Back in 2005-2006, I used to print out books and bind them with a cerlox coil if someone wanted to buy my genealogy books, but often before I had sold even 5 such copies (back then they were only 200 pages total!) someone would come back and say, “Here is more information on MY family – you didn’t have this!”
Well, Gr’ma would not throw away such valuable information; so I’d key it into the database and do a fresh printout.
This time I will expect the buyer to know how to do that themselves. You are computer and printer savvy, right?
The only exception I might make, (depending on time!) will be for older seniors who do NOT have a computer or printer and really could not do this themselves. However, I will charge for this service. I do have a lot of things going on in my life.
(I often joke I’m like a cat with 9 lives; living them all at once! I do a lot of multi-tasking! LOTS!)
With your printer hooked up to your desktop (or laptop) computer, look for the instructions to do Duplex printing. (on both sides of your sheets of paper). Assuming your PDF reader program allows that.
Choose a part of the book, say the first 30 pages, and give your printer a command to do duplex printing of that section. However, I recommend leaving out the cover until later to do last and separately.
If satisfied with that first batch. Choose another batch, or sequence, say 31-60 or where there is a convenient break. In fact, I suggest stopping before a page with a genealogy TREE chart, and printing that page or pages separately on coloured paper. They will make handy dividers for your book when it is bound up. Not too dark a colour, (hard to read) or too heavy a paper which might make your printer gag.
Use card-stock or photo paper for the covers, and if you can, laminate those pages (that is, put them through a machine that will coat the sheets with plastic, making them firmer and longer lasting). It's okay if you don't laminate it, but it may get dog-eared if you use it a lot.
Now to punch holes in all the pages to bind them up. If you are planning to put them in a binder, then get a 3 hole office punch. It will only take a few pages a time.
If you have access to a cerlox binder or know someone who does, it is only a matter of minutes to neatly punch rectangular holes (always shoving in the paper as far as it will go, so your holes are not too close to the edge), and then do the covers last.
A cerlox machine will allow you to open up the plastic curls of a cerlox comb, and then gently stack the pages so the curls go through the punched holes. When all done, let the handle go and it will close and bind up nicely!
You could also take your printed pages to a print-shop and ask them to do the binding. Their big machines can do it in a couple of minutes, and they might only charge $5-10 or even do it for free, if it’s just one!
Please note that my genealogy e-books are averaging 300 to 600 pages. You will need close to or more than a ream of paper. That is a package with 500 sheets in it. If you can do duplex printing, you will only need about 150 to 300 sheets. Without Duplex printing you will need to print each page on a new sheet of paper.
Wishing You all the BEST, in Your Family Genealogy Research,
Ruth Marlene Friesen
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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
