Actually... as painful as the truth may be, no. Creators make up less than 10%, possibly even less than 5% of the total Tapas userbase. The vast majority of people on the Tapas app, which makes up over 90% of all Tapas users, are just readers. It can seem like creators dominate, but it's actually because creators are more likely to engage with social media for comic hosting sites and to be active and vocal. Tapas has over 3 million readers, but only about 80,000 comics. 80k comics is a lot, but it's 2.6% of 3 million.
The problem is less that there aren't enough people who use the app to read novels and/or read comics... and more that these people are often drawn in by and used to reading content made by professional content creators with a very high level of polish on both the presentation and storytelling. If they're used to reading something with really polished art made by a team of experienced artists in a familiar and fashionable style, and a story deliberately structured to grab attention written by a confident, experienced writer, it can be really hard to convince them to try something a bit rough looking with a story that meanders a bit and get them to trust that "no no, listen, the characters are great!" or "this creator has a lot of potential!" It's like trying to convince somebody to go watch a low budget but interesting student film instead of the latest Marvel blockbuster.
For this reason, many creators end up relying on other creators, since they are more likely to give less polished work a chance either through a sense of community, mutual gain through promotion, or simply because they have a greater appreciation for the work that goes into even comics and novels that are a bit rough around the edges, or are in spaces where they're more likely to see these works (like the forums). It's definitely a good place to get a leg up and to start building a core of engaged people who give regular likes, but if you want to get beyond that, you really need to catch the eye of non-creator readers and the Tapas staff.
Assume that non-creator readers aren't aware and don't really care how much work you put in, and they don't know or care if you're a really nice person; they ONLY care if your novel or comic looks good and will entertain them on their lunch break like The Beginning After the End or Heartstopper do. The Tapas staff also want to direct them towards works that they believe will provide this, because people clicking on things makes Tapas money and pays their wages. If your comic or novel looks like people will click on it, and consistently seems like people who do click on it continue to keep clicking through pages/episodes to read more, the Tapas staff will want to show it to people because clicks = money, it's really that painfully simple.
If you really, seriously do want to build readers outside of just other creators, you need to understand that non-creator readers...
- Mostly read on phones, so it's got to be readable on a phone and have a cover that looks good browsing on a phone.
- Are used to reading things that establish the premise very early and strongly, sometimes even writing out the premise as the title of the story to compete in the attention economy.
- Take it for granted that art and writing quality are consistently close to or at professional level and aren't used to going out of their way to look at anything that isn't.
- Will give up and try something else at the slightest hint of boredom, confusion or difficulty reading because they're spoiled for choice (though they may give something more of a chance if it's in a niche with more limited options).
- Mostly just want to be entertained and so tend to not take risks with unusual genres, unfamiliar styles or anything with a challenging premise.
Yeah, readers can be kind of entitled brats sometimes, honestly! But like it or lump it, that's the audience you have to win over.
