Many years after my first binding of the Xena fan fiction story "The Conqueror Series" by the late LJ Maas, I was asked to do another one, this time as a 3-book set.  I usually bind blank books, in part because the page layout, paper concerns, and printing of pages can be more than some customers want to deal with.  However this customer was exceptional and sent me electronic files of the pages laid out perfectly for priting.  I then sent the files to a local printer that I trust and she created the printed pages.

A set like this would cost around $850.  This DOES NOT include the cost of printing the pages of the book.  Printing costs on this project were around $130.

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My customer wanted some metal elements on these books and we decided to create a look inspired by the chained libraries of Europe (popular from the Middle Ages through the 18th century).  In a chained library, the books were chained to the shelf for security.  Here, the 3 books in the series are chained to eachother.  The sterling silver chain is attached to a silver ring that goes through the leather at the top of each spine.  Books #1 and #3 in the series have hand-fabricated sterling silver s-hook clasps that I made.  Both of these attach to the ring at the top of book #2.  The titles, volume numbers, and author's name are all stamped justified low on the spine so that they can still be read below the hanging chains.

Each book in the series has a very different cover design.  The cover of each book  consists mainly of black pigskin leather.  Each book in the series also has a Greek border decoration stamped on the back cover in pewter with the name of the series in silver below it.
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Book #1 has a raised "X and G" design (with an "X" that is a modified version of the Xena logo) with silver and gold foil leafing and some silver hot foil stamped lettering.

Book #2 has an inset design of Gabrielle's fighting staff made with several different types of goatskin along with some hair-on cowhide for the fur at the top and some cotton cord wrapping.  This book also has a title stamped in silver.

Book #3 has an inset design of a lion's head sword that is loosely based on the description of a sword the story.  This sword is made up of many different types of leather including dark gray goatskin, slightly metallic mottled pigskin, blue and gray pigsuede wrapping the hilt, and even some electric blue frog skin (yes, it's the tanned and colored skin from an actual frog; I can't imagine why someone would take the time to tan the skin of such a small animal!) as the "jewels" on the guard.  The lion's head sword in the story has sapphires for eyes.  The lion's head pommel on this cover has lab-grown star sapphires for eyes.  The title is stamped in silver.

Though each book in this set has a different cover, there are enough elements that are the same that tie them together as a set (and the fact that they're chained together leaves little doubt they are a set).  Thanks to my customer for the challenge on these!  Especailly that lion's head sword hilt!