How to make a dummy book for a center-bound book

When you are ready to put a book together, especially a center-bound book, you need to make sure all of its pages will fit together the way you want them. Rather than working with actual pages, you can practice arranging the pages and putting the book together with small pieces of paper. The model you make is called a dummy book.

Each small piece of paper will be a diagram of which book pages will be printed on each large piece of paper. The dummy book will also show you how the pages will fit together to make the real book.

Here are the materials needed to make a dummy book for a center-bound book:

• Small, uniform pieces of scrap paper
• Staples

1. Determine the number of pages you will need for the book you are making.
2. Divide the number by four.
3. Take that number of pieces of paper.
4. Put them in a stack.
5. Fold them in half like a little book.
6. Put a staple in the middle to hold it together.
7. Write on each page what is going to be there.

   Example:

   Title page Preface Blank Page number

8. Check that odd numbers are on the right, and even numbers are on the left.
9. Take the staple out to see the arrangement of each set of four pages.

Here is an example of a dummy book:

• Dummy book

• Task module: How to make a dummy book for a center-bound book
• In task module: Arranging the pages of a center-bound book
• In task module: Putting together a book, by Anne Klaassens (contributor), Robin Rempel (contributor), Trudy K. Stewart (contributor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Glenys Waters (contributor), and Diane Wroge (contributor)
• In task module: Producing printed materials, by Anne Klaassens (contributor), Robin Rempel (contributor), Trudy K. Stewart (general editor, contributor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Glenys Waters (contributor), Diane Wroge (contributor), and Adelle R. Walter (illustrator)
• In task module: Developing instructional materials, by Trudy K. Stewart, Leah B. Walter (contributor), and Trudi C. Hunt (contributor)
• In task module: Developing an instructional program, by Kenneth A. Boothe (contributor), Patricia M. Davis (contributor), Trudy K. Stewart (general editor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Glenys Waters (contributor), and Adelle R. Walter (illustrator)
• In task module: Implementing a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler)
• In modular book: Implement a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler) and Leah B. Walter (compiler)
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 8 December 1998

© 1999 SIL International