pretty strong. Of course, you won't be able to treat these bound pages like you would a hardcover book, or even a paperback, but they hold together quite well. You'll be able to hold and read your pages like a real book, and if you treat these bound pages with just a little care, they'll stay bound together.

And here's a tip from Al Pratt of Tempe, AZ, who writes in an e-mail: "I found a variation on using the sticky strip from an envelope. Try using double-sided carpet tape (but of course don't strip off the backing). The stuff is really sticky. Works great. Only problem is that since it's in a roll, it won't lay flat, so you have to tack the ends down until you stick the pages on the tape."

Thanks for the tip, Al.

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