Help Center

Unless we are binding all copier paper and nothing else, page count can be difficult to estimate because you're probably binding a collection of different types of papers:  notebook, construction, copy paper, for example.  And then, you may also have things glued or painted on, which makes the paper thicker.  Therefore, we go by the thickness of your paper stack, rather than page count.  One 4everBound book will fit up to 1.5 inches of paper.  If you send us more than that, no worries!  We can always add books for you.

Our Custom 4everBound Book holds up to an inch and half stack of papers.  Stack your papers on the table, DO NOT press down on them, and use a ruler to measure the stack.  If it’s 1.5 inches or less, it will fit into our Prep and Ship Kit packaging.  

You have some options:

1. EDIT/PURGE:  Go back through your paper stack and re-edit.  Pull out any papers that are not critical.  We moms tend to over save.  We also don't recommend more than 1-2 paper plates per book.
2. WE MAY BE ABLE TO UPSIZE: Unless you’ve ordered the Custom Book, which is our largest size, you can upgrade to the largest size we have.  Just email us and tell us what height your paper stack is.  If it’s 1 1/2 inch or less we'll be able to make your book.  
3. ADD VOLUMES: Chronicle is our largest book size, so there is no upgrade available.  However, you can add a second volume.  Email us at orders@4everbound.com to add a second volume to your Chronicle Book.

It's your book, you can put in whatever papers you like and then have us title it accordingly for you. Instead of putting a Grade and Year on the second line of your cover, just tell us what you would like it to say, such as “My First Drawings” or “Short Stories”.  Or, you can put 1st - 5th Grade with the years if you prefer.  We will print whatever you type in for the first and second lines of your cover.

Please don’t feel like you have to get all the papers sorted all at once.  Get out a bin and leave it by the t.v., then do some sorting while you have some free time.  Try to pull out and sort at least one grade, then work on the rest later.  Hopefully, most of your papers are pretty much sorted by grade.  A helpful idea is to put some sticky notes on the table that say K  1  2  3  etc., then as you go through the papers, put them in the proper pile/grade.  Put the ones you’re not sure of in a separate pile, so you can revisit them later.  Once you have at least one grade (or time period that you want, like Preschool, in a pile, then go back and edit that pile down, if necessary.  Put the pages in the order you want them in the book, if that matters to you.  If you think you’re going to have too many pages, try removing the ones that really don’t seem as important anymore.  Once you have a final pile, it’s time to order a book, if you haven’t done so already.

Yes we can!  Please visit our Custom Projects page to get started!

We bind the ORIGINAL pages you send us, up to 8.5 x 11.  If your papers are over 8.5 x 11, we will trim them down and/or fold them to fit into the book.  If they are small or odd shaped, we will mount them onto additional paper or onto the backs of other papers.

Our books are designed to hold 8.5 x 11 papers.  If your papers are larger than that, we will trim and/or fold them to fit into the book.  If they are smaller or odd shaped, we will mount them, sometimes even using the blank backs of papers in your book.  Many pages are only one sided, so we use that space to make your book more interesting.

Important:  Please note that up to 1/2” of the left margin will not be visible once it is bound into the book, as it is within the Binding Margin. If you have very important writing in the Binding Margin, it may not all be visible to you after we bind the book.  We also can't have anything very stiff or rigid like cardboard, heavy card stock, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, buttons, etc., in the Binding Margin; we will need to remove it or trim it off.

This is common with construction and sketch/art paper, which is often 9 x12.  We can work with papers as large as 11 x 17, using a variety of techniques such as trimming, folding, a combination of trimming and folding. We include this service with your 1, 2, or 3 Book Kit, so you can just send it and let us worry about the rest.

The Binding Margin is the left hand ½ inch margin of your paper.  Up to ½ an inch of the left-hand margin will not be visible once the page is bound into your book, so if you have anything critical written or drawn there, you may not want to bind that page.  In addition, we may need to remove or trim off anything in the Binding Margin that interferes with binding your book, such as cotton balls, buttons, pipe cleaners, etc.  

