My instructions for making a hardcover book from common materials.
Quick'n'Dirty instructions for US Letter-sized printout.
This is an amazing piece of gear I've discovered — a wooden 'machine' for making perfect-bound books. The price is really reasonable compared to traditional, single-purpose bookbinding tools, and this has become the method I use to produce my paperbacks.
Chad Muller is another independent novelist and micropress publisher. His site features nice tutorials on his book production process, as well as samples of his excellent fiction.
Jim Munro - indie novelist, filmmaker, games author. His website features lots of DIY advice for independent creative types.
My original guide (on No Media Kings' website) to do-it-yourself publishing.
Makers of the amazing Scrivener: software for writing novels and screenplays (which I also use in my copywriting work).
The people to buy your ISBNs from in the UK.
The British Library's legal deposit scheme: Authors publishing in the UK must submit copies to this programme. You'll find my books in there!
Many creative types are concerned about copyright. Actually, you have copyright over any work you create from the moment you create it. It's implicit, so you're protected without having to go overboard in stating it in your work. Copyright, however, is designed to limit sharing; Creative Commons licenses, on the other hand, are a good way to promote the "fair use" of your work — specifically stating how others are allowed to distribute, share, and use it.
Flickr images available for use under a Creative Commons licence
Barcode creation website.
An online community for writers and artists.
Sells a great range of bookbinding supplies in the UK. Dangerous!
Another source of bookbinding materials in the UK.
My favourite shop in Toronto — always gets a bite out of my wallet whenever I'm in TO.
A nice, clear tutorial on hardcover binding.
Collections of reproduction vintage papers - nice for decorating books.
MAKE magazine's papercraft projects.
Powerful but complicated PDF software for the Mac that can 'impose' your pages, or rearrange them for printing into books.
Simple and free Mac imposition software.
Splits the difference between the previous two applications, being much simpler than PDF Clerk yet more configuable than CocoaBooklet.
Page imposition software for Windows (a Mac client is available, but I didn't have much luck with it).
Here's where I get the "pulp novel" style paper I use for my books. And it's eco-friendly, 100% recycled from paper that was otherwise destined for landfill.