Printing copies of your book for friends/family?

[QuoVadimus]

Was wanting to get some suggestions and ideas from you guys who are much more experienced in the whole writing thing than I am.

I wanted to print out some copies to mail to some close friends and family, however I wanted to be able to make it look nice.  I can't afford to go hogwild and bind them and have it clothed in virgin unicorn skin or anything like THAT, but I wanted it to at least look presentable and nice.

I had in my mind of finding some type of nice binder/folder type thing that would hold those page protectors in a three ring folder type deal where I could put the printed pages in those and whatnot.

Now I think about it and I'm not sure exactly what would look the best (for not a whole ton of money).

Have you all done anything like that?  how did you go about it?  What type of paper did you print it on (stock/size/weight/that type of thing)?

Thanks a lot!

[E. S. Lark]

To be honest, printing your own book and paying for the supplies will cost more when compared to buying printed copies from Createspace. They have a cover creator you can use to build a cover, and you can upload your word document for the interior of your book. Then, you order a proof to make sure everything looks good. Once you approve your proof, you can either buy copies to give away or tell your family and friends where they can get a copy. Of course, if you start working on it now, they might not be ready until after x-mas.

You could always try taking your files to Kinkos or a local printing shop and see if they can do something for you. I just don't want to see you putting out the funds for binders, reams of paper and a ton of ink. Not to mention the possibility of having to fight paper jams and hole-punching all those pages. Then again, I did it for years before I knew I could do it online.

[ML Hamilton]

I agree with E.S. I took my first book to Kinkos to copy for my brother and it cost me nearly $30. I would take a look at CreateSpace too.

[QuoVadimus]

Yeah my book is about 40 pages or so (short story collection) and the cover is already done (my avatar here).

Was planning on taking it next door to a printing place to run off copies.  Wasn't even going to THINK about printing it myself here. lol.

Will check out Createspace though.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[George Berger]

You might want to look at using Lulu. Their prices aren't as good as CreateSpace, and their book quality is almost always inferior, but they don't require you to buy proofs, and will do stapled or spiral-bound booklets with low page counts, which might work out better than using CS.

[BrianKittrell]

I make family and friends buy copies if they want them. It's not heartless or cold; do I walk into their business and demand free stuff? /rant

lol I had to mention it. Just like anywhere else, I just have to open my big mouth and give opinions.

Beyond that, if you want to give out gift copies, I'd do CreateSpace or (if you want hardcovers) Lulu. Lulu is a little more expensive, but CreateSpace doesn't do hardcovers.

[BrianKittrell]

You might want to look at using Lulu. Their prices aren't as good as CreateSpace, and their book quality is almost always inferior, but they don't require you to buy proofs, and will do stapled or spiral-bound booklets with low page counts, which might work out better than using CS.

CS, I thought, lets you waive the proof now.