I am happy to finally announce that - after seven months of writing and rewriting, working with Josh on the illustrations, Nathaniel on the cover, and going back and forth on using a formal publisher - Quitter: Good Luck Not Dying by Trace Ramsey (that’s me) is now available for purchase. The book is 78 pages with over a dozen color illustrations. It is hand stitched, hardcover, numbered and made by hand by the author.

Considering the time, materials and general effort it takes to make one of these books, I decided on a price of $14.

That might sound expensive for such a small book, but in a quick search of Amazon I could not find a 78 page hardcover for less than $20. Plus it is made by hand. That has to count for something.

I will pretty much make the books as I receive orders. PayPal seems to work well for most folks, but if you live near me or see me all the time and want to pay cash just let me know. Each book will get some goodies with it including buttons and/or stickers, maybe a book mark.

Thanks for keeping up with this project! I hope you support it if you can…

The first two attempts at making a hardcover book were miserable and complete failures. For the first attempt, I used some really simple looking instructions from DadCanDo.com. The instructions were so simple that when I followed the steps and completed the book I ended up with a sticky, bent, unattractive pile of cardboard and paper. Even after having dried for a day and half, the cloth that I used for the cover had dark stains from the glue that I used. Unattractive and shoddy looking -

The corners didn’t stick together the way they should and were coming apart a day later -

And the front pages were wrinkled and generally gross -

The second attempt didn’t yield any better results. After sleeping on it, getting some more supplies and watching some YouTube videos on bookbinding, I finally made a decent hardcover book.

I printed the book in four sections of eight pages. In the lingo of bookbinding these are called the signatures. It took me awhile to figure out that the software I am using (Adobe InDesign CS3) does not make this process easy unless you are a commercial printer. In order for me to print a book on my home printer I have to use a series of programs each requiring some of the same steps. Just figuring out those steps took several hours of searching the Internet, posting on forums and sending emails.

For this hardcover I used construction paper instead of the first few attempts using cloth. Much better results -

I have a few more minor problems to fix, but this stands as the prototype for making the Quitter hardcover book.

Due to budget issues, the Quitter book project kind of stalled out in the last few months. I cannot afford to publish the book as originally planned. I will instead take an entirely different route. This new route will require more time on my end. The end product will be much nicer and will not cost me anywhere near as much to produce. Hopefully.

In a weird daydream, I decided it would be nice if I knew how to bind books. That led to a quick search of the Internets and loads of free advice and detailed how-tos on not only book binding, but hardcover DIY book production out of scrap materials. Perfect… I have ready access to all types of trash cardboard as well as bags of fabric, paper, glue and tools. If the materials are cheap enough (or free) and it doesn’t take too long to assemble, I can offer the book for a lower cost.

The only problem is that the book will not have a handy bar code and probably won’t have an ISBN number, so you won’t see it on Amazon any time soon. The good thing is that more and more small book stores will sell these types of non-barcoded books and more and more DIY distributors will also carry them. many actually prefer it if the book doesn’t scan.

All that said, I still have not finished the re-write of Quitter #5. It is close, but something is still missing. End of this month? We’ll see…

I just finished a long day at work, and I was really ready to get out and get home. The customers just kept coming and coming with no real let up. As I was putting out the last blueberry case for the night I caught a short conversation that made the whole long day worth it -

Five Year Old Kid (grabbing a pint of blueberries): “Are they ‘ganic?”

Mom: “No, but they’re local.”

Five Year Old Kid: “Yay! Local!”

Maybe there is hope…