A (Somewhat) New Refugee (BL Writer) from Wattpad, My Future Hunt for Artwork Commish and Pointers on How To Gain Readership

[lucainarmand]

Heya,

Greetings, I'm Lucain.

That's my pen name / pseudonym. With it I can feel my Internet persona coming out, hehe.

My stories are all purely mature rated, homoerotic, lightly humorous and epic BL in contemporary or paranormal fantasy genres.

Anyway, I'm unsurprisingly a new refugee from Wattpad. After the Feeds and Forums were taken out, my stories are losing tractions. Not that I'm a social butterfly, but the loss of Feeds really took a toll on my motivations.

Writing is my main escape from the pandemic right now and then this happened, but I wasn't weak enough to give up my stories yet!

So now I'm moving my BL fantasy books to here and I love the layout! So crisp and smooth! Only downside to it is that I can't insert YouTube URL for song in chapters. It's been too long since I used SoundCloud either but the songs there are just too limited.

My main goal here is to expand a BL paranormal fantasy series (in which the books can be read as standalones) and improve my favorite hobby.

Then when I'm done writing most of them, I was wondering comic artists here are taking commish? I love my supernatural boys and men and I really, really want sexy book covers and character arts for them once I have enough money to spend lavishly.

Also, would you please share some pointers on below?

1. How does this site's algorithm works?
2. How do you go about garnering readers and subs to your stories?
3. How often do you perform each of the promotion tactic?
4. The best frequency that you've found so far in updating chapters to improve visibility?
5. What benefits can I pursue in this site if I ever have any of my novels turn successful?

Apologies if these are repetitive questions in the forum. I asked again because the topics can be overwhelming sometimes and I just don't know where to start.

I hope to make some fine friends here and read all the sweet and spicy stuff!

And Tapas, thanks for being awesome!

[midnight_rendezvous]

Hello fellow Wattpad refugee! I was in a similar position to you and two weeks ago, I bit the bullet and I'm enjoying Tapas so far

You're already doing a great job by interacting on the forum, and hopefully this should get your work out there. In terms of comic artists, I posted an add asking for a cover artist that was happy to do BL and a lovely artist responded to me. Their ig account is: mrs_artwork. I can also share their tapas ID and details, if you'd like (and after confirming with them). As you can tell, I can't thank them enough haha.

I'm looking forward to reading your work. Enjoy your time on Tapas!

[alextsarace]

welcome here, hope you'd like it!

I was wondering comic artists here are taking commish?

sure thing. i do and there are plenty of artists here who does too. my instagram is https://instagram.com/dcarlos_ny there you can check my works and decide if its level and style suits you. if not, just wait, someone else will definitelly show up.

[lucainarmand]

Hey, thanks so much for replying!

By biting the bullet, you mean you've started posting your works here two weeks ago or leave Wattpad for good? Anyway, that's really awesome!

Yeah, it's been a while since I've used the Wattpad Forums and this one is the exact same thing but with awesome mods instead. I've checked the artist's IG and I like what I'm seeing so far!

Also, would you mind if I ask you for some pointers on how does this site's algorithm works, how do you go about garnering readers and subs to your stories, how often do you perform each of the promotion tactics and the best frequency that you've found so far in updating chapters?

Thanks and I look forward to reading your stories too.

[lucainarmand]

Hey, thanks for your offer! I will check it out soon.

[midnight_rendezvous]

I started posting on here 2 weeks ago. I've taken down my works completely from WP but I'm still in two minds about completely deleting my account, as a few readers are still migrating (I think).

I'm not too sure about how the site's algorithm works, as I haven't really paid it much attention. I did get a bit confused about how important subscriptions are. But I've found that even though I have far less subscriptions that I do reads, I still get consistent reads per chapter so it doesn't really matter much to me now.

The only advertising I did was to tell my previous readers that I was moving to this site. That being said, I've read a few posts about how people have built a fanbase on here so I might follow some of their steps:

1. There's a new category on the forum called 'Promotions' where you can find threads such as "Reads4Reads" and you can use that to get people to have a look at your story.
2. Create a post asking for a collaboration with a writer. This could potentially help you gain new readers.
3. A pretty cover goes a long way. I've been attracted to a few stories and comics just by how beautifully done their art is.
4. Ensure that your writing is grammatically sound and your story flows. Feel free to look for a beta reader. If you can't find one, then Grammarly also helps a bit.
5. In terms of the algorithm, from what I've seen so far, it's quite unlike Wattpad's. I like that you can select up to 3 genres for your story to belong to. When I searched the BL tag rn for e.g, there are stories with varying amounts of likes and subscribers so perhaps it may be based on a combination of the number of clicks your story gets. Someone with more knowledge could chime in on this.
6. In terms of updating chapters, in the first week, I think I updated at least 15 of the chapters I had, as I'd already written a good chunk of the story by then. I've found that now that I've spaced out the updates to 1-5 days, I'm getting more comments per chapter, as people have longer to anticipate. However, the number of new readers and likes I get has trickled down, so there's a balance to be found there.

