Finally finished my first zine after fighting with the binding for 3 days

I spent way too long trying to figure out saddle stitching with a long arm stapler. Thought I could just use a regular one but the pages kept sliding and the staples looked awful. After like 6 failed attempts I went to the craft store and grabbed a cheap long reach stapler for $15. Took me another hour to get the hang of folding the paper so the edges lined up. Ended up making 20 copies of my little poetry zine with some collaged covers. It's nothing groundbreaking but they actually look like a real zine. Has anyone else struggled with a simple step that took way longer than it should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_carr9d ago

Wait, you actually spent $15 on a stapler for a zine? That's wild to me. I've always just used a regular stapler and folded the pages one at a time, pressing hard on a table to get the staple to bend right. It takes patience but it's free and I've never had a problem with pages sliding that bad. You don't think maybe the collaged covers and folded paper were the messy bits, not the stapler?

stellat879d ago

Hear you on that, honestly the folding and pressing method does work if you're patient. I think sometimes we just overthink the process (guilty as charged).