Bringing an existing series to Tapas

[sophiashapira]

Back in 2015, I wrote a web-serial novel and released it on a home-spun word-press site that I put together myself.

I am now (after a considerablie hiatus) working on Book Two of the series. And since I am not interested in again releasing something on a home-spun web-site of my own, I plan instead to release it on an established web-fiction site --- and I am considering using Tapas for this purpose.

Here is the question that I am wrestling with ------ whether I should (a) dive straight into releasing Book Two here - or whether I should (b) first re-release Book One here and then release Book Two.

Does anyone here know of any issues that I should consider in making this decision?

Thanks,
Sophia

[joannekwan]

I would definitely release book one here first for many reasons
1. to build an audience
2. so people who see book two won't get confused
3. so people can have book two and one on a single site to read easily

[cherrystark]

A lot of people have work on multiple sites. I would say that if Book 2 has important plot points that readers won't understand without reading book one, it might be helpful to re-release Book 1 on this site first.

Tapas has a great scheduling feature so you can essentially upload it in one "batch" but schedule it out to be released over a period. I did that when I first released my series. I got a good enough response, so I continued to release more work in my series.

[Prisim]

Definitely re-release book one first otherwise people on Tapas will be lost in Book two. Build your audience for the first book before branching into a sequel.

Both books I have on Tapas were originally posted on Wattpad where I grew a fairly decent following. I definitely recommend crossposting on multiple platforms (if you're up for it) because every site has a different audience. What works on one site might actually not work on another site so if nothing else it's good to test the waters.

[sophiashapira]

Should I re-release at the same episode-frequency that I would release a new novel (so as to set a pace that I can keep up for the sequels) ----- or should I release the episodes in a re-release at a much faster rate due to the fact that the novel already exists at its original site?

[cherrystark]

I would at least try releasing one chapter or so a day while you're testing the waters. I know from both being a new writer and as a reader, a lot of chapters at once can be overwhelming for the reader and also disheartening for the writer if the newer chapters aren't getting reads

[Prisim]

I would release it at a pace you can keep for the sequel. That way any readers you do get will know you have a set schedule to get excited for that time. Just because it's somewhere else doesn't mean the Tapas reader will know that. So as far as they're concerned you're brand spanking new and posting for the first time ever.

What I did when I first came over is I posted my chapters daily just as a means to try to garner interest, then I dialed it back down to twice a week. Right now I post my sequel every Tues and Fri and I try to schedule it to launch at the same time those days. That way the handful of readers I have know exactly when to check in and don't have to keep guessing (assuming they want to read it the second it launches of course LOL)