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Illustration of a cool, anthropomorphic book with muscular arms, wearing sunglasses and fishnet tights, flexing its biceps in front of a blurred bookstore background. The bold, hand-drawn text reads: 'Preordering Books Matters,' emphasizing the importance of preordering books to support authors and retailers.

Imagine a world where books you love magically appear in abundance, where your favorite authors are given the green light to write more, and where indie bookstores stay alive and well. That world exists – it just requires a little thing called preordering.

Here’s why that’s a great idea:

1. Shelf it up

When you preorder a book, you’re doing more than just guaranteeing that a fresh copy will land in your eager hands within a couple of days of its release. You are also whispering – no, shouting – into the capitalist void: Hey, we care about this book. Stock this book. Give this book a fighting chance.

Retailers respond to numbers. If a book gets a lot of preorders, bookstores order more copies, ensuring it doesn’t vegetate away in a dark warehouse next to unsold Ayurveda diet guides. If preorders are bad, that book might be DOA before it even gets a chance to charm (or traumatize) readers.

2. Signal to the Publisher

Strong pre-order sales send a signal to the publisher that the book might be thriving and not being avalanched by self-published werewolf romances. The publishing house can now increase the marketing budget and adjust the print run to meet the demands.

3. The self-fulfilling prophecy of lists

Let’s talk about bestseller lists. They don’t just add up what’s sold after release – it’s mostly about preorders. A book with strong preorder numbers can land on Amazon’s “Best in Category XYZ” lists or even make its way onto those prestigious bestseller lists that determine what gets splashed across airport newsstands. In short: preordering isn’t just buying a book – it’s voting for it.

Witch reading a book

Try it out now

Does that all sound like exactly the world you want to live in? Then we have a recommendation that you can pre-order right now: Our new book HI, EARTH comes out on April 1 (no joke but still a lot of jokes) and we love every single page of it.

It contains our best comics about our favorite planet and its inhabitants.

Get it via Amazon, Barnes & Noble or BAM.

Promotional image for the book 'Hi, Earth' by Elizabeth Pich and Jonathan Kunz (War and Peas). The book cover features a cartoon Earth with large, worried eyes, sitting on a wooden chair while surrounded by flames, wearing a fedora. The title is in bold, blocky letters. To the right, a quote describes the book as 'bittersweet but lighthearted,' roasting human folly while appreciating the planet. The text at the bottom announces the release date: 'Available April 1st. Wherever books are sold!'

Something Else

We get it: clicking preorder on a big retailer’s website is easy and requires no human interaction. But if you want to be a true literary champion, preorder from your local bookstore. It keeps them thriving, fosters community, and lets you pick up your book in an actual store, where you can also impulsively buy a tote bag you definitely need.

Find your local bookstore:

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We are so happy to announce that the short story A Job is a Job is coming out today, namely in our brand new book Once Upon a Workday!

"A Job is a Job" short story from War and Peas. "Another day breaks, you pour out of bed. Not a minute away and in creeps the dread. The gloom of the world waiting outside your door. With its deadlines, its meetings, its burdens its chores. You feel uninspired as you sit in your cube. A few minutes of joy watching cat clips on Youtube. When your colleagues ask a friendly How Do You Do? You simply say Fine but you'd like to say Blue. You say to yourself: That's the way it must be. There are duties and schedules and your kid's dentist fees. A job is a job and a job must be done. There's no time to sit around and simply have fun! So you slumpity slump your way through each day. As you gripe and you type as you labor away. No this will not do, this simply won't do. Who's running the show here? It's you, my dear, YOU! It's time to start asking what do you want to do. Plan some time for yourself, two, three hours a day. Leave your smartphone at home, just go out and play! Why did we stop playing? How silly, how wrong! To think growing up means being earnest all the day long. Remember you liked to go out and dance? And you once played guitar in that weird indie band. Or painting – whatever did happen to that. Strange how all those passions fell flat. Now a job is a job and a job must be done. But a you is a you and you must also have fun. So take a week off, one or two, six or eight! This is your mental health and that simply can't wait. Taking care of yourself is the first job of all. If you don't work at that, soon you'll have no job at all. So eat a grand meal, sing a song, learn Malay. Not just once in a while, do these things every day. Yes a job is a job and a job must be done. But taking care of yourself is job number one.

Once Upon a Workday is a collection of funny and heartfelt stories about the ups and downs of adulthood, being overworked and under-appreciated, while mustering up the resilience to keep going on your path. The six short stories will console and inspire the burnt-out professional in all of us. The beautiful hardcover is being released by Andrews McMeel – the publishing house that brought you Peanuts as well as Calvin & Hobbes.

We are incredibly proud of this book and we’re sure you’ll love it, too. It’s available wherever books are sold as well as these online platforms!

Cover Reveal of "Once Upon a Workday – Encouraging Tales of Resilience"

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The Most Important Comic Book on Earth: Stories to Save the World

We’re very happy to announce that we are part of the project REWRITING EXTINCTION and THE MOST IMPORTANT COMIC BOOK ON EARTH.

300 creators got together to write 150 stories and create 1 world-saving book. We wrote a story with film legend Richard Curtis. Also in it: Jane Goodall, Ricky Gervais, Taika Waititi, Cara Delevigne and many many more. Check out the full list of contributors here.

The plan is to create a campaign to raise money and awareness to tackle BOTH the climate and the biodiversity crisis. To support, check out these projects and consider making a donation. You can also start with pre-ordering THE MOST IMPORTANT COMIC BOOK ON EARTH which is an amazing story collection.

You can pre-order from anywhere: Your local book store, your favourite online book seller or your regional Amazon service.

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It’s true! 

Our book is out today and it’s already unavailable at some wholesalers. So hurry up, if you want to get your hands on the first edition!

Thank you all for going this way with us!

And many thanks to our amazing agent Nicola, our amazing editor Lucas and our amazing publisher Andrews McMeel. It’s a great honor to be publishing under the same roof as legends like Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts and our fellow webcomic colleagues Sarah Andersen, Nick Seluk, Alex Norris and many more.

War and Peas - Funny Comics for Dirty Lovers - Jonathan Kunz and Elizabeth Pich - Goodreads - Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we often said, we’re big fans of local book stores. We want to encourage you walking into the next book shop around your corner and breath the amazing wisdom-induced air in there.

If your social anxiety is stronger, follow this LINK.

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4 panel comic by War and Peas. 1. A fairy and witch are sitting in front of a café drinking coffee. The fairy goes, "So how was your date?" 2. The witch answers, "He's been treating me like a piece of meat." 3. The fairy is disgusted, "Ugh!" 4. The witch takes a sip from the coffee and says, "Well, he's vegan so he's very respectful."

This comic is available as a signed Fine Art Print in our shop!