There are many ways of binding a book. Just look in your home. You will find various books which may be hardbound or paperback or just stapled. All these are various types of bookbinding. Obviously you have to practice different methods to become perfect at them. You can start with the simplest and work your way to the difficult ones.

First of all you must have the material and equipment. As a beginner you can start with these things

* sharp thing to make holes ( an awl )
* large needle
* thread ( carpet thread, nylon thread etc. )
* glue ( pva, or any strong glue )
* paper clamp ( to hold papers together tightly )
* cardboard or corrugated paper
* ream of papers

Keep all the above things at a certain place so that you can find them at any time.

The best way to learn something is to start small. This will help you to get the basics right and if you do something wrong then the loss will be minimal. The first thing you have to make for a book is signatures. Signature is nothing but folded paper. You can make signatures with one paper or two or more as you wish. Every book will have several signatures which are fastened together. This can be done by sewing the signatures together and then applying glue on the spine or just by applying the glue. The stack of fastened signatures forms the internal of the book.

A cover attached to the book will make it complete. The various types of covers are paperback, hard covers, leather and other types. Most of us will have paperback and hardbound books. Here’s what you can do to understand bookbinding better, take a book which is old and you no longer need it. Tear it apart slowly and see the inside. This way you will know the inner workings of binding a book.

Book are published, marketed, sold and distributed the same way they have been since the birth of the business. Certainly prices have changed dramatically, shipments are better coordinated, cover designs have evolved, merchandising has improved, but the basic business rules have not. Today there are still three general rules that apply to the business of publishing.

Rule number one: Every book is guaranteed to the bookseller, meaning, if they don’t sell at the bookstore, the publisher guarantees they’ll take them back. Returned books are as common place as paper and ink. Books have always been returnable. There are few if any retailers still in existence that will purchase newly published non-returnable books. The fallacy of this is that today, 2008, there are still some publishers that force their authors to pay several hundred dollars for the right to have their book considered returnable. Returnable books should be standard for any book contract. This is a clear example of how some publishers are not fluent in the ways of the business, and as a result they take advantage and prey on the pocketbooks of unsuspecting, and uninformed authors.

Rule number two: The business is about revenue, selling books. However there are two ways to look at revenue. For the Independent publishers and authors, revenue is when a book is sold and the money changes hands, that is a sale and represents the cleanest form of revenue. For the biggest publishers and all the others that want to compete in the marketplace, revenue is both gross and net. Gross is the number of copies multiplied by the cover price. This does not account for the returns that will eventually arrive at the publisher’s warehouse. The net price is what is left after all those books have been returned and counted. The big companies play with these numbers in a variety of ways and if you plan to compete in this market, you must be aware of this fact.

Rule number three: Bookseller real estate is for lease. When you walk into a bookstore and notice all those wonderful displays with multiple copies of the bestsellers, then you stroll down the aisles and look at the covers laying face up on the tables, keep in mind — this is not accidental. These retailers aren’t doing any favors. All of that space has been leased by the publisher of those titles for a specified period of time. In fact, virtually all of the floor space is for lease, if you can afford the price. Typically the front of the store is the most expensive real estate and the price goes down slightly as you move to the back of the store. Bottom line, retail space in major retailers, including bookstores and mass merchants, is for lease.