12/31
First cover created for our new Soft cover service.
12/30
Looking backward, looking forward
--------------------------------------------------
My status with Capitol Bindery is changing at the end of the month.
For the last 4 years I have been an unpaid volunteer that helped
comic collectors get their comics made into hardcover books.
I have had many inquiries on what I am going to do in 2008.
Before I get to that I thought I would reflect on how things got started, what I learned from my fellow collectors and what Capitol Bindery has learned when it comes to making books from comics.
Bill Nolan
--------------------------------------------------
Five or six years ago I started to show off my personal books
bound by Capitol Bindery on the internet. People started to ask
me to help them get their books done. I answered many, many emails
but for nearly two years nobody sent their books in. Just when
I had given the idea up, Bill Nolan sent in several volumes to
work on.
We were lucky to have Bill as Capitol Bindery's first mail order customer. He was patient and gracious as he trusted us to work on his books. As we began working with Bill we realized we hadn't thought through all the details of helping mail order customers. But because Bill was so paitent we were able to get up to speed very quickly and start helping other people with their orders.
And those orders soon started to come in. But for awhile we couldn't figure out how people were hearing of about us. It turns out that Bill Nolan was posting pictures of his finished books on various bulletin boards.
We haven't bound any books for Bill in awhile. I assume he has either quit binding for the moment or has found another binder.
To this day we talk fondly about Bill at least once month at our Saturday breakfast meetings.
So thank you Bill for helping us get started!
New ideas
--------------------------------------------------
The early wave of new comicbook bookbinding customers proved to
be very different then the regular Capitol Bindery customers.
The most startling difference was that it seemed each new customer
wanted to design the outside appearance of their books and wanted
the inside of their books rearranged and organized to their specifications.
People were suggesting things I had never thought about but that the binder said sure we can do that. I am often asked what I got out of helping people get their books bound and the main thing was new ideas to make my own books better.
So thanks go out to Bart Baker, Scott Baker-Young, Jared Bond, Al Decena, Gary Henderson, James Henry, Bill Nolan, Ray Owens, John Petty and Marc Wade for helping to make my own books more enjoyable!
Pesky staples
--------------------------------------------------
Capitol Bindery had been making hardcover books for me for 20+
years when we first started helping Bill Nolan and others. My
books were usually runs of comics from the 60-70s and some very
early 80s. So these comics were printed on cheap newsprint and
had very little art anywhere near the gutter.
The comics people started sending in were mostly from the 90s and on up. For years the bindery would just trim a tad off of the spine before sewing to get rid of the staples. But when Bill started sending in his books Kevin decided that Capitol needed to hand remove the staples and then use a large knife to cut the books in two through the spine.
By doing this Capitol could maximize the amount of gutter visible after sewing.
Other changes included how they sewed the books. Books from the 90s seemed to vary in size height wise. Capitol started sewing from the top in order to disguise that some comics were shorter than others.
Another change was how the top, side and bottom were trimmed. Capitol worked toward making the trim as "light" as possible. But that meant that the paper cutter blade had to be very sharp to get a clean cut.
Binding trades
--------------------------------------------------
Prestige books and trade paperbacks are a challenge to bind properly.
Or in Capitol's mind they are because they are perfectionists.
First there is the need to remove the cardstock cover without tearing/losing any part of the first and last page. Then depending on how they were constructed originally there is the question of how much glue will need to be removed in order to poke sewing needles through the pages.
Right now it takes 1-2 hours to prep five trades to be made into one hardcover book. And to make it more complicated, there is no one technique to prepping trades. Each is evaluated and prepared as needed.
You would think the best way to remove the front and back covers is to tear them off before working on the guts of the trade. Not so. It is better to slice the book into sections using a large knife. This leaves the spine intact in bits but allows for easy removal of the covers. Sometimes a single trade needs to be cut into ten separate pieces to get the most supple result after sewing.
These comments also apply to projects where we take several hardcover books apart and make them into one large hardcover.
Unexpected challenges
--------------------------------------------------
A long time customer sent in Tom Strong Volumes 1-6 hardcover
books to make into one large hardcover. I am not sure what the
time span was for publishing these books originally. What we found
when taking them apart I think pretty much mirrors how production
changed for hardcover books in order to control costs.
The first couple of books were both sewn and glued. Which meant we had to cut all the old threads and scrape of excess glue.
