self-publishing books about harp

[gorman-jones]

This discussion certainly illustrates one of the important reasons to scrupulously avoid use of (illegally) copied music and other materials by both us and others with whom we work. I have had so many other musicians hand me an illegal photocopy of something for performance often for weddings or church services. Now, when discussing pieces someone else is to provide, I tell them to make sure they have the appropriate number of legal copies if I am to participate.

Thanks to composers, arrangers, writers for their creative efforts.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I’m only interested in publishing a quality book. I will be setting up all the contents myself, but I want a real page size and binding, if possible. At the very least, my local printer can do it on 18 X 12 sheets with saddle stitching. Doing it cheapo at Kinko is nogo. I won’t buy music with ring binding or any of that crap. It tears the other music and doesn’t last. You can’t beat the old ways. Another local printer will do 19 x 14 or something. The problem is finding someone to sew the binding.

[barbara-brundage]

Bon chance, then, but you’ll find that the overwhelming majority of musicians prefer coils because the book lays flat on the stand.

[barbara-brundage]

If you want a really sewn binding (today ‘saddle-stitched’ means stapled with a long-handled stapler) your best bet is to look for a private bookbinder who does restorations and one-off rebinding. It certainly won’t be cheap, but since that’s evidently not important that’s the only way I can think of to get it done that way these days.

[barbara-brundage]

You might also contact Victor Roman, since they do some of their Alfred Holy books (or did, anyway) something like what you want, although I believe they did use convention saddle-stitching. But they did find someplace to do the larger format printing on very heavy cream paper, which I presume is also what you have in mind.

[andy-b]

Barbara; do you know why dealers don’t like comb-binding? I’ve got a couple of books I’ve purchased that are spiral-bound, and the spiral wire always seems to start inching its way up so that I have to

[barbara-brundage]

Combs break almost at once (at least they start losing teeth). Coils that are properly crimped on the ends should stay put, at least until the ends of the pages start to deteriorate.

I think the plastic coils are generally better behaved than the wire ones that L&H uses (or did) for things like Ray’s books.

[andy-b]

Thanks for the info, Barbara. That had never occured to me, and I have to admit I’m guilty of comb-binding a book. I had mainly been thinking of keeping costs manageable and being able to assemble it myself. Live and learn!

Andy

[Sylvia]

I published my books at the local Copy Zone.

[Dwyn .]

You’re welcome.

[barbara-brundage]

>They might be OK for sheet music, but for books, I think it would look cheap and flimsy.

Absolutely! I was just talking about sheet music, not about regular books, although most of those are also cheap and flimsy these days. 🙂

[Tacye]

For music which is sold as an individual work I prefer sewn or stapled bindings (spiral binding is great for thicker things, but I find it too bulky and unnecessary for most of the music I play)- mostly they come stapled, but if the staples come loose I may repair them by sewing.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Coils are definitely better than the plastic, but a well made book will lie flat, too. I don’t remember what it is, but there is some problem with coils. A lot of printers don’t do them, and they cost more as well, I think.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

[Stephen Conor]

Yeah, a normal printer can do such printing features. I have books at home that I printed, using my hp officejet pro 8500 inkjet from InkJetSuperStore.com, from a PDF that I have downloaded online. Binding is also a bit easy to find. I am sure you can find one online.

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