My Silly Little Problem

[Shenmue654]

I am aware that once I explain what's going on it will become clear that I put this in the wrong forum. However I believe that in this small, quaint place I will get the most varied responses from here.

See...I am practical most of the time. With a few exceptions. I'm not the type to splurge because I can unless I want something bad. And I always feel guilty for doing so. However...by coincidence about $300 has come into my possession. Because I still live with my folks, I usually never have more than $100 at any given time. Roughly $240 of this is now left over; I need this money for transportation and food. (I can't drive---I've been taking epilepsy medication for ten years.) So...

I really, really want a physical copy of Pastel Defender Heliotrope. The art is magnificent, the story is glorious, the world details are unbelievably complex. In fourteen years of building realities I have never made anything like it. However, a physical copy of Heliotrope would kill nearly half of the money I'm supposed to be doing something practical with. I do not have much money. ;3

So....what do I do?

[Mitsukara]

I too want a copy of Pastel Defender Heliotrope, and haven't bought it yet. I have more than that much money in savings, but I need to pursue my transition and surgery, and big expensive things will have to wait. I do not have any current generation gaming consoles either. I do not even own a car (I walk everywhere I go, like work or the grocery store, and if I need to go somewhere further away, I use public transportation).

My advice would be that, alluring and wonderful though it is, you should stick to the online comic for now and return to purchase the book once life is a little better sorted out. Money saved can always be spent later, unless you needed to spend it on something else first... but then, if you needed it and didn't have it anymore, that would be worse, right? So waiting is what I intend to do, at any rate; it is ultimately up to you.

In any case, good luck to you!

[Anna]

How about a two part or three (or four) part version of the Pastel Defender book? (Softcover)
Spending about 30.-$ every 3 months would make it easier to buy it.
Well, hard core fans, (those with money in their pocket), can still buy the big one. (And collectors would buy them ALL!)
(If the "Lord Of The Rings" and "Harry Potter" DVD's + Blu-ray's are re-published every year in a new outfit, Jennifer could do it also with her books.)

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

While I am very honored that you would wish a copy of my book, Shenmue, my personal advice is to use your money to help yourself or to get things you need more. It is clear that money is precious to you, and the cost of my book, while as cheap at it is possible to make it (is is essentially at the cost of manufacture... I think Stephen set it up so we make like three or five dollars per copy, if I remember, so really just a token to us) seems like a huge expenditure for you.

My book is a luxury, and is not essential to you. If you had more money to spend on recreational things than you do, then I would be happy for you to own it; but I am always concerned with survival and essentials before luxuries. This may seem strange, considering the sort of things I am known for owning, but I assure you that when I bought my collections of games and toys and such that at that time I was quite wealthy, and now that I am no longer wealthy, I do not indulge myself so. One buys what one can afford at a given time in life... and in fortune.

That said, there is another path, if owning a copy of my book matters enough, and that is to put aside, in a jar, say, a small amount over time, and in the course of several months or longer, eventually use that money, if not needed for more important things, to get the book. And, if you change your mind by then, you will still have a fair chunk of change saved up that you would not have had otherwise to spend on whatever.

In other words, I am deeply honored that you would wish a copy of my book, but I well know that Lulu is not inexpensive in manufacturing books one at a time (no bulk discounts with such things), and I would rather that you, a reader of my work, be safe and happy and have the things you truly need, than that another copy of my book be sold.

I would feel bad if you denied yourself something useful to your life to get a copy of my book.

I am sorry that I never made it big enough in the world that my works would be inexpensive and widely distributed, and thus easy to afford. But, at least there is the online version, which I intend to keep alive for as long as is at all possible, certainly for the rest of my lifespan, which, being currently 51, should hopefully represent at least two decades more, if not, I dearly wish, much longer!

[Anna]

Just a few thoughts

Nun dann, allright, no 4-parted splitted "Pastel Defender Heliotrope" book.

What would be an alternate instead a printed release?
Easy answer, an ebook.

But I must confess that I’m a bit confused, as much as I understand, there are different file types out there in the internet.
The one with the most spreaded kind of type is the PDF.

A PDF is easy to create, there are many free software tools you can find in the world wide web.

