Can a serious webcomic find it's way on Tapastic?

[L4213]

I think my deepest fear is to become bitter because what feels unfair is a strain, a thorn in the mind.

haha, sometimes i have that feeling too even with "oh the irony!" doing way better than i imagined. having a good readerbase is pleasing but don't forget that half the joy of making comics is the effort you place in them! ^_^ of course, self promotion is always the key to getting more viewers so i've read.

but it looks like tapastic is promoting more story driven comics recently! the ones i've recently seen like not quite there and time gate: reaper! its small steps right now, but im rather excited to see more come out soon!

i think we can promote more serious stories on FB with like a weekly comic feature there! (other than the daily strips posted there, i think its also a good opportunity to promote serious stories there at least once a week!)

i think i have some suggestions i would want to share that might be interesting! i love events and i hope to participate in the lot of them if i have time! being part of an active community is always nice and fun! (actually im thinking of starting some if the secret santa event im hosting goes well lets see how that ends up first!)

i miss the user spotlight you guys had before, why was that removed anyway? i really like seeing new artists and not just the works they made

also, i think we should make events for not just artists, but the lovely readers of our works as well! we could set up contests for them and the prizes could be artworks from the different featured artists here at tapastic!

there are other interesting stuff we can do too! like comic collaborations. creator blogs, status updates...

actually im being off topic from the OP, ill save it for another time.

[noxfox]

I like the idea of presenting someone else's series that you like! we could write our recommendations in comic-form and get all those reviews together in one series, like the Tapactivities...should we have to say in advance which series we're recommending so we don't get multiples of the same series? just to get some variety going!

It would be nice indeed if not everybody ended up presenting the same series! Maybe what could be nice would be to make some sort of poll in which people could toss some names of comic they'd like to present, and when there are several applicants for a same series, it's the author who gets to choose who's going to present it (with the possibility to roll dice if they can't make a choice). But maybe it'd be worth taking this idea to another thread.

i think we can promote more serious stories on FB with like a weekly comic feature there! (other than the daily strips posted there, i think its also a good opportunity to promote serious stories there at least once a week!)

I agree to this, it's true there seem to be some people watching from facebook as well. I wish I understood this platform better ^^;

also, i think we should make events for not just artists, but the lovely readers of our works as well! we could set up contests for them and the prizes could be artworks from the different featured artists here at tapastic!

Aw, yes, that would be super cool. Actually I really loved when @kurisquare let us readers ask questions to the characters of Postcards in Braille, and I was considering to maybe do something similar, because it's just so nice to have interaction with the audience. I'd like to hold a fanart/fanfic contest at some point as well because it can be really cheering I think.

[Drezz]

Focus on doing good work, networking with people here in the forums and on the comics you enjoy reading, and over time, you'll develop fans and followers. The other way is to do heavy direction to your tapastic page. It gets tougher when this is a 'mirror' of your website or anywhere else you post.

When you do a long-form dramatic comic, it's a difficult sell because there is a lot of waiting and stop-start with reading. The bite-sized funnies you see here and other sites are great for quick consumption and will have a broader draw because of the time investment to read them. Some people don't want to think - they just want to look, enjoy and move on - dramatic comics can be dangerously addictive and people worry about getting sucked in - LOL

I have a small following here with my comic: El Cuervo: The Latin Assassin, but that's because I have my own website, a Patreon page and so on. I funnel more people to my website, mainly because it's always been a home-base for my work (there's additional info for characters, maps, etc.)

Over time, I'll be encouraging folks to donate to my [Patreon][2] page to see full issues of my comic well in advance of pages being posted on my website or here at tapastic, but only because I don't have enough of a draw to be considered for the payment program here.

[aferrara]

Thanks for suggestion. Collections may look good, but not sure if that's a real solution. We want to provide a real solution. We could possibly have a thousand or so ongoing serial series. I think the key word is "ongoing." I agree ongoing should get more attention.

-"ongoing" sounds appropriate for the category.

-As for a solution...the bottom line is that there is a huge, HUGE difference between number of subscribers of comics that have been featured on the front page at any given time, and comics that have not been featured on the front page at all since they've launched. Take any new comic creator (that hasn't had a following somewhere else) and feature them on the front page for a few days in the "new noteworthy" section and of course they are going to have a significantly higher amount of exposure/subscribers than a comic that doesn't get featured at all and slips through the cracks into obscurity.

