Advice for worries about never being successful as a creator/artist?

[PrinceofSpirits]

Do any other comic creators/artists have any advice for dealing with ever-present despair and worries about never being able to "make it" in the comics/art world?

I'm about to turn 25, graduated college with a degree in art, and have always intended on making a living off of my comics and art. I've been living with my two partners since last October, and while I'm lucky enough that one of them has a well paying job that covers rent, and the other has a successful commission business (also an artist), I barely make enough from art on Redbubble and Teepublic and occasional commissions to contribute to groceries and such.

My full time job is currently my creating webcomic, with any extra time devoted to preparing for selling at Anime Expo in July. I'm extremely passionate about my story and characters, and it has made me SO happy to be able to make my dream of creating the comic a reality, since I've wanted to for 7+ years. However, my comic hasn't generated any revenue for myself or my little family, and I constantly feel guilty about this even if they always assure me that they want me to pursue my webcomic dreams. After almost 6 months there's been little engagement across my own website, Tapas/Webtoon, and social media, so it sort of feels like I'm sending my pages out into the void.

I definitely don't feel entitled to an audience/fans/money or anything like that and I'm grateful for the readers I DO have, but I feel guilty for not doing something with a reliable income to help support my partners like they support me. I worry that there's something very wrong with my art and that I'm not cut out for this sort of thing, and that I'd be better off getting some random job and giving up my comic (which hurts a lot to think about lol).

I'm so sorry for venting/rambling on for so long, but the TLDR is that I'm not sure how to confront feelings of not being successful enough as an artist/comic creator in order to contribute in my household. If anyone else has advice or similar feelings they are more than welcome to share, I appreciate it a lot!

EDIT: I'd like to thank everyone for their responses, even if I don't reply individually! I never expected I'd receive so many comments, honestly.

I suppose it might help to link my comic, both for reference and if anyone would like to give some feedback:

http://www.ghostbound.com/

Ghost Bound | Tapas

[Greetings]

I have a few questions/suggestions:

• Are you writing in a popular genre with popular themes? Some series are great, but might have a more niche than wide audience. I haven't read your comic, but perhaps this could be the issue at hand?

• Other than that, have you attempted reading books on story structures? Sometimes stories are good, but are missing hooks, and so readers might not stay because the first line/panels didn't draw them in enough.

• Do you market your work, or do you mostly post pages regularly?

• Have you tried entering comic/publishing contests or pitching your comics to publishers? Tapas actually has a workshop/sponsorship program for artists who are interested in working with them, I don't know when they'll host it again, but they have some info here: https://tapas.io/series/inside-the-creator-incubator

• Do you post on weekends or week days? And at what time of the day? Maybe your target audience isn't online when your comic is in the updates feed and it gets overlooked because of this.

• This is mostly a suggestion, but a lot of people in creative fields get a part time job while doing what they love, as even if you have an amazing comic, sometimes it just comes down to luck/getting featured, which could happen tomorrow, as it could in a year.

Six months is short, I've heard of people succeeding after years of trial and error, don't worry, you still have time to find your audience!

[QueenofBabyLoon]

Let me first of all send love your way! I can just imagine how difficult it is for you, who are so passionate about something and want to invest all your time and energy into it, not getting the expected response.

First of all, please let me reassure you that I very much doubt that there is something wrong with your art in comparison with the art of others. In fact, when you go through what is popular at the moment and what seems to be attracting all the attention are very bland, standard stories, variances on the same theme. Depending on what your style is, you will see the same type of stories being favored over and over again. And to some extent, understanding the way the human mind functions, it makes sense. We tend to like one thing our of the blue, as a surprise, it gives us happiness. And we look for that same happiness over and over again. That is why fanfiction has a solid fanbase.

Now, what I will tell you will maybe gross you out and make your skin creep. But it has proven to be efficient. Remember "Fifty Shades of Grey", the most miserable book ever written but that reached levels of success unimaginable (for how bad the thing was). Well, it started as a Twilight fanfiction.

Have you ever thought about finding a very popular fandom of anything (a manga, a comic, a book), go on Tumblr and start doing fan illustrations or small comics for that fandom. You will attract the notice of a broad audience doing that, heck you are just giving them what they crave most, continuance of their dopamine high. Once you get the number of followers you deem high enough, start sliding in your own art, tidbits of your comics, links to them on Tapas and Webtoons, etc. It is as time-consuming as Twitter, however Tumblr is at least more known for its dwelling-in-the-dark fandom community. I feel that is a better audience to exploit. And yes, it is a very devious way of doing it, but heck, let us be honest, nowadays it isn't about the story and it isn't about the quality.

[bjwebb]

Trust your partners and take them at their words when they say they want to support you. Creative careers can take time to build, and you've been given the gift of that time! It's good to always be looking at what you're doing with a critical eye and asking if there are ways to improve, but also understand that even good stuff doesn't always immediately find an audience.

