You mean write by hand, don't you? I still write by hand but rarely do so in expensive journals because it's too intimidating. I think it's best to market them as gifts. People will buy them for friends they know love to write (who will then be too imtimidated to use them). An interesting dilemma, don't you think. Especially since handmade books are so wonderful. There must be some way around this...

I often ask friends and strangers how much they think a particular book of mine is worth, just out of curiousity. usually they tell me anywhere from $3 to $10, never more unless they make books themselves.
This is for coptic bound journals that take me at least an hour to make.
I think that in an age of industry, a hand-made book doesn't stand a chance as a profitable commodity unless it is presented as 'fine' art, in which case you are selling to art collectors, not at craft fairs.
Perhaps there is another way to support yourself with your books without selling them...teaching book binding can pay much better and then you are empowering producers instead of consumers.
If you are selling journals, you're in competition with all the companies that use machines, and I wouldn't want to go up against them.

i'm one of those (in the minority I think) people who still write by hand in sketchbooks and "journals". I've kept a journal (not a diary, but more like an idea book, sketchbook, place to keep notes, lists, addresses, thoughts -- a place to cram all the stuff I find in my going-about) since I was around 14. So it's been alot of years -- more than 30 anyway. I have boxes and an old suitcase crammed with my journals. That's not counting my actual sketchbooks. But my handwriting is getting worse as I get older, and sometimes I can hardly read it myself. I pity my descendants who might be trying to puzzle out (after I'm dead) what the heck I was writing ...

anyway, handmade books ... I rarely buy them. I have bought a few. the ones I've used have mostly been given to me by friends. Gabe made me a couple. I love those. They're not "precious" -- which is what I think Lori was talking about when she said sometimes the really nice ones are intimidating, though the ones Gabe makes are really artistic and I love them. I know what she means about being intimidated. I used to be that way everytime I got a new journal or sketchbook - even the mass produced ones. There are ways to trick yourself into starting to write in a brand new beautifully bound journal. Maybe you could offer suggestions to people at the craft fairs on some of those tricks. One of the simplest ways I trick myself is to open the creamy new book -- and flip to about the 5th or 6th page from the front and just start with any old thing. I tell myself I'll go back and put "important" stuff in the first few pages when I have something important to add ... and by the time I'm halfway through the book, it doesn't matter what goes in those first pages. Weird, I know ...

I liked the other suggestion to have examples of ways to use your handmade books other than for writing. I bet most people do their writing now on computers and don't think any farther than "diary" when they see a handbound journal-type of book. The trouble with writing exclusively on computers is: what if your computer dies? (mine just croaked last week - I'm using my son's laptop temporarily) and you hadn't backed stuff up? really bad. Or what if you're out in the wilderness and want to write but forgot how to because all your fingers kn ow how to do anymore is click the keys?

I agree with Gabe that teaching book binding might be a way to earn a living using your skills and creativity. Doing demonstrations at the craft fair, of things like writing with a fountain pen (wow that's a fossil throwback in the age of computers!) and letting people try the fountain pen on really good quality paper - that's enough to get their attention and hopefully their dollars. but really, I wouldn't want to compete with not only machines that bind journals -- but those machines are in foreign countries where workers are paid pennies.

Handmade books would be in my personal top 5 things to receive as a gift. Trading handmade books might be a good idea ... and giving them as gifts is always cool, especially if you give them with maybe a hand-written list of ways to use your books and maybe with a really nice fountain pen.

I'm curious how your bookbinding goes in the future. Hope we hear back from you.
Maureen

I love books and I love my journals even more. I too worry that eventually the written word will be lost to the computer age. Honestly, I can't imagine going without my computer and everything that is a part of that. Yet, I continue to occasionally handwrite family and friends because it tends to feel much more personal.

I am writing a book, and I do almost all that writing on the computer. Yet, I write in my journal once or twice a week by hand. This was a conscious decision to bring a bit of handwriting back into my life. I find that I can see my moods very clearly by my handwriting, so I can read an entry from a year ago and see if I was stressed out, calm, focused, etc.

Yes, I still write. :-)

I know Moleskine notebooks are very popular to write in. I think handmade books are seen as too nice to write in i.e., ruin. Handmade books are art and many people are probably afraid to write in them. But, they should buy them ; )

I have noticed that the older I get the less time I take to write things down. People used to compliment me on my neat writing and I think now they would not do that. My writing is legible but, not so much...neat!

Have you tried to sell your art online?