The books are now available!
Published on
It's a release!
Pepper&Carrot self-published comics books in English version are now available!
Get your own copies on: https://www.davidrevoy.com/shop
(Note: if you have trouble reading the short animation video, you can download it here. 7.1MB, 1min)
24 comments
Awesome!
I have a question: is there by any chance a way to ship together both mugs & books, so that I don't have to pay for shipment twice? I guess there probably isn't (and it's totally fine), just thought I might ask before ordering.
Hi, unfortunately it is not possible. I'm using two different Print-On-Demand services: one for the books (DriveThruComics) and for the other products (Redbubbles). It's two separate companies and they have their own factories. Thank you for your question, I'll add it later to the FAQ.
I thought there was going to be a bundle? I mean, I can add all 4 to my cart, just thought that was something to make it easy to get all 4 in one-click.
I can't make a Bundle on Drivethrucomics yet because my account is too young. It's an option grayed on my control panel and it require selling books to get it active.
I contacted the team at DTC, I told them about my project and my request to unlock this option (I gave them a lot of proof to trust my profile), but they prefered follow their rules.
So, that's why I couldn't propose a bundle ready to buy. On the good part of that; you could probably this way visit the four pages and see the little videos I made to browse the page.
As soon as I can bundle, I'll do. Thank you!
congratulation!
one question: is there a release in other (especially german) languages planned? (i thinking a little ahead: it would be very nice if in a few years my daughter could read the books in her mother tongue)
Hey! I would love to make other languages, but my experience on the English books made me realize the month of work and investment necessary to make a good book. So, it's not something I can budget for sure on the short term. The earning on each book sold is not impressive and I'm not sure if I'll sell thousands of books to collect a single salary with it. (while I spent like 6 month full time into this project.) . A good publishing would require probably a month of work, and 100€ of budget to pay the print proof. Maybe something to crowdfund one day if a German Pepper&Carrot community can handle it?
On another hand, you can already find a German version, decent quality. The publisher TokyoPop made a Pepper&Carrot in German around 2017, but we get a bad experience dealing together. They had a way to ask me always for free work (cover, refactor, artworks) and they sent to me only 300$ once afterward and told me it was enought for printing a full book of almost 100 pages (their version has a mini artbook at the end) at the scale of a country... I started to refuse working with them or even making adv or communication about their product. After a little time, they told me they will not continue to print the adventure. So, maybe a lot of unsold book 1 from them went to the shredder, or maybe you can still find them in the stock of a book store.
Ordered the books! Though delivery costs are quite high comparing to books cost (around 50%), guess that can't be helped, and it doesn't stop me from buying ))
Now waiting for the books to arrive!
By the way, there's a minor error in the video on this page (I see "independant Webcomic Artist" but should be "independent Webcomic Artist").
Thank you, David, for all the work you do, it's really appreciated. And waiting for the fifth book in not so distant future :)
thank you very much for your honest answer. then i have to read the books to my daughter until she understands the english language enough. sounds good to me as well.
Thank you very much! I agree. Yes, the cost is the big downside of the POD; like 90% of this book goes into taxes and production. Offset printing and high volumes is still more competitive to produce book cheaper, but I couldn't store a batch of hundreds of book in the garage and handle inventory and delivery myself.
Mhh yes its kind of a pity that you don't find a arrangement with the german publisher that feels fair to you. Of course your work is more worth than 300$. But it's hard to say if the publisher could give really much more. The german book market is very difficult. Even in belles-lettres genre, a normal book from a big publisher have mostly a edition of 2000-5000 copys. A new writer who is not known, always have to provide 2-3 books before the publisher make a cent neither print a second edition. The marketing for the author is expensive as well. Iam sure the german market for graphic novels /comics is ridiculous small. Not comparable to France. How much copys they could sell? 500? Maybe less? Two Amazon reviews in 3 years.. They have also costs for marketing, lectures, Print, Staff,... And they don't own pepper and Carrot to make a brand from it. I agree it's not a nice move to ask for additional free work and gives nothing in return. But on my feeling, and maybe Iam totally wrong, Iam sure other comic artists didn't earn much more and they get full licensed.
I hope in the future you can find a better arrangement.
