In retrospect...

Of course my first two book projects featured a lot of mistakes. (Finished pictures of the second one are coming, I promise. It's just...there's this thing my camera does where it sucks...)

Anyway, I thought it would be good to go over the things I screwed up and will try to fix for next time. Learning curve, go!

The LotR Poetry Book

Find new cords for the spine.  The hemp yarn I used felt like the right strength and thickness, but its lumpy, tangled fibers were frustrating to fray out for pasting onto the cover boards.  The yarn was also dyed, so wet glue picked up the color and became a vessel for blue stains all over my pages.  I need to find undyed cord with straight, uniform fibers.

Stitch on handmade headbands.  The book looks unfinished without a headband, and no place near me sells the pre-made strips.  I did put a headband on the journal project, but see my comments there; it still needs work.

Allow room for a French groove.  Like headbands, the French groove and raised shoulders next to the spine, which seem to result from a combination of text block backing and careful cover board placement, add a touch of finish and class to the book.  Next time, I'll place the cover boards a little further from the spine to leave room for the groove; but see also this post explaining how to achieve the groove with a split coverboard.

Find an appropriate cloth for the spine.  The red paper I found for the covers is absolutely perfect, both in its vibrant crimson hue and its impressed cloth texture, but the black jeans material on the spine drops the ball.  It's too thick, for one thing, so the unshapely headcap looks even worse with cloth puckering at the corners.  For another, the dense weave picks up whatever dandruff and fluff comes its way.  Lesson learned; just get proper book cloth, available from places like Hollander's, or at least use something thin.

Be glue-conscious.  As careful as I was, it wasn't enough...I got a huge smudge all over the spine cloth, and a few flecks on the title page.  Wax paper and EXTREME caution are required when handling glue.

Embellish the content. The published LotR books universally feature a rich tradition of illustrations and accents from Tolkien's hand. Mine uses only his monogram on the cover, and a very simple three-circle motif on the section headers. Normally I espouse minimalism, BUT the title page, bland as it is, would benefit from an ornament like this Eye of Sauron motif.  Basically, don't under-decorate; the book needs some complexity, especially to fit into a wider tradition.

Learn to hot-stamp gold leaf.  The monogram is already getting scratched, so the adhesive in the kit I bought is under suspicion.  I may have to saw an aluminum stamp and try the advice in this wonderful, illustrated tutorial.

The Tome

Pay attention to paper grain.  This didn't occur to me until I found admonitions published in various tutorials.  Apparently the book goes together much better when the paper grain—of the pages, the cover board, covering material, endpapers, everything—runs vertically.  With this project, I didn't have much wiggle room; to use the full extent of my ledger-size paper, I had no choice but to fold my paper a certain way.  In the future, I'll tend to prefer square or oversize sheets which can be oriented as necessary to suit grain.

Sewing thread is no good for headbands.  Well, unless maybe it's really thick.  Waxed thread is also preferable, else the fibers will start to fray out and look messy.

Use low relief for raising a design under leather.  Even the edge of my kraft-paper hinge was visible through the leather, whereas too high of a relief makes it VERY difficult to mold the leather properly around the design.  A thin applique (only a few paper-widths) is quite sufficient to raise a design under leather; consider this journal, where the edges of the applique seem also to be tapered.  (A higher relief for bands on the spine is fine, as no detail is at risk.)

Not really a mistake, but something I learned on this one: Flour paste is basically awesome.  I still used a lot of PVA glue, which sets more quickly, but flour paste is nice when pasting paper to paper.  It's also ridiculous and fun to see how food becomes a useful structural component of a book.

So, that's all for now.  I'm not really sure what my next project will be, but I've got a lot of materials on hand now.  I'll probably make a journal or a rebound trade paperback, as those are the most marketable options.