[PrinceofSpirits]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and offer your advice and support! I greatly appreciate it. I'll address all of your questions individually:

I would describe the genre as supernatural/fantasy/adventure, but it's in the Fantasy category on tapas.

I've read quite a bit about story structuring and comics, especially while in college, but granted this is my first serious venture into storytelling and comics, so I'm sure there is a lot for me to learn during the process itself.

I've tried to market my work as much as I can, although that's mainly through my social media accounts which have mixed degrees of success. I've been kind of at a loss for what else I can do, actually! My typical update schedule on my site is every Monday and Friday, but currently I'm posting only on Mondays while I work to build up a page buffer.

I'm somewhat wary of paid partnerships with Tapas and Webtoon such as those, partly because I don't think I can physically produce enough pages to meet their demands and I prefer the classic comic book style of pages over the endless scroll format that they prefer supporting. I would like to try to apply to Hiveworks once I have enough pages, though!

I typically post on Webtoon and Tapas on Wednesdays or Saturdays, since I like to keep the pages exclusive to my own website for at least one day to encourage people to visit it.

Getting a separate job would likely cause me to have to drop the comic, with the amount of work it takes. It's something I only want to consider if my household is in a desperate position!

[PrinceofSpirits]

Thanks so much for your generous and genuine support and advice, I appreciate it a lot!

I suppose there are a lot of aspects that make me worry about my art skill, from low engagement with my content online to poor performance at artist alleys and very few sales in my shop. I know my style isn't for everyone, but I AM proud of my progress and can't help but to wonder about all of the issues I may not be seeing.

Once I clear up my work schedule a bit, I do want to take some time to draw fanart for small creators and fandoms that have provided a lot of inspiration and joy to show my appreciation since I've never really given myself time for things like that, hopefully that will also spread my work to new viewers as well. I've been a decently popular Pokemon artist for a long time, the problem is there isn't much crossover between that fandom and my original work, so I don't think many of my old fans have taken to my comic as a result!

Again, thanks so much for your response!

[PrinceofSpirits]

Thank you so much for your response and kind words! I do trust my partners and appreciate their support beyond words, I just wish I could contribute financially to our home and life in the ways that they do. I suppose I just need to be patient so that I can be in a place to support them even more in the future, hopefully! Fingers crossed that as my comic continues and the story develops, it will attract more of a following.

[Greetings]

No worries, I hope you'll manage to find a solution!

I'm not sure if this is exclusive to novels (I'm a writer, so I can't speak for comics), but the series I've posted in the fantasy genre on Tapas always have the least readers. BL and short, slice of life comics seem to work the best on here (although there are always exceptions).

In terms of whether it's your first work or not, it personally took me 4-5 completed projects before something I made got a moderate amount of attention. I'm not sure if you are able to do this (since I know comics take more time than writing a story), but it sometimes helps with structures to do short stories/comics as it's easier to see where you could improve once a project is finished.

Again though, I'm not a comic artist, so I can't really speak for that part of the website, but maybe this could be of use to you as it helped my series grow on Tapas: For marketing, putting a sort of end-screen/card that asks readers to subscribe/like etc. made my average sub-count go up. Posting on different days at different times and seeing when your audience engaged more with your episodes also helped determine when the best time to post was.

I've also seen artists do guest art in comics, this sometimes gets them exposure, along with finding comics that are of a similar genre to theirs and becoming an affiliate or renting out ad space on their sites.

In either case I wish you the best of luck with your comic, I'm sure it'll work out eventually if you just keep at it and work at improving your craft, you can only go up!

[jensrichard77]

[joannekwan]

I often have the same worries!
I don't have a day job and am being supported by my husband while I pursue my freelancing. I often ask if I should get a normal job to help out, but he says I don't have to if I don't want to. So to make up for what I can't bring to the table financially, I basically take care of all the cooking and cleaning at home as a house spouse.

Comics are tough, it takes time to cultivate an audience and convert them into customers. But don't give up! I'm enjoying your story so far and I think your style is really nice~
But as far as my work goes, not counting Patreon, my biggest source of income is actually my online shop, with the best sellers being my enamel pins, particularly these ones.

Instead of making merchandise that is comic-specific, I've found more sales through designing things that can appeal to many more people who don't have to read a whole comic to understand where the piece comes from. If you look at successful artists, many of them don't have comics and sell their art as part of their brand image, be they soft pastel girls, cute animals, pop-counter-culture, creepy figures, etc.

I'm still not making as much as I would at a regular 9 to 5, but it's nice to have some extra spending money for indulgences.

[unknown_user]

Other than that, have you attempted reading books on story structures? Sometimes stories are good, but are missing hooks, and so readers might not stay because the first line/panels didn't draw them in enough.