The next couple of books were just glued and the glue had seeped deeply in spots making it tedious to disassemble the book during prep.
The last couple of books were glued but also deeply notched. The notches allow the glue to get a better grip on the pages. This method seems very sturdy and the glue used did not seem to be brittle. An improvement over previous glue only products.
The first major problem we ran into is the six books were not the same height or width. Which meant we had to do some review page by page of the large books to determine where we could do some precuts before sewing.
The second problem was that when sewing the two books with deep notches some of the sewing needles were trying to sew thread in the notched space and had nothing to grab onto. Just cutting the spine to get rid of the notches was not an option in our mind. So Kevin had to hand sew the last third of this large book to reinforce the machine sewn parts of the book.
After all that I was still stunned how well the book turned out and how sturdy it felt.
Acid free tape
--------------------------------------------------
1950s-70s medium to low grade comics are fragile things. And for
some reason Marvel books are more so than DC books. This can be
a problem at the spine because the paper will fall apart around
the threads after sewing. For books with this problem we use acid
free binders tape and pre-tape some pages before sewing.
Sometimes we have to use the whole roll. For example we had an order for X-Men 1-25 (yes the 1963 series). This was made up issues of 1-10 which came from an old bound volume that had been three-hole punched and issues 11-25 which were supplied individually. When we took issues 1-10 apart it was decided that we would need to tape every single page before sewing.
Another unexpected thing the binders began to notice was that the paper cutter blade became dull more rapidly when cutting comics and unless the paper cutter was razor sharp it would pull and tear the comic pages. From then on Capitol has kept a strict sharpening schedule for the cutter so we don't have any unexpected delays or damage.
Refolding pages
--------------------------------------------------
I wish I could tell you that all the techniques used to make a
hardcover out of comics were in place when Bill Nolan first started
sending in books.
But techniques such as refolding pages before sewing were gradually introduced to the long list of steps taken to make finished hardcover out of comics. The purpose of refolding pages is to even everything up before sewing and trimming. Spine roll is a consistent problem with 60s and 70s DC comics. Mis-cut and mis-trimmed print signatures (groups of pages) are a problem with 70s Marvel Comics. Mis-cut DC 70s covers are just mind-boggling bad. How do you trim a cover when the text has already been cut into in the original producing of the comic?
At first refolding was something we only did when requested or if we happen to notice the problem. About 18 months ago we started to screen for the problem and would take care of the problem at no charge. When we kept track of the time it took to refold pages or rearrange pages or remove pages then Capitol started to charge for the time. Trust me the charge doesn't cover the time involved. But the end result is worth it and I can honestly say Capitol is producing better and better books as time goes on.
Color
--------------------------------------------------
I rediscovered last weekend why most of time I prefer homemade
volumes over reprint volumes. It may be just nostalgia but when
I look at a non-yellowed, near mint issue from the 60s-70s the
colors and the line art seem to work well with each other.
A new customer had us bind a run of near-mint Barry Smith issues of Conan the Barbarian and what struck me most about the volume were the colors. To me the color selection and saturation seemed just right.
Now I am a big fan of the Marvel Masterworks line but at times the restored, recolored art takes me out of reading the story and I end up studying the art. I love what they did with Kirby run on the FF. I even buy the back-to-press volumes as they are released. But when Ray Owens or James Henry sends in long, multi volume runs of a Marvel title then nostalgia takes over and I forget about the reprints.
The second reason I enjoy homemade volumes over reprint volumes is the extras. A fair amount of customers supply extras for their volumes but very few do it as well as the above mentioned Conan volume which included additional pieces of Conan art by Smith. At times I think I have seen it all and then a project comes along that shows me that I still have a long way to go when it comes to my own books.
When I say that it has been a privilege to assist other comic fans, I mean it. I have handled several thousand volumes for over 150 people and I am still not jaded when an order comes in because you never know what is going to be in the package!
Other binderies
--------------------------------------------------
Why is Capitol Bindery glad that there are choices out there for
the comic collector to choose from?
1. They believe that local binderies should be supported before
sending your books to an out of town bindery.
2. Capitol doesn't plan to increase capacity by hiring more people
so therefore they can't handle an unlimited number of orders.
3. They don't plan to automate their methods so therefore they
don't plan to reduce their prices.
