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GesuGesu
Sep '21

Hey there, it's GesuGesu4 from Tapas. I want to talk about how I squandered a chance given to me, and while I don't feel like my world is destroyed, I do want to share the story.

When I first posted Phantom Thief Kane24 back in 2017, my very first subscriber was a profile named Michael Son, who I thought was a very familiar name, but I thought maybe it was just a user who was pretending to be THE Michael Son. However, I soon found out that despite only having one episode launched, my series was featured on the Daily Snack back in the day.

From there on, I instantly gained about 1k subscribers.

Now here's the thing: when I created my series, it was a concept between friends, and all I had planned were 3 character profiles and something along the lines of a relationship chart and "heist of the week" kinds of ideas.

I updated maybe weekly for about 4 weeks before I ran out of ideas and took over half a year long hiatus. By the time I thought up of a few more episodes to draw, my active readers (judging by comment numbers) dropped to about 16, and most of them were just "oh thank god this comic is not discontinued!". My Hiatus was from July 2017 to Feb 2018.

I then updated fairly regularly until another >1 year long hiatus because I was at a crossroads in the story in how I wanted things to go. My second big hiatus was from May 2018 to September 2019.

When my comic updated again in 2019, my active comments dropped to 10.

I took another hiatus from July 2019 to September 2020. My active comments when I returned in 2020 was 3.

After 3 years of on-and-off comic updates, I finally decided to make an Extra episode explaining the comic update schedule: there is no update schedule. I had no other explanation for my readers, honestly. It's not my place to ask for pity that my comic series was poorly planned, although it was a good concept.

Starting July 2020 though, I decided to switch to a monthly schedule and try to stick to it, which has been successful for over a year now! However, I currently have lost nearly all my ACTIVE readers and I consistently receive 2 comments per update from my very loyal readers. I am very very grateful for my 2 readers, which do not reflect entirely the numbers that my comic actually has.

I don't have much to say for myself, because I am an old-time "Tapastic" creator living off the ghosts of dead subscribers, but numbers don't mean much if they're inactive readers who've long forgotten to check update notifications. I did learn after that to never launch a comic before planning at least a little ahead (my other concurrently running series, Tomboy Harem10, thankfully had 12 episodes planned and drawn before launch). Even then, I took some advice to reduce my update schedule to tri-monthly, which I learned was still too much for my chaotic working habits, so now both Phantom Thief Kane and Tomboy Harem run on a monthly schedule which has been very good to me so far, although I can't say the same for the readers. The readers who have given up on me no longer know that the series finally has an update schedule.

Don't be like me. Don't get gifted a thousand subscribers and fail to keep them from leaving due to lack of foresight and hard work. I've been lucky to get featured with Tomboy Harem this year, and I hope not to squander it by going on large hiatuses (unannounced) and having fans give up on me.

I can say a lot more about my comic making journey in general, but that may be in a separate post..

I am in the Tapas Official Server under the same name "Gesu" if you wanna chat!

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    Sep '21

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    Sep '21
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LCT_m_a_d
Sep '21

The fact that you shared this makes it a valuable experience. Glad to hear you're taking advantage of new opportunities.

Kaydreamer
Sep '21

This is definitely a good cautionary tale as to why you should have a solid plan for your comic, and not just start one on a whim without thinking about the direction you'd like to take it.

That said... I don't think you could have avoided what happened. As you said, the comic hadn't been planned out beyond about four weeks worth of stuff. If you'd pushed on with ideas which hadn't been fully thought-through, you may have retained more readers, but found yourself tied to a story which lacked focus and direction long-term. It can be really hard to get such a story back on-track without major re-writes.

And in 2017, it's not like many webcomic creators would have been expecting their stuff to blow up either. It was a much smaller market. So I don't think your lack of planning reflected anything negative about you. You were just having fun with friends. People starting new webcomics in 2021 would have a very different view on their chances of getting big.

The big takeaway here is to expect a modest readership, but plan for the potential that to really take off. It only takes a couple of front-page placements on Webtoon for that to happen, and then you're just holding on for the ride, haha. Having a solid plan at that stage is a lifesaver.

hjpetersonauthor
Sep '21

A similar thing happened with my novel, "Godswater" - it got featured the week before I left for basic training. Obviously, I wasn't able to update at all for about ten weeks, and I didn't have anything scheduled, so, in the end, it really didn't do me any good. I've been working hard to get it back in front of people, but I still haven't recovered, and it's been about a year, now.

igneriss
Sep '21

...and then there's me, taking a 3-years long hiatus with no updates at all.
Though to be honest, I didn't expect to be back to drawing it, so I'm not sure if I can call it a hiatus or more of a revival.
I completely agree, going on hiatus very often and having an irregular update schedules is very damaging for a webcomic! I'm very grateful for those subscribes who still stick around :heart:

ZombieOwl
Sep '21
Kaydreamer

I totally agree; it really fell into your lap!
The take away for me is definitely "Be pre-PARED~!:notes:"

Actually planning and having a buffer before you start is a safety net in more ways that I could have known!

Kaydreamer
Sep '21

Did it ever! :sweat_02:

And once that sort of thing starts, it's very much out of your control. I find it really hard to make any projections on what kind of growth I should expect, as it's no longer fuelled by anything I do. (Aside from just... making the comic, haha.) It's pretty much at the discretion of Webtoon.

I just keep tabs on the amount of subs I gain each week without a feature, and try to set goals with that in mind... but I've very conscious of the fact that another feature will have me blitzing past those modest targets I set myself.

'Be prepared' is definitely the right mantra to follow!