Years ago I had to create an ebook, a fan project based on a famous SF TV series here in Germany, not Star Trek, it was „Raumpatrouillie“.
At first I used a software for creating CD-Rom menues, and also I used an installer software.
You had to insert the floppy disk into the computer and: „install.exe“.
Double click on the icon and read the story, and it was interactive.
But in a way, it was old fashioned.
To many steps before you can read it.

The last novel we did should have an other form, (we didn’t know at that this time it would be the last one).
I choosed the PDF, and I had a software where I could easily handle it, and the best thing was, it could still be interactive.
CorelDraw, here I was able to create many pages inside the project and connect it with some interactive buttons or better to say interactive „fields“ which I layed above some text lines.
Pictures and elements could become buttons.
It was work, real work, but some idiot has to do it and this was me.
And it made fun.

So, why do I tell you all these things?

Do I want to make an ebook of Pastel?
No, not really.

All we would need is online, the whole Pastel universe and stuff.
At first, it would be easy to create it, simple collect the pictures, place it into an other software and click the PDF button.
But then we would miss all notes below the comic pages.
One page of comic would have a second page with the notes.
And the archive of Pastel is also very huge and should not be missed.

The simple comic story would be a childs play.
But the whole project would need a more advanced construction.

I’m not sure if Open Office or Libre Office, or even Inkscape (very similar to CorelDraw), has the abilities to create an interactive PDF.
There is also "Scribus" a layout software, relatively close to QuarXpress or Indesign.

If so, it could be made with open source software relatively „easy“.

But there are over 200 pages of picture files, it will be very huge MB PDF.
Splitting would be necessary.

And?
What do you all think?
Would you try to do it, to make the ebook version of Pastel?

But at first, Jennifer had to say: Ok.
It’s her work, -
Well, something „tells“ me she herself would never work with the Pastel data again, hehehe.

So if anyone want a Pastel ebook…, do-it-yourself.
(If Jennifer allows it, of course.)

And what will be the graditudes?
Oh, you can always tell anyone: "I'm able to create PDF's, not the simple ones, PDF with interactive pages! Hah!"
Maybe it helps for the next job to have an advanced knowledge about daily used software.
Good luck.

[Shenmue654]

First off:

Jennifer, you are amazingly awesome. It is the rare webcomic artist (and the rare person) who responds to a post like this personally. I was right about this place. And you're right: it would be awfully silly of me to do that, regardless of how much I might love what you've made. But I was very much tempted. Your work means a lot to a lot of people, a few of which hang out on this forum.

When I was in the nastiest, weirdest growing-up phase of my life, I found my way onto the Unicorn Jelly site from Otakuworld. Though you state that your ability to convey the message given to you was weak, you did very well. I gained a very clear sense of the internal social and physical problems on that world and how the most important players reacted. Oddly, I resonated strongest with Uni himself. Something about his desperate desire to be a unicorn and all he went through to get there taught me something about the value of a journey.

Thank you very much for keeping the comics up all this time. And also, thank you Unicorn Jelly forum members for your kind comments and suggestions. :3

[Shenmue654]

So. It's been two years, but I finally did purchase the book. I got a spare $300 for my birthday...and I remembered. Jennifer....another person out there, one more light in a sometimes endless darkness, has your work to comfort them. To nourish their imagination. To let them feel free when they're stifled by an often brutal world. You were an excellent observer of human nature and the best world-builder that I have ever known.

I saw your message. I know that, for whatever reason, you're in no mood to create on here. But even if you never see this message, and I'm merely sending it into the ether...I wanted you to know that what you made mattered a whole lot to me. It helped me realize that it wasn't me who was broken. That I could stand on my own two feet and fight for the dignity of others, through my own blood and effort and tears.

So....thank you, and I look forward to reading those world-building notes of yours in glorious printed color.

[RaharuAharu]

It's not PDH,
But you can snag a copy of UJ on amazon for about 30$

http://www.amazon.com/Unicorn-Jelly-Jen ... corn+jelly


Jennifer, speaking of which.

Ebook versions of UJ/TSH/PDH.

You can charge a modest amount, keep most of the profit.

Share your stories with the world.