A binder in my guild told me my headbands were too tight

She said it was stressing the spine and would cause the book to fail in a few years. I started leaving a full millimeter of slack and the difference in how the book opens is huge. How do you all judge the right amount of tension?

4 comments

4 Comments

ellioth372mo ago

A full millimeter, huh? Guess we're all out here accidentally strangling our books. My old method was just "tight enough that it doesn't fall apart when I pick it up," which was apparently the wrong answer.

stone.brooke2mo ago

The real crime is when people use those binder clips, @ellioth37. That flat metal bar leaves a permanent dent across the whole cover. A rubber band is kinder, even if it's a bit tight. Saw a first edition with a crease you could feel right through the dust jacket. Some methods just leave a mark forever.

milesk272mo ago

Honestly the binder clip thing is just lazy. Like, grab a hair tie from your couch if you're that desperate.

knight.dylan1mo ago

Tight enough that it doesn't fall apart" was my exact rule too, @ellioth37. I used to crank them down, thinking a snug book was a safe book. Then I tried the slack trick on a cheap paperback I didn't care about. Letting it just barely hold on made the pages lie so flat, no fighting the gutter. It felt wrong to be so loose, but the book opened like a dream. Totally changed how I do it now.