Most types of papers will bind into the book, even laminate.  Pretty much anything flat and flexible will work:  Scrapbook, copy, notebook, card stock, manila, photo, laminated (if it’s not overly stiff), shiny, construction, handmade/pulpy papers, fabric, are all fine. 

We also offer pocket pages, photo pages, or clear archival sleeves to hold other items you may want to keep in your book. We bind those into the back of the book empty and you insert your items after your book arrives.

SIDENOTE:  Technically, we can absolutely bind a book containing all cardstock or all laminated pages or very thick manila but we don't love the final turnout.  Think of how the pages of a book naturally bend and flex when you turn the page...now imagine that entire book made of stiff/heavy cardstock paper or laminate.  So, we recommend some of that, but perhaps not an entire book of it. 

If we determine that a certain page won’t bind well in the book, because in our judgment it’s too delicate and we’re concerned it might tear, or it has macaroni glued to it, or there are jewels glued in the binding area, we will pull that page out and return it to you with your finished book.  If you’re not sure, just go ahead and send it, but put a sticky note on it where we can see it.  If we can bind it, we will.  If not, we’ll return it with your book.

Simply follow the instructions in your Prep and Ship Kit:

1.  Remove all staples, paper clips, spirals, plastic binding combs or any other materials that are holding pages together, like yarn or string, wherever possible.  This will help you get a better idea if you can fit more papers in your book or not, especially spirals and binding combs.

2.  Put the pages in the order you want them to appear in the book. If you’re more of a free spirit and don’t really care what order the pages are in, then however you send them to us is the order they will be in. We will honor the order of your pages and not rearrange them, UNLESS something is very stiff, we may move it toward the back of the book.  We try not to do that.

It’s an understandable thought, but if you package and address things properly and use a reliable service like US Priority Mail, your papers will get to us safely.  Almost every large e-commerce company in the United States uses the US Postal Service and it is incredibly reliable, especially when it is insured and tracked.  All Priority mailed packages include $50 insurance and tracking. Our headquarters is located in a secure residential/commercial area and we are open when packages are delivered, so your package will not be sitting outside.  It’s a very secure process.  If you ordered one of our Kits, you will receive a pre-paid shipping label as well.    We have been receiving papers and shipping books, thousands of them every year, and not one package has ever been lost.

We ship using extremely reliable USPS Priorityshipping with tracking and insurance, with a pre-printed address label with tracking barcodes.  You will be notified via email when your package is getting ready to ship, when it ships, when it’s out for delivery, and when it has been delivered.  You’ll know exactly where it is every step of the way.

We are very excited to get you your book back as fast as possible!  We want you to enjoy it right away and then we want you to share it with your friends and on your social media, so you can start earning referral points toward your next book (referral program coming soon).  So, we are highly motivated to get your book done quickly.  However, we know how important these papers are to you and we handle them with great care.  We inspect your papers for any issues that may cause problems with binding, look for staples or paperclips you may have missed, then we trim/fold/mount as needed.  Then we jog and straighten everything into a perfectly neat stack…and we mean perfectly even and straight. Your papers are inserted into the book cover by hand and your book is then run through the binding machine by hand.  The pages are heat set with a professional grade bookbinding adhesive glue that creates a permanent bond with the cover.  Then we let it cure (cool and set) for at least 24 hours.  After curing, we package it carefully to ship back.  We will notify you via email as soon as your book ready to ship and you’ll receive all tracking information so you’ll know when it is due to arrive.  Our goal is to accomplish all this within one week of receiving your papers, but we won’t risk any mistakes with your precious papers by rushing the process.  Therefore, we ask you to set your expectation to two weeks, and we hope to get it there sooner.  

