Expectations of subs over time?

[rileycooperbooks]

Hi everyone

I'm a new author here (novel) and posted my first two chapters yesterday and another one today.
The plan is to post a chapter each day (20 are scheduled)
At this point I'm at 5 subscribers.

I was wondering what the expectations of subscribers was.
What's a good amount in let's say a week, a month...how long does it generally take to get to 250 subs.

I posted a novel fantasy romance with werewolf in the main part of the story.

I'd love to hear your experiences and how you went about achieving your subscribers.

If you want to check the story so you can give better feedback, then here is the link:

Read Selected for the Alpha King | Tapas Web Novels

thank you so much for sharing your stories too

with love
Riley

[GumshoeComix]

it depends on the person and how we you're marketing, i know a lot of people that managed to get to 100 subs within the first few weeks but it took me 2 years (which is all my fault lol) so it VARIES
Its also pageviews and comments that matter on this site with getting your story actually seen in the algorithm, so try not to sweat it when it comes to subs, especially if you're still new

[rileycooperbooks]

Thank you so much for your reply!
I'll definitely take that into account.

It looks like a daunting challenge for now,but I'll keep my focus open and am definitely going to look into the marketing aspect

[literary_hana]

It has been a few months and I only managed to get 20 subscribers even though I upload weekly.

I think comic has higher subscriber rater since most people do come to Tapas to read Webtoons.

[Mallory]

It depends entirely on the quality of your content (i.e. it has to pass a certain threshold where the quality doesn't immediately turn new readers away), frequency and reliability of updates, and how well what you have suits the tastes of the current audience. Now, this last bit can either be "a well-made iteration of what is already insanely popular on Tapas and thus has a large built-in reader base" OR "something that is unlike anything else that Tapas offers that HAPPENS to suit a certain niche in an audience looking for that exact thing". Note how the second one leaves you at risk of making something that nobody is looking for... but it's still worth it to go this route if you feel passionately about your project AND feel like there should be an audience for it.

For me, I don't have a lot of subs because I used to update once a month and I went on a long hiatus (whoops). I get about 1-2 subs an update now, once a week. Sometimes a bit of a boost if I do promotion. If you can qualify for an event feature, it can get you a big boost in subs, but not necessarily in readers. There is also the truth nugget that generally building an audience is like a snowball. Getting the first bit going is super tough. Once you have a steady audience, their interaction boosts you in front of other potential reader's eyes, so the growth accelerates. If you can capitalize on that growth (with good quality, consistent updates), you can keep it going.

[rileycooperbooks]

@literary_hana that's something I figured too. Hence I got thinking about people's experiences with novels.
20 sounds good though!
So congrats on that

[rileycooperbooks]

@Mallory
Thank you for that advice!
Right now I'm working on a second project to post, so I'll keep the things you said in mind.

Can you tell me more about those events?

[RedLenai]

I'm not someone that really minds or considers there should be an expected amount of followers.

What I've seen is that reaching around 100 subscribers in Tapas can be done in around 8-9 months for a comic artist, while a writer it may take them more than a year.

I believe most people simply don't feel is necessary to subscribe to a series or artist/author in order to see what they make, and the low numbers won't mean that nobody is reading our stuff.

To that you'll also have to add other aspects, such as presentation, steady posting schedule, self-promoting, engaging with fellow colleagues, understanding the format of the platform you're posting (Tapas is meant to have short episodes instead of very long ones, for example) and other things.

[rileycooperbooks]

so patience is key.
It's good to know that.

I haven't started on marketing and I'll have to look into that at some point.
I did read about the short episodes and tried to do that in the novel. 300-500 words in general for an episode (with some a bit higher) and the posting schedule is daily. So I hope those two parts will help.