Can you please give an advice, what to read on this topic? I feel like the beginning of my story isn't catchy enough as well. I don't know anything about good storytelling yet, so I think it could be very useful for me, too.
Sorry for offtopic.

---

To TopicStarter: You are not alone. I'm currently living on a money of other people, small scholarship + credit card, so I understand your struggles ( deep sigh ). That time, which I spend on comics, I could easily spend on part-time job or additional study instead, and I'm feeling somewhat guilty that I'm not doing it...
Unlike you, I gave up the hope that my comics will give any return in foreseeable future.
Only thing which comforts me is that life has no meaning anyway, so who can condemn me for what I'm doing? Yes, it's meaningless, but everything else is meaningless, too, so... ¯_(ツ)_/¯
( I hope I haven't done you even more depressive? )

P.S. Drop a link on your comics, please. :3

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I kinda feel like a brat for saying this, but...dude, six months ain't enough time. Sure, some people gain traction and achieve success in mere months, but most don't. I think you should keep going for at least a year or two before evaluating your success, or lack thereof.

You're very fortunate to have other people supporting you so you can work on your comic full-time. Take advantage of that, enjoy it while it lasts, and keep giving your story the attention it deserves. If it makes money, it makes money, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. The phrase 'starving artist' didn't just pop out of nowhere, you know; it's really hard to make a living with art. You may feel like a single, solitary failure, but I promise you're not alone.

[minerrale]

Listen to art/comic creating podcasts: they give great insight as to how others have made it through.
Don't feel guilty about doing what you love: you have one life, one shot, and if you have the means to achieve something, you should go for it.
My partner and I dropped everything to focus on our crafts. I'm a storyteller, he's a comic creator/artist, and even though we don't make much right now, we're still not giving up.
As for constant income: have you considered setting up a Ko-fi and a Patreon? Or other equivalent like Tippee? There is an Inksgiving event coming soon: you can contact the Tapas staff and ask for tipping to be activated for you I believe, maybe try this?
Don't worry about not being good enough. None of us believe we are. But you will get better and better with time and effort, and you will grow your audience. If you don't believe me, believe all the other creators who have gone through years of hard work and are now living off their craft!
TLDR: set up support platforms, keep going, don't give up! \o/

[punkarsenic]

its important to remember that there are writers and artists who have created internationally acclaimed work who still have a day job. the arts as industry is pretty unstable and leaves a lot of ~successful (very subjective concept) creators struggling to pay the bills.

it also comes in waves - one year youll be living in brooklyn and going to every con and selling out, the next year youll be moving back in with your parents and picking up shifts at a restaurant to make ends meet. they can feel pretty crap, but these points of economic downtime arent failure. youll never fail out of comics - you could make something everybody hates, and then turn around and make something that revolutionises the medium. m night shyamalan made the sixth sense and glass - you can be bad and you can be amazing, all in one career.

but being really real for a sec: youre not gonna be able to live off your webcomic for at least the first three years. and if you can live off your webcomic after three years, you are two things: A: extremely lucky and B: economically unstable. one change in patreon terms and conditions and youre living in a box.

when you start making comics - print or web or both - youre gonna be running at a loss, youre gonna be working for free a lot(EDIT: to clarify, for yourself. or with friends. do not work for someone else for free, ever), and youre gonna be making a lot of mistakes. thats okay. you absolutely need to redefine success as artistic progress, not profit. van gogh was an extremely successful artist, even if he didnt sell shit, because he pushed the medium and made work that is still moving people today.

give yourself permission to take up non-comic work if you need to without judging yourself, and be patient. everyone feels like theyre tossing their stuff into a void at first, but if you make good work and youre consistent, you will develop an audience.

also, its important to keep in mind that 'making a living from comics' doesnt mean 100% living off making comics. theres also editing, teaching, comics journalism. i find that i get a lot of joy from supplementing my comic practice with workshop hosting, though im lucky to have had an 'in' to host workshops for pay. theres also comic-adjacent avenues like selling prints and illustration commissions. all these are options for you!

[punkarsenic]

Listen to art/comic creating podcasts: they give great insight as to how others have made it through.

listen to dirty old ladies!! theyre all really blunt about their careers and the reality of the industry, its great

[Moi]

Don't chase SUCCESS, but chase EXCELLENCE, and SUCCESS will chase YOU.
All IS WELL.

Don't READ this.

[minerrale]

Who are you calling a dirty old lady, huh? I AIN'T OLD YET!

[punkarsenic]

HAHA, its a podcast! i realise that wasnt clear now

Dirty Old Ladies: The Podcast

[minerrale]

I was joking, but I didn't know that particular podcast, thanks for sharing!

[Akhdas]

None, i am right now in an ever growing despair that will never end and this useless comic will only spiral into the void that will be unseen by the likes of any human species