CHRISTMAS / GRADUATION RUSH:  December and May/June are our busiest months.  If you have a deadline to get your back back to give as a gift during  we strongly suggest getting your papers to us at least 4 weeks ahead of time.  We do hire additional help during our busy season but again, everything is done by hand.  In addition, mail slows down in December...so the earlier we get your project, the earlier we can get it out.  We like to have all Christmas orders shipped no later than December 15th.

RUSH DEADLINES:  Things happen, we get it.  If you need a book completed and shipped in less than two weeks, chances are good we can meet that deadline for you but we will need to charge a rush fee, depending on the scope of the work.  Please email orders@4everbound.com and let's talk.  We've never missed a deadline yet!

If we can bind it, we can make it for you.  We've also made books for Bridal Showers, Weddings, Milestone Events, Baby Showers, Retirement, Graduation, Memorials, Cards and Letters, Family Recipes, Family Ancestry, Short Stories and Poems.  Basic Training and Deployment letters, Annual Family Christmas Letters, Love Letters..  We've done collections of letters and documents as far back as 1897, including World War I and II.  We made a book with all the racing bibs a runner/cyclist had collected from all her races over the years.   As we grow, we will begin to release those options into our store, but if you have an idea now, we are more than happy to make it happen for you.  One woman asked us to bind a book with all the letters she saved while her husband was deployed during the war.   A great gift for Grandparents, especially for Christmas or Chanukah, is to have your children draw pictures and write letters or stories, then we bind it all together in a book to give them.  Or set aside a portion of their work throughout the year to make a book just for Grandma.  Perhaps you have a collection of Mother’s or Father’s Day cards you’ve been saving, especially the handmade ones.  A great way to turn them into a keepsake is to create a book of just clear plastic sleeves, then you can open the cards and insert them into the sleeves, making it easy to flip through and read them.   How about a white book for First Holy Communion, with her name and year, then some lovely blank paper inside that all her friends and family can write in during the celebration?  The same idea would be wonderful for Baptisms, Weddings, Showers, Birthdays, 50^th Anniversary, Retirement, etc.  We recently made a Memorial Book for a woman who was very active in her church.  Many church members wrote letters describing how much she meant to them, then we bound those letters into a book and it was presented to the family.   Something similar could be done for couples about to be married or about to have their first baby.  Another young man has been extensively researching his family tree through Ancestry.com and he wants us to make him a book of all the family documents and letters he has found.   Somebody else has a mishmash of old letters, family stories, recipes, deployment papers, important documents from beloved family now deceased.  We’re going to put it all together in a book so it’s all preserved in one place where people can actually take it down off the shelf and read through it all.  So, while 4everBound has kicked off with a focus on children’s school and artwork because we know there is a huge need out there, we’re just as ready to bind pretty much whatever special papers you have saved.  Just email your idea to info@4everbound.com and let us create something custom for you.

Photos:  you can mount them onto another piece of paper and then we bind that in for you. Remember the 1/2 inch on the left is inside the Binding Margin and won't be visible, plus it will also make the page stiffer.  We also offer an Archival Photo Sleeve that holds four 4x6 photos, plus a few extra smaller spaces. Another option is for you to put some blank pages in your stack of papers when you send it to us.  Those blank pages will be bound into your book and then when you get your book back, you can mount your photos.  (please make a note that you left those blank pages in there intentionally)

Greeting cards/Post cards:  We can bind that into the book using a proprietary "hinge" system, so the card will "flip" easily and can still be opened.  We charge a $5 flat fee plus $1.00 per card for this service, as it requires extra materials and labor.  We can invoice you after we receive your package and have counted your cards for you.  The number of cards you add may also increase the thickness of your book, requiring an upsize for an additional fee. See UPSIZING for more details.  We also offer a Pocket Divider and a Clear Archival Sleeve for holding cards and other items.  We bind those into the back of the book and you can add whatever you like to them after you receive your book.

Other things:  You can also glue/tape things to the backs of your other pages, as many school assignments or art pages are one-sided, so there is usually a lot of blank space in the book.  It’s up to your level of creativity.