how to bind your own soft cover book

I'm not sure if you are going to agree with me. Many bloggers (whether local or international) are writer wannabes. I mean they want to be a writer in a conventional way. Not just publishing their writing in the blogosphere but also getting their manuscripts published.

Hence, self publishing business is booming outside of Malaysia. Inside of Malaysia, this concept is nothing new to us but somehow the industry here is way slower.

Try asking for the printing cost from local printers who provide Print On Demand (POD), you are expected to pay about RM15-25 per book (let's say a 120 pages, B&W, A4 size specification). And you have not paid for illustration, typesetting, editing, proofreading, etc yet. So in the end, how much profit are you going to make from your book? Most importantly who's going to buy your book if the retail price of your book is so high?

Am I discouraging you from self publish your book? Not really. What I'm trying to suggest to you is why not print the book and bind it yourself to save cost? If your intention is to publish the books and sell it to your friends and family and a small number of customers, then I suggest you to engage with a reliable photostat shop who does B&W and colour printing and you do the binding yourself.

The cost for professional binding is not cheap. I've once asked a photostat shop and it costs RM5 per book for perfect binding.



I came across a great youtube video on book binding. It's quite easy and straight forward and absolutely suitable for soft cover book. If you have a manuscript, why not get the typesetting done yourself, then print it out and bind it yourself over the weekend. If you are a handy person, you might have a neat result.

The copy of the book is definitely suitable to be submitted to publishers along with your book proposal. Who knows you might get a deal soon.