I've been working on a few more books. I've moved mostly to making hardcopy versions of some of my favorite extremely-self-published novels, some of which were only available briefly as serialized fiction on a blog, a pdf on the internet archive, or a series of PDF drafts on a paywalled patreon.

These are much easier in a few ways: The lack of images and backgrounds means the files are much smaller, and the lack of backgrounds means I don't have to trim the pages to make up for a lack of whitespace. This means the actual book size is more consistent, because the final page size isn't dependent on which printer we use. That makes making the covers easier.

The downside is that the files are generally 8.5x11" PDFs, and I'm making the signatures by folding 8.5x11" letter paper in half, which changes the aspect ratio (I now have more appreciation for the A-series paper they use over in Europe).

All these novels are available online in one form or another at this point, so I feel safe providing the printable bind-your-own-book version to anyone whose interested. I'll keep adding print-ready files to this folder as I go, but basically, if you see any books I make and think, 'I'd like one of those' then this is where you can get them.

I'm doing this partly because these books are fairly rare in any form, but especially in the long-lasting paper format (I think only one exists at all for one of them) and I really like them and want them to exist long into the future.

So: what do you need?

A bunch of 8.5x11" paper (or in the case of the Fully Automated rulebook, 11x17")

Bookbinding tools: An awl, bone folder, waxed thread, needle, PVA glue, a surface to work on. If you're making the FA! rulebook, you'll need a cutting board and razor knife. For hardcovers you'll need stiff cardboard and fabric, for softcovers some kind of large stiff, paperback-cover-style paper to print on, or canvas if you're lucky enough to have access to a color plotter printer.

I use this template for punching the holes in the 8.5x11" folio signatures (but almost any layout will work as long as you apply it consistently):

These files: https://mega.nz/folder/uMdGxIoS#u7QDqzdvSzuPq-AUpNTdCQ

This guide: https://www.penrosepress.ca/blogs/nerd-time/nerd-time-with-brianna-pretty-perfect-paperback-binding

If you want to make your own, this is my favorite tool for turning PDF files into printed signatures: https://momijizukamori.github.io/bookbinder-js/

If you want to do hardcovers you'll want a guide for making them out of bookboard (stiff cardboard) and fabric, but they're fairly common. I've been following the instructions from a book but the stuff you need to know to make the covers is split up into different sections which you're supposed to do in order to build your knowledge step by step and that makes it annoying to reference.

I've found various online PDF resizing tools to be useful in getting the files prepped for turning into signatures, but make sure you don't care who has access to your file if you use them, as there's no way to know what they'll do with their copy of anything you give them.