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Mar 1

I'm almost to 100 episodes of my silly little comic about a depressed gamer. It's been around for more than a year. I've promoted it on my Facebook feeds and on my Steam profile. Yet for some reason it only has 16 subscribers.

This is quite disappointing to me. After all, why bother to go through all the work if no one likes it? Yes, my family enjoys it (or my kids, at least) but it doesn't seem to click with very many people outside of that. Yes, it gets lots of views... but no subscribers. I find it surprising that others can have dozens - or even hundreds - of subscribers when they have less than 10 episodes.

So I have to wonder... is my comic just bad? I'm wondering if I should just give it up and focus on other ways to try and get my name out there. I was hoping to use the comic to help build an audience for when I start publishing my novels - o even a compilation of Sad W comics - but this doesn't seem to be working.

  • created

    Feb 27
  • last reply

    Feb 29
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I wouldn't let numbers determine the quality of your work. I get the dishearthening feeling it can have not seeing others connect with your work, but I wanna say that 16 is not a small amount. Just imagine being in a room, with those 16 other people and tell me that's not a lot!

But I also wanna add that if your goal is the numbers, then I fear you'll always find yourself in a position of failure. You need to first and foremost, especially with these non-profit, personal projects, love what you are doing and be your won biggest fan. I've said it on multiple threads before and to multiple people who feel like the effort I put into my work isn't reflected in the size of my audience, and it's that I just don't really care. I love making Trespasser, and I would still be making it even if not a single soul were to pay attention to it.

Retention rate is low for most comics. Your subscribers are the ones that likes it and you've hit the correct demographic for it.

Everyone else, doesn't think it's necessarily bad, it's just not for them. u know? Some people prefer this, some people prefer that.

If you look at any popular comic, their retention rate is going to be nearly the same ratio. I wouldn't think too much on it.

Just appreciate the people that do enjoy your comic, and keep on enjoying making your comic.

I can only speak for myself, but I feel like. As long as I enjoy my own work, it's good enough. I still enjoy it enough to make it.

Realistically, yes, this isn't the correct motto to have to make a living off of comic. But I'm not looking to quit my job anytime soon for comic, so it's alright.

Thanks for the pep talks! I'll keep plugging away and see where it gets me. I have a lot of stories written for these characters, but I keep wondering what the point is if no one wants to read them. We'll see what happens!

I won't say it sucks. I say it's like a niche market. Some of the jokes you'd only get if you're a gamer.