DIY Book Forum

Sondra,

Flattery will get you everywhere Thanks for the kind words.

The binding jig will work just fine at 8 1/2" x 11" page sizes. You just need to adjust the position of the back stop and make the presser board a little wider to accommodate the larger pages.

A4 refers to an international standard for paper sizes. It is roughly the size of what is referred to in the US as 'letter size paper.' If you are interested, there is a helpful article on Wikipedia about paper sizes.

2400 pages is a lot of paper. The maximum number of pages in a volume will depend on the weight of the paper you choose. The thicker pages in heavier bonds will reduce the number of pages you can fit in your jig. My own jig will open up wide enough to fit about 1 1/2" of paper at the spine. That would allow for 100-150 sheets or 200-300 pages.

Costs add up fast when you have so much material. Professional printers rely on volume to reduce the per-unit costs of printing. I checked with a very reasonably priced printing company online and they estimate the price of a 300 page book with 8 1/2" x 11" b&w pages to be around $13 each when bought in lots of 100 books. At 300 pages, you would need 8 volumes to publish your whole collection - that translates to about $104 per set when purchased in large quantities. You can get it done cheaper than that, but it is still an expensive proposition.

With the volume and nature of your content, you might consider a searchable database for your work. Then, people could access it online. If this is a money making venture, you can create a subscription-based membership site and sell access.

Good luck,

Andrew