10/31

Took the day off from my day to job to get a haircut and then stand in line for early voting. I stood in line for 1 3/4 hours and consider myself lucky to have it only be that. I then spent the rest of the day putting the finishing touches on a few more eBay listings.

10/30

Took the night off.

10/29

Three books arrived to be made into hardcover volumes. I was happy to see a couple of items I donated to the Mid-Ohio-Con eBay charity auction did well. I continued to work on layout sheets for six hard cover volumes and cover designs for five soft cover volumes.

10/28

I tried to work on soft cover designs but the emails kept coming in. I have also started posting to the Comic Geek Speaking binding board. Over the next several weeks I will be making posts describing the approach Capitol Bindery takes to making a book out of comics.

10/27

One of the unintended side effects of selling on eBay is that I always get a new batch of emails from people just discovering what we do and wanting us to give them information on how they can have it done. I must admit I get a kick out of talking to new people who are just discovering the hobby.

10/26

Today I worked on cleaning up scans for five soft cover books and began to build the skeletons for the covers. My eBay auctions continue to do well. It is that time of year where I sell off my business samples and extra copies of things and have new ones made for the coming year. Some of my 2009 samples will show the same group of comics done as both soft cover and hardcover volumes.

10/25

Had breakfast with Kevin at Capitol Bindery. I dropped off 6 books for him to work. We discussed many things ranging from the state of the 10 books that are in shop to what is being said on the binding boards. I showed him some things I have been doing with Snow Dog and he was impressed with the quality. We then discussed how Capitol and Snow Dog might work together.

Hardcover Score Card
16 books at Capitol to be bound.
3 books at my house being worked on and waiting to go to the bindery.

I spent the rest of my day scanning images for five soft cover volumes and answering the backlog of emails.

10/24
I lurk on a variety of boards and threads that talk about comic book binding. I am always taken back when I see thread titles like "Capitol Bindery vs. Library Binding." There are no us versus them. At Capitol we have the highest respect for other binderies and what they produce. Bookbinding is dying art and under great economic pressure to deliver a finished product at a price competitive to mass produced volumes. Library Binding's $15.00 dollar book is an excellent value and I don't know of another bindery that can match it.

Capitol and Library make the same thing, a book out of comics, but approach the construction of the book differently. And it is because of the different approach that the price is different.

I can list the many differences between a Capitol made book and a Library made book. But I don't want to because it will be perceived that somehow I am saying a Capitol book is better than a Library book. That is subjective.

I have tested 23 binderies from around the world. There is one in Washington D.C. that makes books just like Capitol. There is one in the UK that makes an amazing smythe sewn product.

The main reason I have Capitol Bindery make my hardcover books is I want my books to live on long after I am gone from this world. Your mileage (and reasons) may vary!

10/23
Some projects take longer than others. Back in the July 1, 2008 blog entry I talked about dust jackets and finding the right combination between quality output and affordable price. Well I think I am there. Details will be announced soon. Here is a picture showing the final result. Once I get some feedback from the client I will post it.

Last night I met with Todd and Snow Dog to pick up several finished books. It is always fun to see the end result. Todd also laminated the above dust jacket.

10/22
Talked to Kevin at Capitol to let him know I will have books for him but he said he won't have any finished for me.

Hardcover Score Card
10 books at Capitol to be bound.
9 books at my house being worked on and waiting to go to the bindery.


I am auctioning on eBay a selection of Capitol Bindery bound volumes for the next several weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I will also be auctioning off a selection of soft cover volumes bound by Snow Dog.

10/21
Three books arrived to be made into soft covers. I heard from Todd at Snow Dog that my ten soft cover books should be ready on Thursday.

Soft cover Score Card
10 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
5 books at my house being worked on

10/20
Two books arrived to be made into hard covers and two books to be made into soft covers. The sales rep delivered a dust jacket experiment. I think I may have a solution to offering a lost cost way of outputting dust jackets. In the evening, I worked on unpacking comics and organizing orders and creating layout sheets.

10/16 -19
Four books arrived to be made into hardcover books.

I enjoyed a long weekend and took some time off to attend my youngest son's wedding and to visit with friends and relatives from out of town.