Other bits of info:
a. After 100 subscribers, you'll become eligible to earn from ad revenue.
b. After 250 subscribers, you'll become eligible to receive ink from your readers.

I'll DM you the details of the artist

[DaphnePanda]

midnight_rendezvous makes several good points about the site, but here are a few other things that I didn't see mentioned:

• You can only appear at the top of the "Fresh" section once every 24 hours. I.e, if you update more than once a day you will only be bumped to the top of the page once.
• The algorithms for the website and app are different. If you're popular and trending on the website, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be doing the same on the app. As for exactly how the popular and trending algorithms work, it's a bit up in the air. Trending seems to be based off number of subs in a certain amount of time, whereas popular may be based off likes and comments in a certain amount of time (though I could be wrong. Someone please correct me if I am).
• As a comic creator, I sort of promote on Instagram and Twitter and have had... questionable success. As a novelist, I think it will be more difficult for you to promote on those platforms though there are several threads with good advice for novelists floating around.
• Depending on how mature your novel is, you may need to release it in the "mature" section of Tapas. Tapas can be pretty strict about keeping things family friendly on the "non-mature" section of the site, so make sure to check the Publishing Guidelines before uploading your story and commissioning super sexy covers.
• When you're ready for sexy book covers and character art, be ready to drop a decent amount of money. A really good book cover could cost upwards of $200 depending on what you want. A lot of comic artists here (including me) take commissions so if you make another thread here about cover or character art commissions, I'm sure you'll get quite a few people contacting you.
• Edit: it took me a bit to find this, but @WillowTree made a really interesting thread/comparison for update frequency vs sub growth on two of their novels! https://forums.tapas.io/t/difference-in-daily-vs-weekly-uploads/48118/1

Hope this helps! Welcome to Tapas and the Forums!

[domisotto]

One thing that others didn’t mention yet (I think)

—if you cannot gain readership for love or money in BL, switch to fantasy as a first genre for a while, then, if you manage to gain lift there, swap back to BL for hopefully more. BL popular is heavily overtaken by popular books with #of daily reads that is hard to compete with on just Fresh

—I think that High school BL or Alpha-Omega BL does better than fantasy BL, so think about which category you belong in more

—avoid Mature tag as much as humanly possible on the chapters, like breaking out anything NSFW into separate sub chapter and post immediately after the PG13 chapter to avoid losing a day on the app, because app hides mature chapters

And, good luck with starting on Tapas!

[Naddler]

Hey I'm a new wattpad refugee too.I published my story here on 1st December. thanks for this topic. It's really helpfull for new people like us who're lost in this new world. I too wanted to know about these stuffs. Glad I found someone like me :")

[MaeRose]

Hi @lucainarmand!

Welcome to Tapas! I'm sure you'll have a great experience here

I completely understand your departure from WP, I can't believe they removed the forums either!

I think everyone here has given great advice, so I won't repeat anything too much. However, I did follow this thread when I first started and it really helped me out. So feel free to check it out!

I think the main takeaway is consistency. Posting regularly is highly recommended as you'll be on the Fresh section often and getting noticed by potential readers. If you stop posting or post irregularly, it's a lot harder.

What's this? This is the big thread on how to get your works in front of an audience here on Tapas, taken from my Tapas guide that I've shared over on Discord a few times. As there are a few people here who are making there way over from other sites, I thought it might be good to just put up a thread with a few things that are different here on Tapas compared to other sites and some best practices for posting here! Enjoy! General Advice Chapters should be between 800-1300 words for peak enga…

Good luck, and I'll have a visit at some point to check out your work!

[victoria1]

Hello, and welcome to Tapas! I just changed the category from Promotions to Questions. We just updated our forum categories, so some old categories were merged and topics may be misplaced. Sorry about this!

[lucainarmand]

A pretty cover goes a long way. I've been attracted to a few stories and comics just by how beautifully done their art is.

I agree with this one. I currently create my own cover with models/actors as face claims and I still do. Now I'm starting to use generic stock photos from Canva and anything I can find from Google.

