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

[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!

[KJWhitten]

You're welcome!

[CodeMonkeyArts]

Welcome to Tapas @lucainarmand! I second on checking out @DogshitJay and @vblairehawthorne and I wanna throw out @ivanskilling and @sxxaint because they are awesome and have great advice! If you post consistently and also let your subscribers and forums know about your updates, that helps A LOT with promotions.

I am working on a light-novel type piece that has artwork on (almost) every other chapter, so I humbly offer my services as well. You can check out my artwork through https://codemonkeyarts.com (where you can also order a commission if you'd like) or take a look at my Tapas novel XD:

Birth of a Sin | Tapas

[ivanskilling]

Thanks for the shoutout, Coda!

And welcome to Tapas, @lucainarmand ! The community on Tapas is great and so are the staff members. So I hope you'll have a good time here.

In terms of advice, I would say posting regularly (once a week or slightly more frequent) is very beneficial. Besides that, participating in the forums and networking with fellow creators will help you gain that initial ramp-up of subscribers. BL is a pretty popular category in general, so make sure your cover and blurb are immediately eye-catching to readers. Hope that helps!

[lucainarmand]

Welcome to Tapas @lucainarmand! I second on checking out @DogshitJay and @vblairehawthorne and I wanna throw out @ivanskilling and @sxxaint because they are awesome and have great advice! If you post consistently and also let your subscribers and forums know about your updates, that helps A LOT with promotions.

Greeting @CodeMonkeyArts, thanks for the warm welcome and introducing me to another two wonderful creators! I'll be sure to check them out as well!

This will challenge me in keeping up with my story updates and talking to the nice peeps here, but hey, better than real life!

I've subscribed to your cute novel. Can't wait for the long holiday to read it. Your artworks bring me joy!

[lucainarmand]

Heya @ivanskilling!

I can sense all the positivity here already. I'm so glad I came here and found awesome peeps so very quickly.

As of now and like others have provided, I'm revving up my updates and try visiting other posts here every now and then. Appreciate your firm recommendations a lot!

Also fellas, apologies for the super long delay in my replies. I live in a different time zone, lol!

Anyway, could anyone briefly explain how the "Ink" stuff works? I only understand that it's some sort of a currency to unlock chapters of premium stories and donate to budding creators. Is this something like Patreon?

Thanks as always!

[ivanskilling]

That's great! Hope you'll attract more readers.

Ink is Tapas's version of currency. It's more like Ko-fi than Patreon in that it's like tips to a creator. You can collect ink on the app by watching ads, playing games, or taking surveys (or of course purchasing it with real money!). Bonus ink is a separate category that's reserved only for unlocking chapters of premium stories. Non-bonus ink can be donated to creators if they have their Support unlocked. Support is unlocked when you reach 250 subscribers or during Inksgiving, which is a fun Thanksgiving-like event that happens around Thanksgiving, as per the name. Hope that helps!

[lucainarmand]

So interesting! This place really promotes network. The strategies are well made too. It's been too long that I found a website that cares about creators' welfare. Thanks so much for the detailed explanation and faith in me!

[lucainarmand]

Heya,

I thought I saw a topic about pasting photos and YouTube videos on the chapter itself, or am I misremembering it?

If any of you might know, kindly please link the topic or share your knowledge with me here?

Thank you!

[DogshitJay]

HECK KJ SO NICE!
I’ve been on hiatus so just saw this

@lucainarmand lemme boost @andY_drws as an idea for commissions, her work is gorgeous and super steamy!

As for your question about including youtube, it can’t be done, tho links to external content does work in your author’s note (unlike on Wattpad). For images, you need to have a very small file (I’ve only had it work with 60ish kb, but I’ve heard myths of 200kb working for some. Then you open it in preview or whatever, and select copy then paste into your draft. DON’T CTRL V or CTRL C it has to be “edit>copy”.

Then hit save and if if works it will load a different page. If this doesn’t happen it didn’t load, make your file smaller and try again.

And that’s it! good luck and welcome to Tapas!