About

Hello, I am Jo. Nice to meet you!

Age: 42

Background: I consider myself a fandom oldie but not quite elder. I write fic on very rare occasions but I do podfic and now I am a fairly new fanbinder. You can find my podfic and other fandom stuff at my personal journal, josilverdragon.dreamwidth.org.

I founded Silver Dragon Press as means of making physical editions of fanfiction that I love. When I first joined fandom about 20 years ago, I remember wishing I could have physical versions because I wanted to be able to read offline. Now in this era of my fandom experience, I have learned to bind books and will do so as long as it brings me joy. To see what I am currently working on, please go to Currently Binding. To see what I have previously posted and the links to the individual postings, please go to my Library.


AUTHORS: Welcome! If you have wandered here, it likely means I chose to bind your fic. I do so because I love your work so much that I wanted to have a physical manifestation of it in my personal library. First and foremost, I make no profit off of any requests people make from my library or commissions I may receive in the future. I do this for love of the fanfiction. Any cost associated with commissions or requests is solely for shipping and/or materials.

If I have not already offered it to you, I would love to gift you a copy. Please reach out to me via my email, silverdragonpress@gmail.com.

ARTISTS: You worked just as hard as the author! I would love to gift you a copy of the work, if possible. Just reach out to me via email.

READERS: I do not take commissions at this time but you may request a copy of fic already in my Library. I do charge for shipping, so please be aware.

Also, if you have any fic recs, I'd love to have them. Who knows, it may end up in my Library list one day :D

Requests and Commissions

At this time, I do not offer commissions. However you may request a copy of a fic that I have in my Library.

What does this entail?
If you’re reading this and you think there’s a significant chance you would ever want to re-home your books, please don’t request from me. There are plenty of other binders who would be happy to make you a book, I encourage you to reach out to them.
You will be expected to pay for shipping. I will ship internationally, but expect that the cost will not be inexpensive.
It will not be done right away, as I have a works that are pending or in process already, but I will keep you updated on when it will be completed.

Additional things that you agree to when making a request:

You may give the book away to a friend, for free. No public giveaways.
If for any reason you wish to re-home your book, please contact me. I will be happy to help facilitate this, either by a 1-to-1 transaction between you and another fan for shipping costs only, or by taking the book back and re-homing it myself. I will pay for the shipping to get it back.
If there is something wrong with the book, please DM or email me. Something actually wrong with the book. It’s handbound, so it’s never going to look like a store-bought, mass-printed book. If you are looking for something that looks like a mass-printed book, please do not make a request from me in the first place.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, POST ANY OF MY BOOKS FOR SALE ON ANY WEBSITE. If you do and I find out, you will be blacklisted. And I will notify any other binders that I know or are in the community I belong to. Moving forward all of my books will have "not for re-sale" on the faux copyright page.

If you are here because you bought a book that I bound off of a website, or you see it listed anywhere, please let me know. I promise you that I will not be upset with you, as you’re likely reading this page now going, “uh oh!” It’s definitely not your fault, but the fault of scammers and re-sellers, and I’d like to blacklist as many of them as possible so please, reach out and let me know.

Again, I reiterate, if you know upfront that this is a fad item for you or you want something that looks mass-printed, please don’t commission me. There are plenty of other binders who will make you a book, and who feel differently, but for me personally, this is a hobby. I'm not a bookstore, and I don’t need or want to “sell” you a book. In fact, if you’ll notice, nowhere on any of my pages do I use the words “sell” or “purchase” or “product” in regards to the actual commissioned books. To me, this isn’t a product for consumption; each book is made with care, dedication, and a lot of passion. And I only want to bind for people who share in that.

Disclaimer

I make no profit off of binding fanfiction whatsoever. It is illegal and unethical and disrespectful to the authors who wrote them and the fanartists who created illustrations for them.

This is something that I do purely for the love of fandom and for the opportunity to create something physical to gift my friends and those people in fandom who have provided me comfort and happiness throughout the years. I believe in the gift economy of fandom. I love that I get to create and have a physical copy of the fanfiction I have loved over the years. All of the works that I bind, I believe they are just as good (if not BETTER) than most published books.

NO TWO BOOKS ARE THE SAME

I have a full-time job, family, and friends. I'm not a professional, I'm a crafter. I'm crafting, me, myself, & I, in my bedroom. I doubt any of my books will ever be perfect, but they'll be beautiful and real, and that's enough for me. Please appreciate my art for what it is, and not what it lacks.