4. Capitol did more comicbook hardcovers in 2007 than 2006 and
added 30 new customers. How can this be if there is competition
out there? It just means the market got bigger.
The making of handmade books is a dieing art. It is estimated that there are only 25-30 mom and pop shops like Capitol Bindery who make a book nearly entirely by hand. The other shops we discuss on this board have some sort of automation to help them create books. It might be something as simple a machine that preps the spines of comics before sewing.
Don't let this partial automation put you off from having your books made. In most cases it helps get your book made more quickly and helps hold the line on costs.
My impression of most binderies is that they don't want to talk to a customer; they just want to make books and make them the way they think they should be made. In my mind that just doesn't work and is the reason mom and pop shops are dieing out. And what we are left with is bigger shops that have someone whose job it is to talk to the customer. The problem is they have a certain amount of overhead to pay for and they can't afford to do the small custom jobs.
For example, Capitol Bindery uses the oversew method to make books and that is fine for most projects. But I found a bindery that uses the smythe sewn method and that is perfect for most modern comics with art crossing in and out of the gutter. But because it isn't worth their time to do the small projects they charge 3-4 times more than I am use to paying.
I have tested 23 binderies in the last 2-1/2 years to see how other people make books. And while I rep Capitol Bindery I have to tell you that Library Binding offers the best value when you consider both price and finished product. What you get for $15.00 is amazing. Yet, some people write me and tell me about their problems with Library bound volumes. It isn't Library's fault in most cases.
What I have discovered is most binderies do some things very well and other things not so well. If you know what those things are you can tailor your order so you can play to the strengths of the bindery you are sending books to. It takes experimentation to do this and probably more effort than you want to expend but the end result makes it worth it.
Scan and bind
--------------------------------------------------
I have learned more than I could imagine from my fellow comics
fan. One of the unexpected things was the scanning and binding
of comics. We have helped a handful of customers with these sorts
of projects and they never cease to amaze me.
I decided I wanted to do this for myself and have had modest success. Trust me our customers do a better job of this than I do, but some of these same customers have shared their production methods with me and my own books have gotten better each time.
My current project is an oversized Jack Kirby Kamandi Omnibus. Highlandray donated his originals (40 issues) for scanning and I have been working slowly and diligently on this for just over a year now. When done there will be two copies created, one for Ray and one for me.
Some of the projects I have done for myself include The Eternals and Devil Dinosaur. Marvel published versions of their own after I had done mine and I have to say theirs are better. Yes their glue binding hampers the ability of the book to lay flat on its own but some of that comes from their paper selection. How do I know? Because we taken a copy of each apart and re-sewed them and while there was improvement on the gutter there really wasn't any improvement on the ability for the book to lay flat on its own.
To me both Marvel and DC are producing great reprint books that have all but eliminated the need for scanning and binding popular titles. I know once I finish Kamandi that I have no plans to do anymore scanning and binding.
Yet, I am sure something will call to me and once again I will be spending a year working on something.
Making dies
--------------------------------------------------
I am not sure if was FAMAC who first asked me to price the cost
of creating a die for one of his projects. But in any case I know
he supplied the line art for the engraving company to work from
and it turned out great the very first time.
I liked how the end result looked and I wanted to do that myself. Since I had been a graphic artist in another life I thought how hard can this be? Turns out it was pretty hard on my wallet because in my early attempts I never prepped the art properly the first time which resulted in me making some dies two and three times before getting a suitable result.
As time went on I learned from the engraver and from the binders what works and what doesn't. Why couldn't they just tell me up front? It doesn't occur to them to educate the customer and it took me awhile to figure out what questions to ask.
The end result is now when someone wants to do a die I know what will work and what won't. But this frustrates some of the people I have helped because I will turn down projects when they insist on creating a die that won't work.
The most important thing to remember is to keep the line art open and airy. No large or heavy solids. Because large or heavy solids don't stamp cleanly, no matter how much heat is applied.
The other thing to remember is not to make your line art too thin. The lines have to be bold and thick for best results. Thin lines disappear when engraving.
July 2006
--------------------------------------------------
In July 2006 I sent out a two-part email talking about (1) Capitol
Bindery scheduling and (2) my decision to move on to other things.
Here is what I wrote.
====
As for me?
For the past several years it has been my pleasure to act as your "friend in comics" and help you and Capitol Bindery by supervising the processing of your comics being made into hardcover books.