Thank you for your advice and I'll keep in mind not to focus on the numbers of subscribers

[MissPaige36]

Your post actually really brought out a lot that I’ve been wondering about ever since I began posting here…

I’ve posted on scribblehub but stopped (because I thought that the forums were really toxic), tried royalroad but heard they don’t like BL stories, and then found myself here. And from what I’ve experienced, though the community here is really nice, it’s hard getting an audience. I’ve tried other stories that have made it big, and wonder what it is my story is missing for it not to be clicked? How do you market your story here? Spamming the forums? Obviously not, but you also need to get to know other authors so to grow your own story.

Rather than attract readers, I feel like right now, I’m simply attracting authors—who also want readers, to my story. And that’s probably why my audience hasn’t grown much…

All advice said here was valid though, and thanks for posting this, I thought there was something wrong with me before this T-T (sorry for the rant)

[rileycooperbooks]

I'm glad my question helped you too
and indeed posting on the forums is targeted at authors mostly. Finding the readers is hard....

And don't worry about the rant! It was enlightning to me.

[MissPaige36]

Haha, that’s great, I was worried I might be seen as a complainer or something T-T

[AmazementComics]

Well, it’s kind of a double edged sword. You’d expect a story of your to succeed and get several subscriptions over time. But the common trend among those series that do well on Tapas are among those in the GL/BL, romance and fantasy genre. You need to be consistent with your uploads. By the looks of it you’re off to a good start.

As for the rest of us. It’s just about promoting your stuff on here. And it’s a constant grind of giving and receiving feedback because it’s tough to be a content creator and storyteller. It took me just about 6 years to gain 300 subs. And my next goal is 500.

But don’t worry, you’ll get there. Just expect a whole lot of waiting, grinding, and waiting some more. Good luck .

[MissPaige36]

Your encouragement really gave me a lot of hope. Thanks bro

[AmazementComics]

You bet .

[rileycooperbooks]

You're not! It's good that you're able to tell what's on your mind

[rileycooperbooks]

The waiting game is definitely the hardest. That's for certain.
And I hope to be able to keep uploading daily as I've planned.

Thank you for your good luck wishes <3

[handwritingwith]

Hello rileycooperbooks,

How long does it take for creator to get certain amount of subscribers for a week, a month, depends on the creator and what that creator does to get those subscribers. For example I did not want it to take months or years for me to get to 250 subscribers, I wanted to get to 250 subscribers in a short amount of time, so I had to put the work in order for that to happen. I'm going to be giving you some great tips, so I hope you are following this well. You'll learn about getting subscribers, keeping those subscribers, losing subscribers and wanting subscribers not being on your subscribers list and why.

On Tapas, you'll want to the be the best creator you can be and if you are subscribed to others, be the best reader that you can be (If you show other creators who are subscribed to your novel that you don't care enough to give time to their work by giving them likes and/or comments then there is a chance that you will lose some of those subscribers. There is a chance you can lose a subscriber if you unsubscribe to a creator who you are subscribed to.).

Ok let's get started:

GETTING SUBSCRIBERS

You can post your novel, do nothing and just wait and hope for those subscribers to come through. You may find subscribers here and there over time or you might find nobody is subscribing to you when you don't do anything. Having 9 subscribers and then in 7 month still have 9 subscribers is a possibility.

I'll tell you how I did it by getting subscribers. It pretty much a combination of waiting and being active in getting your subscribers. Leaning more into being active in getting your subscribers does it. Here are my methods of getting subscribers:

1. You have to go on these promotion forums and share the link to your novel.

2. You have to ask others if they will subscribe to you, you will get people who will say no to you and that's fine, but you'll be surprised how many people there are that will say yes. So keep asking away.

3. Subscribe, only if you want to, to those who ask you to subscribe to theirs.

KEEPING YOUR SUBSCRIBERS

As I write this, I have 454 subscribers, have I had many unsubscribers over time, yes, have I unsubscribed from others; yes Would I want some of my subscribers to unsubscribe from me? Yes.

I know who out of my subscribers are active and those who are active subscribers. Why do I not want some of them to be subscribers, well because there is no communication for long time from them to my work whatsoever. They may be viewing my comic; fine, but they are not liking and/or commenting my work at all. The worst of it is when I'm liking and/or commenting on that creators work and there is no response whatsoever. So the question is what is the point of them still being my subscriber?