I AM A HOBBYIST

Like I said, I have a full-time job and a life! I will try to be as prompt as I can with my binding, and provide reasonable updates as I go, but life happens. If any of my work is ever delayed, please be understanding.

I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SAY NO

In a similar vein to all of the above, I do this for fun. The minute it becomes not-fun, I know I'm doing it wrong.

IF YOU DO NOT LISTEN TO MY TERMS, I WILL IGNORE YOU

I'm very lucky in that I've never had anyone be rude to me, so this is a pre-emptive strike! I'm not trying to be mean, but if the commissions say they are closed, if the fic you are asking after is one I've said I won't be binding, etc etc, I will ignore you. This is not a business, this is not a bookstore; I am one human person offering up my labors simply for the joy of doing so. Be kind, be considerate, and let's keep the party going.

As you can see, this is an amendment to the above statement:

If you re-sell my books, you will be blacklisted, and I will let other binders know I have blacklisted you for this reason.

Please check out the Requests and Commissions page for more information on how to properly re-home books, should the need arise.

FAQs

Will you ever do commissions?

At this time, no. I am still a fairly new binder and I don't feel like I am up to the task. It may change in the future, but at this time - no. You can request a copy of from Library, but please read the Requests and Commissions page for more information.

What is the timeline for a request to be completed?

There's no set timeline! Please check out my Dreamwidth, Twitter, or Tumblr for updates. Unfortunately, I can't set a timeline due to RL responsibilities and life affecting my free time.

Do you ship to [Country]?

Anywhere within the US is a yes; prices will vary outside of that, but that's something we can work out when you make a request.

Will you send me the typeset file of [Title] so I can bind it myself?

I'm sorry but no. This is to protect the author and myself in case someone decides they want to try and use it for a profit or use it to bind via another method, like Lulu. This is considered illegal and I would prefer not to mess with that side of things.

Can I recommend you a fic in hopes that you'll like it enough to bind it?

Yeah, please do! If I love it enough, I'll put it on my list and notify you when I have it typeset.

You're not making a profit?

No, and any fanbinder charging exorbitant prices, steer clear of them. It's illegal, not to mention totally unethical! I also have a full-time job, I don't need or want to.

Do you have a word count limit on fics you will bind?

Nope! I do have a page limit though, before the fic is broken into multiple volumes - which would be 500 pages.

Why is your maximum page limit for a volume 500 pages?

The short answer is, because that's what I'm confident binding. In my opinion, page counts higher than 500 have spine stablity issues - and keep in mind, I'm talking about handbound books here - I don't have the tools to produce the 1000+ page Stephen King novels a factory could, etc. If I can't confidently say the book will last because I shoved 800 pages into one volume, I'm not going to make that book.

This may mean that one fic spans across multiple volumes; I also try to make the volumes as even as possible; i.e., Manacled being split into four volumes instead of the atypical three volumes; because I didn't want a 600 page middle volume. Again, other binders may do things differently; if you prefer their methods, I would reach out to them.

Why does re-selling your books on a website earn a spot on your blacklist?

This is how the gift economy works: What I'm giving to you is worth more than what I'm actually charging for it. The actual price of a $95 book: materials + shipping + labor = a $1,300 book, by conventional standards, using my day job rate. My commission model works within the gift economy because it's beneficial for all; I get to make books and hone my craft without breaking the bank, and the tradeoff is, I don't get to keep all the books I make. The commissioner gets to have their favorite fic handcrafted with attention and detail and passion. We share in the joy of fandom, together, and this joy is what makes up the $1,205 difference.

I want to make it clear that I don't need to do this, re, take commissions period. I could just bind for myself and authors I love and be perfectly content. But I like participating in the gift economy of fandom in this way.

When you re-sell my books, this breaks down. It is no longer a 1-to-1 transaction within the confines of the gift economy; you commodify my work, which was never my intention. The buyer has no way of verifying that the price the book is listed for is the actual cost I charged for it, that cost being solely materials and shipping, aside from speaking with me directly. I try really hard to ensure what I'm doing here is ethical. I have spreadsheets and spreadsheets and yes, even more spreadsheets, dedicated to figuring out materials costs and tracking what I'm doing. When you re-sell, they have no way to verify the ethics or participate in the gift economy themselves.

The alternative to this is listed in detail on my commissions page; but if you reach out to me, I can help you to re-home the book, or take it back myself. I won't be upset with you; I would much, much rather you give the book back to me than sell it online.

Is there any way to get off the blacklist?

No.

Seriously, no. You start off with a certain amount of trust, and once you abuse that trust, it's over. What's worse than selling my books? Selling my books twice because I was dumb enough to let you.