If you’re here because you searched for handmade Kindle sleeves UK, handbound classic novels, bookbinding shop UK, printable typesets for bookbinders, or bookish gifts for readers, then hello. Welcome. I am a flagrant and frequent abuser of SEO key words. Sue me.
Today’s update from the medieval craft dungeon is less “look at this new product” and more “small business owner attempts to maintain perspective.”
On Quiet Weeks in a Small Handmade Business
I haven’t sold anything in a while.
Not catastrophically long, but I am in the midst of one of those quieter stretches that every small handmade business eventually runs into, especially when you make fairly niche things that lend themselves better to gifting than anything else. Roll on Q4, please and thank you.
Obviously my brain handled this very normally, by which I mean I briefly considered abandoning society and becoming a shepherd. I’ve always liked sheep.
But then I remembered something important: if you’d told me this time last year that I would have an actual online shop full of handmade bookish items, I genuinely wouldn’t have believed you.
The Shop Exists. That’s Actually Wild.
A year ago, this was mostly ideas.
Now there are:
- Handmade Kindle sleeves
- Handbound classic novels
- Printable typesets for bookbinders
- Actual customers
- Packaging supplies slowly overtaking my home
- An alarming quantity of bookcloth scraps
There is a whole real-life bookish small business here now. A slightly chaotic one, admittedly. But still.
When you’re in the middle of trying to grow a handmade business UK, it’s very easy to only look at what hasn’t happened yet. More sales. Bigger audience. Better reach. Faster growth.
Meanwhile Past You would probably be stunned you got this far at all.
The Book Idea Is Finally Moving
In less economically stressful news: I’m finally making good progress on a book idea I’ve been carrying around in my head for ages.
Which is both exciting and slightly inconvenient, because apparently running a bookbinding shop, making handmade literary gifts, designing printable typesets, and attempting to write an actual book all use the exact same section of the brain. Rude, honestly.
Still, it feels good to be properly working on something again instead of just circling it like a Victorian ghost.
I don’t want to say too much about it yet because I’m superstitious in the way all creative people eventually become. But there are notes. There are scenes. There is momentum. We’re moving. At last.
Handmade Things Take Time (Unfortunately)
One thing I am slowly learning is that both creative projects and small handmade businesses move far more slowly than the internet would like you to believe.
A handbound book takes time.
A good Kindle sleeve design takes time.
Writing takes time.
Finding your people takes time.
And sometimes growth looks less like a dramatic success montage (cue the music) and more like continuing despite everything feeling a bit uncertain. Very medieval pilgrimage energy. Don’t you love it when a theme comes together?
For Readers, Makers, and Tired Creative People
If you’re someone who follows along for the bookbinding, the handmade Kindle sleeves, the printable bookbinding typesets, or just the general atmosphere of “creative person trying their best,” thank you.
The shop is still here. I’m still making things. The book is finally happening. And if last year’s version of me could see all this, she’d be absolutely delighted.
Also overwhelmed by the amount of packaging I have laying around. But delighted nonetheless.
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