At this time as I write this you have 9 subscribers (including yourself), what ever you did to get those subscribers, keep on doing that. You could have gotten those subscribers in many different ways. What were those ways? and keep on doing those ways because you succeeded in getting those subscribers because of that.

My suggestion to you: Take yourself off of your subscribers list, but that's up to you. I don't have myself subscribed to any of my work.

If I had not said it before, communicating with each and every one of you subscribers is important. If they are just a reader, then respond to any comments that they made to your novel and if they are a subscriber and also a creator themselves, then like and/or comment on their work as well. You'll not find any of my subscribers say that they have not heard from me.

Keep updating your work, you don't have to update every day, but don't leave your work for like for example 6 months, leaving your readers wondering if you'll ever get back to you novel. You'll lose subscribers that way. You may have subscribers who still stay subscribe to you, hoping you'll one day return with that update.

Whichever number of subscribers you will have to keep in communication with each and everyone one of them. Here's the thing, you are going to get various different responses from your subscribers at different times..

You are going to find out that you have subscribers who are very absent and you'll never hear back from them after they are subscribed you to your work. The subscribers that communicate to you are the subscribers that you'll be thankful to have. Subscribers who like and/or comment to your novel are awesome.

LOSING SUBSCRIBERS

You'll have to realize that losing subscribers will be a part of your journey and that you should not take it to heart when you see that happen. If you find that you are losing subscribers from time to time, be thankful for that. It's better than having subscribers who stay on your subscribers list and are not active as readers to your novel. Subscribers who you lose may still view your novel.

If you lose a subscriber, you might want to reach that subscriber and ask them if they may have mistakenly unsubscribed to you. I have done that and the subscriber who realized they unsubscribed to my comic accidentally, subscribed right back.

Some unsubscribers you'll not be surprised by and should not bother checking up with. All you got to do is keep on moving.

If you have any other questions just ask me and I'll see if I can answer them.

Nigel Parkinson, Jr.
Creator of Comic, "Pets Allowed"

[rileycooperbooks]

Thank you so much in taking the time to share this with me.
I've read through it all and unsubscribed on the story myself.
I was playing around with the site and didn't know whether it was smart or not. At least now I have an answer to that.

I'll definitely will try to do as you suggest

thank you for your insights

With love
Riley

[darthmongoose]

Hey there, welcome to Tapas.

For expectations, it's best to try not to have them, and to ignore the progress bar on the dashboard if you can! Tapas is a bit of a hard platform for Novels, because as I'm sure you've noticed, comics make up the majority of titles, and there's always a bit of a feeling like Tapas added novels to a comics site with this high ideal that the two forms would coexist with a shared audience (because they're both serialised media that people read), but what actually happened was they ended up with a comics platform that has novels on it that tend to feel overshadowed by comics. Novels do, on average, have lower readership than comics in the same genres, because there are fewer people on Tapas who read novels compared to comics.

You're making a werewolf-themed Romance-Fantasy, so I think you might have a solid shot though. It's something that could reasonably appeal to the core audience on Tapas (Women aged around 20). I'd recommend changing the cover for Tapas. Not because your cover is bad (it's actually quite well done and would probably do really well on platforms like Radish and similar), but because more illustrative covers tend to perform better here. Tapas displays covers really small, and a lot of the audience prefer illustrated covers with characters on, more like a Korean or Japanese Light Novel or a Comic. My partner chose to commission an artist to do a painted cover for their Tapas novel, and it was a really worthwhile investment; really helped it grow here.

If you have polished presentation that fits the vibe of the site, based on how well-suited this novel is to the core audience, I think it has a solid shot at a Tapas feature, which is the best way to get growth on this platform. That said, you can never know for sure if or when a feature will happen, so in the meantime, promote regularly on the forums, discord and social media and keep going with regular updates. Participate in events on the discord if you can.