How To Make Tiny Books!!!

Self-publishing made FUN

A couple of weeks ago we made a stonking great discovery: if you draw a grid on an A4 sheet you can fold and divide it into a tiny book! And to go one further, you can then scan it and do a print-run to share it with everyone you know! It’s super easy to do. Here’s how:

Option 1: Manual

1. Print this template grid on A4 (double sided).
2. Fill out both sides with pens, pencils, paints — whatever you like!
3. Scan both sides and combine into one pdf using the function Edit>Insert> Page from File. You now have a digital copy of your tiny book.
4. Print and share!

Option 2: Digital

1. Download this 4x6 template grid (jpg image).
2. Fill out template with whatever text / images / content you like. On a Mac this can be as simple as opening the image on Preview and using the inbuilt editing functions there. Use Scribus (free) for more advanced editing.
3. Print and share!

Get over to The Tiny Book Library (Google Drive Folder) where you will find a growing stash of tiny books that you can download and print yourself, all for free.

Create and upload your own, and let’s see what appears there over the coming months :)

It’s something about tiny books’ extreme accessibility, reproducibility, and portability (and sheer cuteness) that makes the whole thing feel like it has the potential for a crowdsourced revolution in gift-economy micro-self-publishing. One can dream.

Happy co-creating!