But nothing comes close to beautiful artworks and ultimately I want to see them visually when I'm able to purchase commissions from here. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience as a freshie here and the artist recommendation!

Other bits of info:a. After 100 subscribers, you'll become eligible to earn from ad revenue.b. After 250 subscribers, you'll become eligible to receive ink from your readers.

Interesting! Finally, something every author should be entitled to.

Depending on how mature your novel is, you may need to release it in the "mature" section of Tapas. Tapas can be pretty strict about keeping things family friendly on the "non-mature" section of the site, so make sure to check the Publishing Guidelines before uploading your story and commissioning super sexy covers.
When you're ready for sexy book covers and character art, be ready to drop a decent amount of money. A really good book cover could cost upwards of $200 depending on what you want. A lot of comic artists here (including me) take commissions so if you make another thread here about cover or character art commissions, I'm sure you'll get quite a few people contacting you.
Edit: it took me a bit to find this, but @WillowTree made a really interesting thread/comparison for update frequency vs sub growth on two of their novels! https://forums.tapas.io/t/difference-in-daily-vs-weekly-uploads/48118/1

On the mature part, I find this place much more reliable in restricting readers below 16-18 and I'm happy with the main tab they have up on the page. So I'll take note of that.

I should have clarified that my kind of 'sexy' means that I want the guys to have stylish poses, wielding weapons and looking good in their battle regalia. Not the butt naked stuff, haha. That'd ruin the tease. I will be sure to say this specifically when I go about requesting artwork commissions. I expected the prices could reach to that kind of maximum, but I'm shocked nonetheless, haha.

I've read the thread you linked and it helps with my understanding a lot! Thanks so much for your welcome and sharing your experience.

—avoid Mature tag as much as humanly possible on the chapters, like breaking out anything NSFW into separate sub chapter and post immediately after the PG13 chapter to avoid losing a day on the app, because app hides mature chapters

This is interesting! Thanks for your valuable insights, @domisotto. I will follow these guidelines, see how it goes and share my experience here!

I think the main takeaway is consistency. Posting regularly is highly recommended as you'll be on the Fresh section often and getting noticed by potential readers. If you stop posting or post irregularly, it's a lot harder.

The link you've given is extremely helpful @MaeRose! Thanks a million! Glad I have about three completed books to test the algorithms out.

[lucainarmand]

Heya, I understand and am glad to share my woes with you.
Let's learn whatever we can from here together, yeah?

[lucainarmand]

Hey, thanks!

Oh no, please do whatever you must to make sure my topic's in the right place. It's overwhelming for me too as a newbie. Thanks for the help and info!

[andY_drws]

Hiya Lucain!
Welcome to Tapas!
I have a BL comic on Tapas and actually also read a lot of BL novels and comics from other creators on the platform - it has been a really great way to connect with people who have similar interests and goals ^^ I hope you'll find it equally enjoyable.

I also take commissions - I really like the challenge in translating writers' works into drawings. I've worked with some writers on character sheets and NSFW scenes, and done fan art for some of my writer friends on Tapas. You can find me on https://www.instagram.com/andy_drws/ (SFW) and https://twitter.com/therighttwin (NSWF)

[lucainarmand]

Heya @andY_drws!

Thanks for the warm welcome and offer for commission!

I'll be sure to check out your comic and artworks in those two sites.

Glad to find someone with a knack for NSFW stuff.

I would love to have one of my books be adapted into a comic someday. ^^

[KJWhitten]

Hello! I'm also from Wattpad. I still post there at the moment and plan to post on Tapas eventually. I think the most important thing is posting consistently and supporting other creators. Leaving comments on people's novels or comics helps and leaving likes on your favorite episodes can help, since other creators may thank you back with likes in return. I would say more but MaeRose already shared what I was going to share here.

Also maybe @DogshitJay and @vblairehawthorne can help you if you have questions on how Tapas works or anything related to mature rated novels. (Also, please check them out if you're interested!)

[lucainarmand]

Hello @KJWhitten!

Thanks for adding more wonderful pointers and introducing two helpful creators to me.

I'll be sure to do that and support as many works here as I can!

[KJWhitten]

You're welcome! They both like to read and support BL creators. In my opinion, they're great creators and good people to interact with. Anyways, I wish you good luck and hope to see you around the forum.

[lucainarmand]

That sounds wonderful already! I've subscribed to theirs and your stories today. Can't wait for the long holiday and thanks so much for your warm welcome!