As an unpaid volunteer I currently help nearly 150 different comic fans and pros get their books bound. This has been a blast!
However I have decided to stop doing this at the end of 2007. Until then I will be available to help for the next 17 1/2 months. After that new arrangements will have to be made.
But even when I stop handling the orders I will be available
for e-mail consultations. If you have any questions, please let
me know.
====
I had decided that I wanted some of my time back.
I made that announcement back then because helping people get their books made had reached a point where it had consumed all of my free time. I have a demanding day job and by night I was processing orders to take the bindery or packing and shipping finished books back to the customer. In between that I was answering many, many emails.
With the announcement I expected some customers to drift away. Some did but for everyone that left to go to Library Binding, E&L Bindery, etc. two new ones would write saying could they get something done before I left.
I received requests from two different binderies to buy my customer email list. I declined. Half the list is private email addresses for working comics pros and besides I didn't have anyone's permission to share their address.
I was approached to start a new bindery with the thought of moving all the current business over to the new business. I declined. After all that Capitol Bindery had done for me and other collectors how could I do something like that. And quite frankly it is the workmanship that Capitol Bindery puts into a finished book that is the selling point. Trust me it nothing I do.
More suggestions
--------------------------------------------------
I received a lot of unsolicited advice on how to whip Capitol
Bindery into shape so that they could crank out more books. I
thanked those people for writing and quietly deleted their emails.
I was invited to rep other binderies via mail order. Even though I have tested the other binderies I didn't think I would be providing any service of value to the comic collector if I wasn't there in person. So I declined. I think being able to have a face to face conversation when each order is left at the bindery is a necessity. Notes written on layouts sheets are discussed at that time. For certain complex orders the bindery preassembles them for me to check the order of things before sewing them.
I was invited to join a virtual studio. I was flattered but I declined. They wanted to concentrate on non-comic projects and all I was interested was in something comics related. (But the thought of a virtual studio began to swirl in my head and for the last six months I have been thinking about how that would allow me to do the things I wanted to do and the things people wanted me to do.)
I was approached by a small printer/binder two towns over from where I live to advise them how to market a new service they wanted to introduce. Over a series of lunches I shared several ways this could be done. To me information is free so I had no problem sharing it with them. They offered me a job, I declined (yes this is getting repetitive). I didn't hear from them for awhile and then they contacted me and said if I didn't want to work for them could I think of a way for me to work with them to suit my own interests. After some thought, yes I think there was a way, I told them.
At Saturday breakfast with Capitol Bindery bookbinders, over several months, we discussed ways to handle the transition. Most solutions were too time-consuming or too expensive for Capitol's business to handle. Was there a way for me to stay on past 2007? After much discussion I realized the answer could be yes, if I could get paid and if I could have free reign to make changes to how we handle mail orders.
2008
--------------------------------------------------
I decided to form a virtual studio called Single Bound Studios.
The studio will allow me to do several things but not have the burden of doing everything myself. I will be joined by two of my co-workers from my day job, a designer and a copywriter. Rounding out the studio will be my youngest son (age 26) who has assisted me these last few years between stints in the Marine Reserves and getting his college degree. He has a management day job that isn't challenging his creative muscles so he is anxious to help out on some projects.
With my Studio's help here is what I will do in 2008.
1. Represent Capitol Bindery and continue working with hardcover comic collecting customers. Instead of working as a volunteer I will now be paid by Capitol a per book commission to handle order processing at the front end and the back end. I can also earn commissions on non-comic work.
2. Work with Snow Dog printing/binding to develop a service for comic collectors to create their own Showcase/Essential soft cover volumes with full-color custom wrap around covers. This will be developed and perfected over the next several months before we start taking orders from individuals.
3. Continue working on creating, marketing and selling authorized comics projects (similar to the Cerebus covers project).
4. Get back to selling comic related material on eBay. (dpbanks_seller)
Representing Capitol Bindery in 2008
--------------------------------------------------
Going forward I don't expect things to change dramatically but
I suspect things will become more formalized.
I will be meeting with the binders for breakfast on Saturday and we will be reviewing the price sheet to see what revisions there needs to be. Buckram is going up 5% and chipboard is going up 8%. I am not sure yet how that will affect the cost of a basic book.
For 2008 I will be paid a portion of what Capitol already makes on each book, not by a price increase.
