We’ve talked about the surprising number of steps between ‘I have this idea for a book’ and ‘hey, look, here’s a book I made.’  Some of them are fairly easy to guess (write stuff down, knit things, take photos of things, make it all look like a book).  Some are a little more surprising.  One of the ones I never would have thought about before I did this was getting blank books made the way your book will be made.  It turns out to be unreasonably helpful.

I’ve been trying to decide between ‘fancy bit of business wrapped around the spine of the book’ (apparently called three-piece case or quarter binding, depending on where you ask) versus ‘super spiffy end papers.’  And no, the proper answer isn’t ‘both.’ Both adds rather substantially to the price of this little undertaking, and I have to do that hideously practical thing where I balance out ‘wouldn’t it be nifty if’ with ‘let’s keep the price at place where folks will still actually buy the thing.’

Before I petted the blanks myself, I was leaning strongly toward the fancy spine.  But after spending some quality time with them in person (and spending some time staring at the pictures I want to use on the front and back covers), I think the end papers will win out.

And, because I know a few of you have been concerned, I promise the books lay open well so they’ll be easy to knit from.  In fact, because the covers themselves are heavier, they actually lay open better than the paperback versions.  The whole thing really does feel delightfully substantial.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m should probably go finish up the things to be printed on all those lovely blank pages.