Maybe a collection is not the solution then, but point blank, being featured on the front page has become "coveted". And if there's a better way to get featured on the front page for even a day, that would help ANY comic out in an amazing way.

Why not try out a section underneath "new and noteworthy" for 'recently updated' webcomics and test it out for a bit? That way it will give ALL comics (not just ongoing) a chance at the front page for a few minutes, maybe gain a few readers here and there i the process. That would help tremendously in my honest opinion.

By the way, thank you for responding and being thoughtful and mindful. I do appreciate all of the hard work that goes into a website as elaborate as this one, and understand the struggles of a new business and taking care of a BAZILLION creators at a time is just incredible, so thank you and thank all of the other members of the TAPASTIC team for everything.

[Sketchmazoid]

The recently updated thing is an alright idea, that thing moves fast as hell though. + it would give people who upload a bunch of pages after one another an advantage to those that update less often. It's an alright solution but it's hardly perfect.

[BladeRabbit]

If you ask me, I'd say yeah, a serious comic has a place here.

It could use more features to help it out, I think though.
What comes to mind is maybe something to be able to build a community around a comic on Tapastic, like a discussion board or along those lines.

[greatnessiam1]

That makes sense when you put it that way. It's easier to follow, share and promote the shorter stories due to the internet and the attention span most have when they are on browsing and surfing the waves of the internet!

I believe in more variety to this website would do nothing but help grow itself beyond the shorter stories so that it may bring more artist and talents with "ongoing" serials to them and their brand.

[greatnessiam1]

Yes. Understood as well.

But I've also seen stories that just because they are in full color shoot to the top over
other stories as well. I see that it's visually more of a juicy medium in that aspect for
readers.

But again that is a quick and short fix for those looking on the net. I really just hope this
place can become a beacon to all kinds of story tellers instead of being pushed away due
to the site's main focus on what works. When there is always another envelop that can be
pushed!!!

[greatnessiam1]

"serial" I'm glad I now know that. And I see that you do have those other stories that have spawned into
great ones. To be serious I don't remember a time where those stories weren't posted on the front page
for them to gain exposure. I don't know how that system works within tapastic and it doesn't matter either.

What matters is you guys do have a light to shine on the on going serials of independent artist and that
other stories as well as mine can someday get there as well. There isn't a clear guideline on what tapastic
wants out of those that reach their front page. It's just been a while myself since I've seen a moment taken
to highlight the ongoing "Serials" on Tapastic. As I've been posting on here for coming close to a year now.

I thank you for your response!

[greatnessiam1]

That would definitely be another added bonus for those that don't get much
time featured via tapastic!

I like it a lot! Thanks for sharing!

[greatnessiam1]

Solid Idea!!! That could prove well as a great tool for us on tapastic!

[noxfox]

The recently updated thing is an alright idea, that thing moves fast as hell though. + it would give people who upload a bunch of pages after one another an advantage to those that update less often. It's an alright solution but it's hardly perfect.

I very much agree with this. After all, there are a lot of hobbyists here who update every once in a while, but also professionals and wannabe professionals who update weekly, or even several times a week, and work full-time on their series as they try to make a living of it. It's a hard choice of life, especially since getting published is so hard nowadays with the delcine of print industry, and though I don't mean to say that they should have more audience for the sake of it, but it seems fair to show who's active.

In a same direction, but slightly different, maybe it would be nice to see (aside from "recently updated") a list of "active comics" that would be listed by amount of monthly activity (maybe based on 3 months worth of activity). It would be like an averaging of how many episodes were submitted per weeks over the 3 months, to determine number and regularity.
So, if I submit 12 episodes one day, and then nothing for 3 months, I would have a bad score for regularity, putting me toward the bottom of the list. While if I submit 1 page per week, I would have a better score for regularity, putting me toward the top of the list. It can be nice for people who seek ongoing series.

[minzinger]

the bottom line is that there is a huge, HUGE difference between number of subscribers of comics that have been featured on the front page at any given time

@aferrara - As hard as it may be to believe me, it only appear to be that way because we only feature comics (w/ some auto algorithm that tells us what's trending) that is likely to be successful when featured. We've featured some comics in the past, but just the fact that it's featured on the front page doesn't mean that it will get subscribers.

Why not try out a section underneath "new and noteworthy" for 'recently updated' webcomics and test it out for a bit?

