Paper Reconsidered

I’ve been working on a series of Novelettes that will soon be available for purchase on the website (and probably Etsy too). They are small books that truly will fit in your pocket. They measure 3.5″ x 5″. I absolutely love the size and the format. Most of these books will be in the 14,000-20,000-word range. They are inspired by Dime Novels. Only the Novelettes are a bit longer and aren’t a scam like the Dime Novels were.

That brings me to paper. I’ve been cutting down writing pads for the books. I still love the paper, but it tends to jam in the printer, wrinkle slightly from the heat of fuser in my laser printer and compress too much when cutting, resulting in unsatisfactory spines. Other than that, it’s great. I have to jump through all sorts of hoops just to get a single good cut. Not good if I have to bind a big lot of books. So I have gone to some nice 24-lb. laser paper that still looks good, is thick enough that it doesn’t bleed through when duplexing, and—most importantly—cuts very nicely.

After all this time, maybe the answer to my paper search has been right under my nose. It seems as if I should be able to draw some Zen Buddhist conclusion from this, but I got nothin’.