10/15

Dropped off 10 books to Capitol Bindery to be worked on. Robert is still away on vacation but he will get started on this batch when he returns on the 20th.

Hardcover Score Card
10 books at Capitol to be bound.
3 books at my house being worked on and waiting to go to the bindery.

10/14

Dropped of 10 soft cover books to Todd at Snow Dog to be worked on. These are for me and will be sold on eBay in the near future. It is cool how Todd is getting better and better all the time with hitting the spines dead on.

Soft cover Score Card
10 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
0 books at my house being worked on

10/13

Worked on prepping books for Capitol Bindery and Snow Dog. Sent out layouts for the customer(s) to review. I am on vacation this week so it was cool to work on comics in between the errands I had to do.

10/12

Worked on new soft cover designs for Snow Dog.

10/11

Had breakfast with Kevin at Capitol Bindery. There were 5 finished books to pick up. Robert is away on vacation so I did not leave any books off because they would not be worked on until his return. So the plan is drop off what books I have to the Capitol on Wednesday the 15th.

I got the 5 books photographed, packed and shipped.

Hardcover Score Card
0 books at Capitol to be bound.
13 books at my house being worked on and waiting to go to the bindery.

10/10

Took the night off.

10/9

Four more books arrived to be made into hardcover books. Worked on layouts sheets for 13 hardcover books.

Hardcover Score Card
5 books at Capitol to be bound.
13 books at my house being worked on and waiting to go to the bindery.

10/8

Shipped out 6 boxes of softcover books.

Hardcover Score Card
5 books at Capitol to be bound.
9 books at my house being worked on and waiting to go to the bindery.

Soft cover Score Card
0 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
0 books at my house being worked on

One new book arrived to be made in hardcover.

10/7

Three new books arrived to be made into hardcover books. Finished packing softcover books for shipment.

10/6

Todd dropped off 22 finished books.

Five new books arrived to be made into hardcovers. Got them photographed and prepacked for shipping.

10/5

Answered emails and did price quotes for six hours.

10/4

Had breakfast with Bob and Kevin. We were so engrossed in talking books that we forgot to pay the bill when we walked out of the diner. So I had to hurry back in to take care of it. Dropped off 5 books to work on and picked up 10 finished books. Did a lot of measuring for die placement of a new project. The end result is we decided to shrink a die in size so it would not conflict with how a cover is constructed.

Went right home to get the 10 books photographed, packed and shipped out. I wanted to make room for the soft covers when they are ready to pick up.

Later on in the day I had an email from Todd. He has finished the rest of the soft cover books. He will do a final trim on Monday and I will pick them up either Monday or Tuesday.

10/3

I have been wondering about the status for the 22 soft covers books. Got an email from Todd at Snow Dog today telling me he has been sick for the last couple of days. Some of the books are done and ready and the rest are close to being ready. So I will wait until he is back on his feet and tells me to come by and pick up some books.

On the hardcover side it is only the third of the month and on paper we are booked solid. I say on paper because I am sure some people will send in books late and miss their slots. Luckily we always have some orders on hand that we can reshuffle the schedule and not miss a beat.

Been working trying to find a reliable source and set up for output of custom dust jackets. I had just about given up but I had lunch today with a sales rep from OCE. He seems to have a solution for me so I will be testing that on Monday.

Todd at Snow Dog and I will be introducing (around the first of the year) a hardcover book product that can have custom covers like the soft cover books we produce. It will glue bound but open like the soft covers and each book will have the production extras like a Capitol Bindery hardcover does.

At the same time I hope to introduce a custom dust jacket service at a reasonable price point for people who want dust jackets for their Capitol Bindery bound volumes.

So by the first of the year I will be offering:

1. Custom designed covers for Soft cover binding projects: prices start at $19.95
2. Custom designed covers for Hard cover (glue bound) projects: prices starting at $39.95
3. Custom Buckram Hardcover (oversewn) projects : prices starting at $50.00
4. Custom designed dust jackets for hardcover books: not sure yet on the price.

10/2

Up early to do layout sheets for five books and get them ready for my Capitol Bindery visit on Saturday. I am expecting a call any day now from Snow Dog to pick up 22 softcover books.

10/1

Three new books arrived to be made into hardcovers. Finished artwork for a die to be used on a two book project.