Printing and Binding a workbook?

Question

I have a small workbook that I have created to use for a class that I offer as part of my business... baby sign language. It is 45 pages long... it has some small basic clip art images and a colored border... I don't need anything fancy, but want to keep it professional looking so I want to skip out on the ring binders of all size, number and type... I got a quote at kinko's of $25 which is outrageous in my mind so I am putting it out there for some opinions and options...
Thanks for your help

Answer 1

Forget the idea of doing it yourself. If you think $25.00 is expensive consider the following:

- you will need o buy boards for covers and spine and must cut them perfectly. you will need to buy binding cover, need additional paper, need quality paste, will have to punch small holes at the edge of your workbook so that you can do preliminary string binding, glue the side to be binded, put heavy weight on top so that your workbook will come out flat, trim the 3 sides thereafter, glue the front and back covers plus spine perfectly to the binding cover, this with the assumption that you know what margins to provide, make sure that you do not have bubbles of air on your covers, wait for a little time to dry, attached the cover to your workbook, glue propely the fly pages, etc etc, etc.

Assuming you can do this, you'll still need to go to Kinko's to have text stamped on your cover and spine.

Why i know all these: I bind my own stuff, i have all the time in the world to do it, i know how to do it well and I have the complete tools to do it. if you were here in Manila, Philippines i'd do it for you free even if superior hard binding here is only 3 bucks.

Canvass more. I'm sure you'll find a place that will charge you less.

Answer 2

If that includes color copy and professional binding, it's not a bad quote. You can try other smaller print shops local to you to see if you can get the same for less. .

There's nothing I can think of that would look as professional as the spiral or plasting binding they can do. However, if you want to do-it-yourself, you can look under "binding" or "covers" at Staples.com and see if they have anything that strikes your fancy.