It was there before (maybe a year ago or so). Now removed. More doesn't make it better.

full color shoot to the top over other stories as well

@greatnessiam1 - People do like colors...ESPECIALLY for serialized content. Not confirmed by data, but I think readers care less for shorts. Punch is very important for shorts.

@all - I think everyone puts so much emphasis on the front page. Getting featured is a result of objective selection (trends we see) + staff choice (subjective selection). However, we honestly weigh a lot more on the objective points. We see a series with just a cover page but is trending for some reason, we will probably feature it because the staff thinks there must be a reason why it's hot. It seems unfair to some creators, but I don't know what this creator did to make that excitement visible, but it's apparent and we can't ignore it. If it's trending but it looks terrible on mobile, we never feature it. We want to be as fair to all creators and readers as possible.

[aferrara]

As hard as it may be to believe me, it only appear to be that way because we only feature comics (w/ some auto algorithm that tells us what's trending) that is likely to be successful when featured. We've featured some comics in the past, but just the fact that it's featured on the front page doesn't mean that it will get subscribers.

i understand algorithms...

My point was that getting featured on the front page = significant amounts of exposure, and ALMOST always can lead to a few loyal subscribers, which is all a creator can ask for.

Whether it is a new or old creator, every bit of exposure/subscription can benefit.

[aferrara]

love the 'active' idea!

[thejollity]

I think this has less to do with Tapastic specifically and more to do with the type of things that generally grab attention. A lot of the most popular featured comics tend to be short, funny, perhaps slice-of-life, and they get a ton of attention because of what everybody else said—they're short, shareable, and more often, relatable. Long-format comics are a greater investment, and it takes a lot more to hook a reader that way. Your characters have to be likable, your story has to be compelling, your art has to grab attention. A "zany" slice-of-life type comic strip can be forgiven on most of those fronts as long as it's funny or relatable. These things apply all over the web, not just tapastic.

The best you can do is just put your comic out there the way it is and don't worry about how many subscribers you get. Your audience will come to you. Another thing to think about is that because long-format comics require more investment, whatever fans you get for your comic will stick around for a long time. Loyal fans are wonderful to have

[Alli]

I understand why Tapastic caters to bite-sized gag strips and statement pieces, but I really do wish there was a platform specifically for story-based comics. If there is a website dedicated to them I haven't heard of it. There have been so many times I have craved new webcomics to follow but can't find any with decent art and a good story that I'm not following already. I'm already reading The Black Brick Road of Oz and Blindsprings, and I keep track of Minna Sundberg. Hiveworks has a big list, but isn't really an open publishing platform. You could search deviantart for weeks, good luck. Tapastic has a good number of them, they even get featured if they work well on the mobile platform, but honestly I think story comics should have their own site.

I like some of the funnies and I won't begrudge any of them their success. I just think that story comics have a lot of potential but aren't given a place to really thrive.

[PotooGryphon]

I've found some great story webcomics on Comic-Rocket, like All Night is a really amazing fantasy comic and Bird Boy is a beautiful stylized narrative comic.

I find SO many great story comics on Tapastic through looks at other people's reading lists. A lot of readers that have subscribed to Oops, I'll go to their profile and check out their reading list. And as I'm writing my "Thanks for subscribing" post, if I can think of a comic they might like, I'll suggest a few other webcomics they might enjoy. Kinda helps spread the word of the great story comics on Tapastic with other readers that really enjoy those comics.

[noxfox]

That's really nice of you to make reading suggestions @CyndiFoster! I feel a bit too shy to do this and it's not like I've read a lot of series as I don't have a lot of time to read.
This idea isn't bad @lunox99, I suppose it would remove an unnecessary sort of competition between two kinds of comics that were never meant to compete with each other. At the same time, I can see that my series of shorts has brought me some subsrcribers too, which is rather nice I suppose. So I don't know if segregation would be a solution. It's really hard to figure out those things and how people will view them.

[minzinger]

I understand why Tapastic caters to bite-sized gag strips and statement pieces

@lunox99 - It's not our intention. Long stories are more difficult to feature. @changkim @daronakira can perhaps help us out here. I understand your concerns.

I think story comics should have their own site.

Something like that is being worked on. Progress and quality take time...I mean A LOT. Tapastic has improved significantly over the past 2 years. There has been some side-effects like biased towards shorts. It's a continuous struggle to solve problems we face with. Hope you understand.