Excuse me, sir? Madam?

alharingrey 2020-10-01 19:03:09 UTC #1

Terribly sorry. I appear to be lost. Could you possibly help me?

I created my Tapas account approximately...well, let's see here, my pocket watch makes it around...ten minutes ago. Yes, well, after getting hopelessly lost and wandering around for a few minutes, I managed to get the first chapter of my work up on this website.

I should like to make myself at home here, but as you can probably tell, I do rather have the social capacity of a glass of milk that has been left out in the sun all afternoon. Curdlingly bad one might say. Actually, I have had my social skills descibed as thus...thrice...by my mother...

I digress.

Is there anything I ought to know about this place? Any unspoken, "everybody knows that" etiquette? For example, I've heard that "sub4subs" is another word for "algorithm plague"...?

A quick what's-what about me: I am Sir Haringrey. I am a copy editor by day, an archer by night, and something of an author in whatever time is left around all that. I look forward to meeting you all!

Dysis 2020-10-01 19:12:20 UTC #2

Ahh, yes, sorry to simply post that comment there. It wasn't my intention to make you feel uncomfortable.

Welcome to Tapas!

I started off here around twenty-five days ago myself. These should help you navigate:

Besides that, if you want to promote, you've already done that in the novel's section (this post, I mean), so you're spot on there! I hope you enjoy the community.

Jen-Jen 2020-10-01 19:15:22 UTC #3

Welcome to Tapas, Good Sir!

Like every good online platform, we prefer civility and politeness. Don't antagonize anyone. Not that I think you'd do that, but you should know that the forums are very friendly. You can easily make friends or business partners.
Since it's your first day, I recommend you post twice a week, either on Thursdays and Fridays for the casual reader crowd, or on Fridays and Saturdays for the avid reader crowd. Keep this up for about a month, then switch to once a week.
If you want to post pictures in your novel (unless it's a comic? I'll check it out once I'm done with my reply), you have to use Firefox. No other server will do.
You can unlock tips at 250 subscribers. It will take a while to reach 250 subscribers, and, at times, it may appear as though your series is dead. It is not. Viewership/subscriptions/comments will pick up again.
Umm...I can't think of anything else you would need to know at this particular point in time. You've likely already discovered that your forums account may have a different username than your main account, right? So, good luck, and have fun!
Edit: I had the number wrong. Changed to avoid confusing others.

Dysis 2020-10-01 19:17:47 UTC #4

Woah, I didn't know about the Friday-Saturday avid reader count. Should I change my posting schedule or would that be as beneficial as routine posting on fixed days?

domisotto 2020-10-01 19:18:43 UTC #5

At 100 subs for a novel, it unlocks add revenue. Tips/ink unlocks at 250.

alharingrey 2020-10-01 19:42:23 UTC #6

This is all very useful stuff. Thank you very much for taking the time!

alharingrey 2020-10-01 19:42:55 UTC #7

Well, thank you kindly for taking the time! I shall read my way through those links now.

HGohwell 2020-10-01 19:44:27 UTC #8

Webcomics/novels are a long game. Lower your expectations. We get people pop up all the time worrying about what they're doing wrong and why they're not getting the views or subs they think they should, only to look at their work and it's been up at week and has 10 subs. That's pretty good. Most the time the answer to those posts are, calm down, your numbers perfectly normal, promote your work more and keep being consistent. Other things are natural slumps, many webseries will plateau for a bit, some times of the year are notoriously bad (end of school holidays for example) and there will always been a pretty big drop between your first few episodes and your later episode's viewership.

People on the forums like to recognise people. If you promote something and you've been active in other places across the forum, you're more likely to have trust. People will recognise you, might even like you and have agreed with a lot of what you said, so will be more willing to give you a try than if the only threads you post on are promoting yourself. Also, (not saying you are but just you know, advice) make sure you're not that guy who promotes in clearly inappropriate threads for promos, that's a quick way to get people to not check out your work.

Jen-Jen 2020-10-01 20:04:59 UTC #9

Oh, thank you! I'll change that right away.

Jen-Jen 2020-10-01 20:14:41 UTC #10

It looks like you've been updating nearly daily for three weeks. Every time you update, you appear on the fresh page, which is where new authors want to be. At this time, this is probably the best thing you can do to get the most views, and therefore subscribers, that you can (short of collaboration.) I just don't recommend it to others, because this can quickly lead to burnout. If you do decide to switch to once posting twice a week, then Friday-Saturday is a bit of a risk, but the payout is worth it. If you decide to switch to posting twice a week with the amount of subscribers you have now, though, I recommend Thursday-Friday. I'm not sure what the cutoff is, but I imagine you would need at least around 100 subscribers to pull attention away from novels/comics with thousands of subscribers that post every Friday or Saturday.

domisotto 2020-10-01 21:35:12 UTC #11

I tried going down to 4x a week, hoping that maybe it will make people to sub, but it worked better for me to update every day save for Sunday. Sunday is just such a quiet day... with less updates, stats just collapse. I think, in BL, Fantasy and Romance, 5-6x a week is the best. Save for Sunday, all other days seemed to be productive.

RyzaCobalion 2020-10-01 22:41:04 UTC #12

First let me say, Welcome to Tapas!
So a couple of things to help you out here.

If Possible post a new chapter at least once or twice. If you have everything backed logged on google docs, Microsoft word, or whichever program you use, it's best to schedule at least once or twice a week. That way you have time to work on the next chapters and have your readers ready and hyped for the next chapters.
Explore the forums. When you explore the forums and find promo threads about linking your novel. Don't be afraid to do so. Though I wouldn't recommend going to EVERY THREAD and link your novel like crazy. Do it every few days . i will also provide two links to help you get started. i also have a thread where if you update your series you link it along with the link to the latest episode.

Hopefully, this helps you out!

a.g.meade 2020-10-01 23:06:36 UTC #13

@alharingrey - Hello and welcome to Tapas!!!

It looks like most people have already covered the basics, so I won't repeat what's already been said. Instead, I will emphasize that it does take time to meet people and build a readership, so please don't feel discouraged if it's taking a while -- just keep posting your work! Cheers and again, welcome!