As I work with mail order customers I will continue to suggest ways to help save them some money when having their books bound by Capitol. Now with several years of experience under my belt I will be more aggressive in pointing out the things Capitol does not do so well and possibly recommend another bindery to do their project. For example our type library is not organized and we cannot respond to requests to stamp specific font styles on a book's cover or spine.
When dpbanks.com switches over to singleboundstudios.com I will be maintaining a daily blog. I have been doing a sort of blog since February 2006 but it is more of a diary than anything else. In the new blog I will be sharing binding experiences and images for your information and possibly entertainment.
Soft cover binding
--------------------------------------------------
I am working with a firm called Snow Dog Printing and Binding.
They are a small company located about 25 miles from where I live.
Snow Dog has done printing projects for me for the last ten years.
Todd and Dennis (who I have worked with since 1979) approached
me with the idea that they could be a source for custom made trade
paperbacks of comics. I am a fan of the Essentials and Showcase
volumes that Marvel and DC put out but I do prefer color over
black and white art.
So I was intrigued by the fact that they could bind individual issues into a trade paperback and it would be in color. But what really hooked me was the ability to make custom, full-color, wraparound covers
To perfect the process I am having 100 volumes made. We are picking runs of titles that never made it into trades or hardcover volumes. Example: John Byrne's Generations 3 series. These test volumes will be sold on eBay as samples
Things we will be paying particular attention to is keeping the gutter as open as possible and the trim as light as possible. We are also experimenting with what the maximum and minimum number of issues per volume could be.
Currently we are polishing a PDF template to used as a guide to creating custom laminated covers
Once we make the first 100 volumes we'll have the people who have volunteered to be beta testers submit projects of their own in order to get valuable feedback on what works and what doesn't.
Cerebus Book of covers
--------------------------------------------------
I am always experimenting to see what sells and what does not
sell. For awhile (with permission) I was selling hardcover sets
of Cerebus the Aardvark using the trade paperbacks for the guts.
Then I was trying to sell (with permission) a Cerebus poster that
had all 300 covers on it. Neither was successful. I ended up selling
the hardcover sets for below cost and I sold one copy of the poster
in a charity auction (brought $500+) with the proceeds benefiting
the CBLDF.
I then had the idea to do a hardcover book of nothing but the three hundred covers to the long running series. I sent a sample to Dave Sim and he thanked me but said that he preferred soft cover volumes like the trade paperbacks he already publishes.
So I started to experiment with soft cover versions of the book using a print on demand service call Blurb.com. The samples came from Blurb and I set them aside because things were very busy with the bindery. Months later I am cleaning out some files to make room for new things and I came across the soft cover samples. Rather then throw them away I sent them to Dave Sim for his archive with my compliments.
Later, when I am away on a business trip I start receiving emails asking me about the Cerebus Book of Covers and had I seen Dave Sim's October 11, 2007 blog? No I hadn't.
Here is an excerpt:
========================
"#2 Forgive me if this is an issue that's been addressed,
but have you given any thought to publishing a volume of the 300
CEREBUS covers? I've no idea if cost would make this logistically
possible, but I've long thought that CEREBUS, if nothing else,
had the best covers of any pamphlet comic."
Well, thanks. We certainly had MORE of them than most people do anyway. David Banks in Nebraska (dpbanks on the internet) has been doing the 300 covers for awhile now. First as a poster and then as a hardcover book. The latest two that he sent me were a 300-page trade paperback of the 300 covers and a 50-page trade paperback of the first 50 covers. They're just scanned from the printed comic books.
So, if your question is "Are there any plans for a giant
lavish coffee table edition of the 300 covers shot from the original
artwork where possible?" the answer is no, not really. CEREBUS
just isn't in the lavish coffee table edition category either
in terms of where I'm putting my time and money or how much of
a demand I suspect there is. If your question is "Is there
any way I could get a copy of a book that had all 300 covers in
it, just so I could have all 300 covers?" the short answer
is: yes, David Banks could do you one. What would it cost? I have
no idea. Presumably David would want something for his time and
trouble and presumably he would want to compensate Aardvark-Vanaheim
and Gerhard in some way. So, let me leave it at this: unless and/or
until I can get to the lavish coffee table edition stage, I'm
more than happy to let David do as many as he can get orders for,
for whatever he can charge so long as he gets compensated and
we get compensated in some way. I suspect he would be able to
do 50-cover editions more feasibly than 300-cover editions. It
depends on what sort of cover price you're willing to pay. We're
very big on personal responsibility and individual decision-making
around here. I know, it IS terribly annoying, isn't it?
