Book project update: ebook available for free, print coming soon, final proofreading needed.

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Cover and backcover plates for the four books, ready for print.

On the last episode of my long print quest, I solved complex color printing issues thanks to a long study. It was in February. Then two things happened: the COVID19 worldwide pandemic (postal services frozen, bad time for new tests or release) and I wasn't happy with the 200 pages big book format anymore. I thought this big anthology of episodes would push me into a situation where it would be near to impossible to produce a "book 2" within the next 5 years.

So, I spent full July refactoring the project into three thinner books and I also discovered on the way I could collect sketches, speedpainting and illustration and do an Artbook. This one would use the cover I designed for the previous 200 pages big book. But to make this refactor and integrate the methods I learned from Minibooks, it was a lot of work to keep everything versioned, open-sources, dynamic (to switch language), automated by scripts, standardized with a fixed page numbers/prices for all and release all of that in both softcover and hardcover...a long long TODO list and a lot of data (20GB!).

The free ebooks

Yesterday, I reached one of the main milestone: I finished the work with Scribus, exported, launched my script and rendered four lightweight PDF 'ebook' (~17MB for each). I'm really happy about them. So I decided it was good time to party and share them with you, so you can take them with you on holidays if you have a tablet or anything that reads PDF:

(Links were updated, previous versions are all archived here.)

Printed book coming soon

First, the printed version is not ready yet. I even don't have one in my hands right now. The books should appear on the e-Shop page by the end of next month, September, if everything goes as planned. I still have a lot of work to receive the final printed proof, validate it, refactor the website eshop page, produce a video to show you the printed final and setup every product pages. Talking about the product page, the final price planned for any books will be the same:

  • Hardcover: 16.50$ per book.
  • Softcover: 11.95$ per book.

Both version will have same page count (72 pages), premium quality paper, glossy colorful cover and large size 8.5x11 inch size (~ 21,60x28 cm). Compared to all the time invested in it, I would probably need to sell over than 2500 books to start talking about benefits. So, I'll try to launch a sort of campaign for it to ask to break this number, with a meter I'll update and weekly blog-post to keep news. It will not be a crowdfunding nor a pre-sale campaign, just a regular sale with what-you-pay-is-whay-you-get. I hope you'll like this simple concept that I prefer over a classic crowdfunding. I'll give more details about it on next update.

Proofreading contribution

A last TODO before receiving the printed proof from my printer: I need a proofreading pass over these PDFs. I know my English is full of mistakes and that's why I'll need your help to proofread and report issues before I send this work to the printer. It's not about proofreading the webcomic pages (they have already a dedicated team working since years on that) but more for the other parts of the books: the intro, the ending notes, the descriptions of the artbook, etc... I'm planning to send the final files on mid-August, then receive the proof via postal way, validate it for production and then start the e-Shop page during September. So, thank you if you can help at improving the quality of this books! I opened yesterday a thread to collect and centralize your future feedbacks.

That's all! To finish, here are Scribus screenshot of the Artbook:


The double page about Hippiah school


A double page about Saffron and Magmah school but she has more: as for Shichimi and Coriander they have four pages.


Showing behind the scene thumbnails and sketches to make a cover



License: "Book project update: ebook available for free, print coming soon, final proofreading needed." by David Revoy − CC-BY 4.0
Tags:  #print  #ebook   | Download: Markdown
24 comments

24 comments

link nergal  

what is your experience with rsync? would an rsync server for transmitting the gigabyte files reduce how much has to be sent? once a person has downloaded the initial set, the rest of the changes would diff.

i have no experience in hosting a rsync server. manual pages make rsyncd.conf seem simple enough. i do not know how to secure access to rsyncd even when it is anonymous but it could simply later transmissions of files.

link David Revoy Author,

Thank you @nergal. I'm already using rsync over a ssh connection to sync all the files. It works great! I split the work into four calls to manage priority on some folder (webcomic pages first, rendering for print and sources later); something I had to optimise over low internet connexion in the past. Maybe one day I'll setup a rsync server to ease mirroring the 0_sources GB of data.

link Ángel  

Hi! First, thanks for your books!

Now, in the first book, page 69, there's a typo: poeple -> people.

link Paul  

This looks fabulous. By the way, I could be wrong (and perhaps it's too late to change anyway), but in the art book, when you describe the various paintings in each page, I think it sounds better to write "below" rather than "under".

link Stephen Paul Weber  

Did you consider using the free culture logo (https://freedomdefined.org/Logos_and_buttons) as part of pack cover or spine design? I see that you have the CC "approved for free culture" seal on there right now.

link David Revoy Author,

Hey! Yes, I considered it (for the multicolored circular one on top of the page), but even after 6 years active into producing free culture, this logo doesn't really communicate a lot to me. It might take time to associate this level of abstraction with a concept like free culture. However, I really like the green seal "approved for free culture". Simple and direct. The main issue it has is it would need translation if I switch language. Good to see it is CC-By Romaine ( https://freedomdefined.org/File:Approved-for-free-cultural-works.svg ); and thanks for showing the SVG source. I'll add on my TODO a way to plug a little attribution inside the book about it.