And please don't missunderstand me. I just think the german book market is hard, nearly nobody can make a living even on more popular genre. I think the web comic and POD is much better for you and your audience is growing :-)
Iam looking forward to all books <3
No worry Luis, I understand!... and thank you for this insight about the German comic market. I admit I had no idea about it and imagined the market would be much more healthier than in France/Belgium. Anyway, trust me, I have reticence and prudishness to explain it in details but it twisted and agressive enough for me to decide to stop discussion with them forever and never blog post about their publishing.
Hay David, Is this you.
(https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/pepper-carrot/list?title_no=533555).
Because the last time I remember, you said that you were not going to publish of other sites like webtoons because of some legal concerns.
Just making sure that you at least know .
And congrats on the book. :)
Oh no.... That's not me, very recent and that's an impersonator.
The creative commons attribution is not compatible with Webtoon TOS, and I hate their terms...
The ratio of the page is even not respected! the horror!
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/pepper-carrot/peppers-birthday-party/viewer?title_no=533555&episode_no=8
I'll have to report that.
I fully understand that and iam sure you have much reasons for it. I think this works only with respect and transparency on both sides. But yes, the book maket in germany is a single fail and works in most cases only for the publishers.
I have gave the book from Tokyopop a 1-star review at amazon.de as a notice for other poeple that there is no co-working with you and the readers cant expect other episodes from this publisher (and recommend to go to your website for a english copy). Thats always something i really want to know as a reader, because when i starting reading Carrot & Pepper, i think many times about to buy this german book but i was wondering why you have a "book project" for something "whats alredy exists :P ...
Thank you very much for your nice words and for the comments on Amazon.de. 👍
Ok, reported to Webtoon with a photo of me in front of a webcam with a message to them hosted at root of peppercarrot.com to proof I'm the author/owner of the domain/server and so, project. I'll wait for their reply now. In case of no reply, I'll try stage two: ask nicely from all my channel to the contributor who did that (I'm sure it is because a fan wants to see it on webtoon, no bad intention) to kindly delete it and explain the reason. But before that let's wait minimum 10 days a reply.
That's what I thought, that this might be a fan trying to just help out. I am sure that he had good intentions. Hope everything works out without any blood. Best of luck.
Awesome! I have a question: do you get more in the end for hardback copies or soft covers? Normally I prefer to buy soft covers, since they're cheaper, but if at least some of the extra money goes to you, then I think I'll prefer to buy the hardback.
I have the same exact margin on the PDF, Softcover and Hardcover book. So feel free to honnestly choose the one you prefer or adapted to your budget.
The only one where I have a little extra is on the artbook. Thank you.
May be put Scribus files in web site and let translator do other book, same do web episode, then upload translate Scribus file back in web site. Translator only need change title (copy from web episode) and text, correct? If people in country want print local version, they can download file and print it, fix their problem by their self, independent of David. But why not use standard paper A4 size, I not understand.
All the files (scribus) are already on the repo: https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/book-publishing ; yes, translator could change the text from the Scribus document; but for the cover, it's a bit more complex as I couldn't use transparency due to a limitation in the PDF standard not supporting that. So it the title is part of the image and a Krita files with layers. This files are also on the 0_sources from Pepper&Carrot server.
Sure, if translators wants to open a publisher account on DTC and sell the books, they can. It is work but possible. A4 is standard in many countries; but for this big POD printers it's not compatible with the input sheet , cut/trim, bleed and other specification. Making a version in A4 for home printers sounds like a good community derivation to do.
About the German hard-cover book:
David,
sorry to hear that it did not work out between the publisher and you. Some things are on the positive side: The first time I and my kids got in contact with Pepper and Carrot was this book in the public library for children. The quality of the book was very good and without a good printing it probably would't have made it in the library.
Later my company bought another copy to support you. And thus the hint on the shop page is important, as is the explanation here. Just to know that this is not the best way to support you.
Now I will order the English books, which is something that the German book as contributed to a little.
My thinking is: There so many very good books, even comic books, to reach profitable number for a real printing, you need to appeal to a broader audience. Pepper&Carrrot has this potential, as the story in the first book works without much text and is drawn beautifully. My local comic dealer has just very few comic classics that they recommend as present to non-comic readers, Pepper&Carrot could be one of them, but for this, it needs to be more widely known.
All the best,
Bernhard
Hi Bernhard,
Thank you for telling me good effect about this book! A contributor named Ondrej is doing great progress on the way of getting his own self-published three books in German. I'll write about it on the blog about it on time. Thanks again,
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