==============
So that's how I found out that I had permission to sell the Cerebus Book of Covers. Currently soft cover copies of the book can be order through Blurb and hardcover copies can be ordered directly through me. Quite frankly the price for both is too high. So I have challenged Snow Dog printing to produce a volume that could be sold at a more competitive price.
Ebay
--------------------------------------------------
I like to buy on eBay. I have found individual issues to fill
out my collections and complete runs of series I never got around
to trying.
I also like to sell on eBay. In the coming months I will be selling:
1. Samples that promote services of Capitol Bindery and Snow
Dog Printing/Binding.
(Capitol has acquired many new customers through eBay sales.)
2. Hardcover and soft cover items specifically made to sell
on eBay.
(I have always had better luck selling things through eBay than
my own web site.)
3. Duplicate items from my personal collection. I am still
weeding through my personal collection selling comics, trades
or hardcovers that I have in multiple formats. (Do I need 4 copies
of the Galactus Trilogy story? I don't think so.)
12/29
Had breakfast with the binders and dropped nine books to be worked on.
Score Card
26 books at the binder to
be bound.
16 books at my house waiting to go to
the bindery.
0 Books on the way.
Reservations
have been made for 616 books spread out through the rest of the
year. 510 of these books have been completed.
12/28
Worked on layout sheet revisions for one customer and a layout for another. Then continued to answer emails.
12/27
One new book arrived. Began answering a lot of emails that resulted from some posts` I have made on the Binding Board.
12/25-26
Goofed off.
12/24
Shipped 6 finished books in 4 boxes.
12/23
Got caught up on emails, layout sheets and price estimates.
12/22
Picked up 6 finished books.
Five new books arrived.
Score Card
17 books at the binder to
be bound.
24 books at my house waiting to go to
the bindery.
0 Books on the way.
Reservations
have been made for 616 books spread out through the rest of the
year. 510 of these books have been completed.
12/21
Worked on a die for the Charlton Comics logo.
12/20
Five new books arrived.
12/19
Four new books arrived. Priced several jobs that are on the way.
12/18
Shipped 21 books in 10 boxes.
12/17
Finished packing books. Worked on layout sheet revisions.
12/16
Worked on revised layout sheets for 10 books. Worked on photographing and packing finished books for shipping.
12/15
Had breakfast with the binders and dropped of 18 books to be worked on. Picked up 21 finished books. Began photographing them.
Score Card
23 books at the binder to
be bound.
10 books at my house waiting to go to
the bindery. (All for one customer, still refining layout sheets)
5 Books on the way.
Reservations have
been made for 616 books spread out through the rest of the year.
504 of these books have been completed.
12/14
Did final organization for 17 books going to the binder on Saturday.
12/13
Sent layouts out for review via email and answered lots of emails.
12/12
Worked on layout sheets.
12/11
Worked on unpacking books and organizing info for layout sheets.
12/10
Just back from a long trip. Got started regrouping on what needed to be done for the bookbinder. Two boxes arrived while I was away. I will begin prepping those on Tuesday.
12/1-12/9
Away on business. Packages arriving while I am gone will be picked up by my son and stored at my house.
11/30
Eight new books arrived.
Score Card
26 books at the binder to
be bound.
18 books at my house waiting to go to
the bindery.
5 Books on the way.
Reservations
have been made for 616 books spread out through the rest of the
year. 483 of these books have been completed.
11/29
Talked to the binder today. No new finished books this weekend.
11/28
Got caught up with the recent rush of emails.
11/27
Continued to work through the post-Thanksgiving email rush. Reservations that weren't used earlier in the year are now being asked for. That amounts to 91 books. December is going to be busy.
11/26
Dropped off 9 books to the binder at 6:30 am. Examined a couple of projects in the works to make sure things were going well. Four new books arrived at the post office.
Score Card
26 books at the binder to
be bound.
10 books at my house waiting to go to
the bindery.
6 Books on the way.
Reservations
have been made for 616 books spread out through the rest of the
year. 483 of these books have been completed.
11/25
Had an unexpected post Thanksgiving rush of emails from various people about binding projects they want to do.
11/24
Organized items to go to the binder on Monday.