link David Revoy Author,

Thank you!

link David Revoy Author,

Hi Paul, Thank you! Valvin wrote on the thread to centralize the feedback (second comment https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/book-publishing/-/issues/1 ) that maybe it would be better to switch to a system of arrows to avoid repetition (and even skip the arrow when the placement of the text under an image made it obvious). I think it is a good idea!

link Paul  

Yes, I think it's good. By the way - do you think you might publish eventually an ultra-collection of all three books?

link David Revoy Author,

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think I'll redo the all-in-one 200 pages format with three book in one, sorry. On a technical point-of-view it was a mess (every options I tweaked on Scribus took 15min of reloading/refreshing on screen, it was unbearably slow). Also; the printer accept only transfert of source PDF of 800MB max. With the 200 pages, it was growing to 1,5GB if I remember and I couldn't transmit the files unless doing tweaking: I could recompress with Ghostscript the PDF but I was loosing some precious PDF-X specification for compatibility. With the 72 pages format; my PDF are now less than 700MB out of the box and Scribus only takes 3 to 5 minutes to launch and refresh (preview mode/color corrections options/edit style or colors/etc...). Much more bearable and flexible. Last detail about cost: buying the three books cost almost the same than the previous cost of the 200 pages all in one; and you'll have three cover artworks more. I'll try to come up with a pack or something for the campaign.

link Azurescence  

Hey, I love your art, I've been painting with Krita too and it's amazing. I really appreciate what you're doing for the free&open-source art community, I personally followed your latest kubuntu guide and it's working really well!
I'm interested in buying your books, but I live in Australia and the shipping is almost always more expensive than the product.. a four-pack of the books would be really helpful for just a single shipping cost in this case.
will be great to see your art in print :)

link Curiosity  

Hi,

Could you reveal which font you used for the text "The Art of" in the title of artbook?

Regards.

link David Revoy Author,

Thank you for your very nice words!
Yes, an option will be ready for the pack of four.
The shipping-cost are detailed here: https://support.drivethrucomics.com/hc/en-us/articles/360027935912-Estimated-Shipping-Costs-For-Printed-Products ; but it's not really accurate because they only write about large 200 pages or small under 70 pages. By experience, when taking more than a single book it's not multiplied but more similar to the price of a 200pages. So, maybe it will be a couple dollar more than "Hardbound Book Up to 224" for getting the pack of 4.

link David Revoy Author,

It's the font Cursivah (cursivah.ttf); maintained for the Pepper&Carrot font project and a fork of "Alex Brush" font (the team and I enhanced readibility, added accents, etc); you can get it here: https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/fonts/-/tree/master/Latin

link Mario Lurig  

I look forward to buying the full bundle: Books 1-3 + Art Book (hope that is an option for both hard and soft cover)!

link David Revoy Author,

Yes! I'll take care of adding that options :) Thank you!

link Paul  

Interesting, I didn't realize the size of the files can make it difficult to print. In any case - you definitely don't need to apologize for the price! It is completely reasonable, and even a little cheap when you compare it to the norm in the comic book world. I was just thinking it'd nicer to have the whole thing in one volume.

link Châu  

Page 4 (book page number) in art book, it is empty. You can use it for tell about origin of Pepper & Carrot in year 2104. I not see this story in art book. Can also tell origin of name "Pepper & Carrot" too. I still have email from 2020.02.12 when you answer this question and I can send it back if you need it. :)

link Azurescence  

Thanks for the info!

link David Revoy Author,

Thanks for the empty page number! Yes, I prefered to skip a lot of details so it fit into two double page and make it about Pepper&Carrot and not about the drama of that time :D
I skip the details of the comic project I had on desk in 2013/2014 "Astral-Zero project", I skip reasons of my professional burn out and why I had the need to create a full structure and a FLOSS project that was more looking as I wanted. Idem, I did not write about the Goosberry multi-studios worldwide project failed crowdfunding campaign in mid 2014, the disagrement I had with their new business model (cloud/paywall), the tenses I felt on Cosmos Landromat 10min project in summer and how I left the project --- all of this feel to me not the right place in this book, I don't know why xD I prefered to keep a focus on the begginings of Pepper&Carrot along showing the first arts; than speaking about the drama/soup/brainstorming I had in my head at that time in reaction to how I felt the Free/Libre culture climate of 2014 was changing.

link narayan  

Just a heads up to say how incredibly inspiring your journey is. I'm looking forward to try out something as well.

link Cynthia  

Are you still looking for a proofreader, and if so, how do I send you the proofread material?

link Olulola Oluwatobiloba  

Thank you very much for all you do for the art community. You are very kind David


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