Comics Behind A Patreon Pay Wall

[VermillionWorks]

When do you think a creator(s) can put a webcomic behind a pay wall and have it be a fair deal?
I don't mean just getting to see a webcomic's pages a bit sooner through Patreon, I mean like making a webcomic only available through Patreon.

Do you think this would be an awful thing to do? Or even if you don't think it is, does it still mean the creator(s) should be MUCH more reliable when it comes to updates and quality since they can no longer say "well, it's for free"? Or is it a "get what you pay for" situation to some degree, especially if it only involves a buck or so a month?

Is it only good to put comics behind a pay wall as individual, complete downloads?

....and no, I have no plans to do anything like this with my current comic, it's forever free, but I've considered exclusive Patreon comics before. At the moment though, I'm just curious what people's thoughts on this are.

....wasn't quite sure what category to put this under. XP

[Aspie_Gamer]

Good topic ya got there.

One comic I follow, MON GIRL 4koma often has some of his/her episodes of the comic listed as Patreon exclusive. Like the first panel is shown, but to see the rest of that individual comic, you have to become a subscriber to the authors Patreon. Since the comic is NSFW (and very perverted), I feel that's a good example of putting a comic behind a pay wall on Patreon.

Now on the topic of whether or not I would ever do Patreon exclusive comics, I probably would do a few once my comic Life of an Aspie becomes profitable enough for me to consider doing so. The Patreon exclusive stuff would be things like bonus episodes or random what if one shot stories related to LoaA.

[kkitty]

I would never do it because I think the BEST part about making comics is seeing fanart and getting general attention for it. Otherwise I wouldn't even be making them.

Props to people who reach the point where many would pay to see stuff like that though, it requires a lot of skill and self confidence. I think that people should just do what they do.

[winglesscomic]

imo the only things that generally are capable gaining that much of an audience and being self-sustaining are fetish comics / NSFW ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

for example, think of all the artists on patreon that offer NSFW option for subscribers, they get a lot of attention, and think of every time you go to picarto the NSFW streams have 100+ people watching them.

Otherwise I don't think most people can do that sort of paywall barrier with just regular content, because most non-NSFW artists don't have that kind of audience or, I guess, "incentive." For whatever reason porn seems to attract a ton of fans and also be locked behind paywalls quite often, so it leads more easily into patreon-only art/comics.

That doesn't mean that non NSFW artists can't do such a thing but it seems WAY easier to divulge into that business model if you already do something that's generally kept behind a paywall in the first place.

[AnnaLandin]

I do this, partly. I mean, I do the early access to upcoming pages, but I also do extra comics for my backers - mainly monthly Q&A-comics and an extra comic strip between chapters. I am also planning to do a special, backers-only oneshot once I hit my 100$-milestone. It would be separate from the main storyline of Grassblades, and self-contained, so it wouldn't be necessary to read it to understand the main story.

I also have a handful of unrelated non-Grassblades oneshots that aren't available anywhere else that I send out to backers of higher tiers.

To answer your specific questions - no, I don't think it's an awful thing to do, even if a creator was to put their entire comic behind a paywall. How and why people do what they do with their comics is up to them, and I don't have a moral right to access those comics. I do however think that if a creator puts their comic behind a paywall, they have to be reliable about updating on time. A free webcomic going on hiatus or just stopping for no reason is just a disappointment you have to live with - but as soon as you take people's money, you had better deliver, or you need to refund them. Even if it's just a buck a month, you still make a promise when you take someone's money, so it's on you to fulfill it.

I don't think there's any one way of doing the updates, either - complete downloads work well when it's oneshots, or if the creator can reliably complete a chapter/issue a month (as most Patreons are structured on monthly payments), but page by page uploads should work too. The only real issue there is that Patreon doesn't have a searchable archive of posts, so a new reader would have an awful lot of scrolling to do to get to the start of the comic - it's not like a webcomic site.

[mariusthered]

i was thinking of doing this with some of my story lines but i don't have a the software to make PDF comics so I decided instead to write short stories based around my comic. I hope to get the first one out soon.

people should also consider that if you are producing NSFW stuff you could get problems from Pay PAl

[SandraMJ]

My job as a comic book colorist for major American companies revolves around putting every comic behind a paywall, haha. That's why, with my comic Prozaic, I feel that everyone should have the same possibilty to enjoy them, no need to pay anything :3

[mircolisa]

This is my comic. It is NSFW and is free. I don't to do a pay wall for this, cuz i want that everybody read it. But in the future i think to make some hentai comics exlusive for my patreon, if they like it.

[zetina]

It makes sense to ask for payment since you did work. They're buying your comic and all. But, yes, I also believe that creates higher standards for the work to meet. It better be worth the money. It sounds great in theory - a digital age of comic publishing. (I mean, that sort of thing already happens with buying downloadable novel pdfs and so on.) The only issue is that you need enough of an audience to make the option viable; so you wouldn't need a "day job" to cover your expenses, which takes away time to work on making the comic worth being pay-exclusive. The advantage of free comics is that it's accessible and therefore easier to reach a wide audience. The problem with free comics is that as long as they exist, paywall webcomics aren't very practical;;; (supply&demand)

[VermillionWorks]

Thanks a lot for the thoughts, everyone.

So far, sounds like making a comic Patreon exclusive is not horrible, but probably may not work out well if you try to make your main webcomic only available in that manner (without it being a side bonus to a free one, for example). It might work if you have a huge fanbase and perhaps a GINORMOUS buffer so you can keep up a consistent update schedule since they're paying for more of a service now, but even then there are still no guarantees that it'd do well. You'd also have to have that much more time and energy to spare to keep up with it.

.....unless, apparently, it's smut or near smut. XD I know it's true, but it's kind of.....sad, ain't it?

So yes, Patreon exclusive comics would probably work better as a side bonus. Noted. =P

The only real issue there is that Patreon doesn't have a searchable archive of posts, so a new reader would have an awful lot of scrolling to do to get to the start of the comic - it's not like a webcomic site.

This is currently my biggest issue with Patreon, I wish they'd do something about it already. Give us folders/sections people can look through, just something! >.<

[Vikiro_Hop]

Yep that pretty much sums up all I was going to say. I'd say also be aware if you put stuff out for free and suddenly make another series that is going to make people upset no matter what. Even if it is entirely separate, it's just the internet mentality. That being said people can get over that I would hope.

[Kura]

Time release makes sense, a treat for supporter, but complete comics only accessible through patreion is not something I would do, got nothing against people that do it either just not something I would be comfortable doing.

I like having my stuff open for everyone to read, growing up it was never fun being the only kid in school who's parents couldn't afford to get them the latest thing.