The Thrilling Paperweight Saga: How Many Pounds Does Your Book Need to Weigh?

You know you’re in deep when you’re standing in your kitchen at 10 p.m., holding a sheet of printer paper in one hand, flipping it like a pancake, asking your husband, “Does this feel more like 50lb or 80lb to you?”

(All because This Isn’t the Life I Prayed For: A Study of the Book of Job deserves to be printed on paper that doesn’t feel like a grocery receipt.)

He gives you a look — the one that says he both loves you and deeply regrets asking how your day was going.

It turns out that publishing a book isn’t just about pouring your soul onto the page — it’s about deciding what kind of page your soul should be poured onto. Glossy? Matte? 50lb? 70lb? 80lb with a nice opacity? Did you know paper has opacity? I didn’t. I thought that was just an adjective for my personality on bad days.

At first, I thought, “Oh, this’ll be simple.” Famous last words.

Apparently, in the big, wide world of printing, “pound” doesn’t mean weight the way you think it does. It’s not how much your book weighs when you inevitably drop it on your face reading in bed. It’s how much 500 sheets of that paper weigh before they trim it down to the size you actually need.

So there I was, Googling things like, “What paper weight makes me look like I have my life together?” and “Is 70lb paper fancy enough for a devotional, or does it scream ‘office memo’?”

There are whole forums — forums, y’all — full of people arguing over whether 60lb text is the sweet spot or if you should splurge for 80lb to avoid “show-through.” What is “show-through”? It’s when your heartfelt words peek through from the other side like a ghost of your good intentions.

I ordered samples. I felt them. I squinted at them under every lightbulb in my house like some demented papermancer. I even sniffed them. (Don’t judge. If you know, you know.)

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

50lb: Budget-friendly, but maybe too thin for lots of color photos or heavy ink.

60lb: Nice middle ground if you’re printing a novel with no illustrations.

70lb: Good for devotional workbooks, full-color pages, or if you’re just a little extra (hi).

80lb: The Cadillac of paper. Thick, luxurious, but also your wallet might cry. (hello)

I’d love to tell you I made a confident decision, but the truth is I’m still holding my sample sheets up to the light like a wannabe weather forecaster, predicting the chance of show-through.

So if you ever see me at the store, muttering to myself in the office supplies aisle, just know: I’m out here doing the hard work. One pound at a time.

May your paper be weighty, your words even weightier, and your husband’s patience infinite.