The most popular way to bind a chapbook is to use staples. There’s no need to go out and buy fancy equipment. Using this handy technique, you can bind even oddly sized chapbooks using a standard stapler.
Staple-binding a chapbook, step by step
Saddle-stapling is the classic chapbook binding: two or three staples down the center fold. Here is the way I do it.
- Your printed pages, in order, plus a cover sheet.
- A long-arm stapler, or a regular stapler and a bit of tape.
- A bone folder or the back of a spoon for a crisp fold.
- Stack the sheets in reading order with the cover on top, all edges lined up. Tap them square on a table.
- Fold the whole stack in half together and run a bone folder along the crease so it sits flat.
- Open the stack flat at the center. With a long-arm stapler, place two or three staples along the fold, one near the top, one near the bottom, one in the middle for taller booklets.
- Press the staple legs down flat on the inside so nothing catches a finger.
No long-arm stapler? Open the flat stack, mark where each staple goes, and staple through from the outside into a soft surface like a stack of cardboard or an eraser, so the legs punch through. Then fold the legs down by hand. It sounds fiddly, but after two or three booklets it’s quick.
Keep your page count on a multiple of four so the fold works, which the format guide explains. For the whole process from manuscript to finished booklet, see how to make a chapbook. Prefer a stitched spine? Try hand-sewing instead.