Fair amount of subscribers but few comments? Feedback appreciated!

[kiddcosmos]

Hiya!

I'm Kaycee and I write and draw the webcomic Freddie Freakie, which currently as around 400+ subscribers, but very few comments! I know I shouldn't be complaining, I have a very wonderful readerbase, but I can't help but wonder why they don't tend to comment? Is it the nature of a plot heavy/long-form comic that makes people not care about commenting, or is it just that the readers I've gathered aren't the type of people to leave comments?

I suppose my question is: what makes people want to comment, or not comment? And if possible, could someone here who feels up to critiquing read my comic here and tell me what they think? I'm desperately starved for some feedback so I can know how to continue the story!

Thanks so much!

[keii4ii]

I'm gonna guess the biggest factor is that it's very early on in the story right now. I only read up to chapter 1 page 4 (will be reading more!), and I don't know where the story is headed. I don't know the characters yet.

Consequently, I don't have enough information to formulate comments like: "Man, character X was so naive back when something similar happened to them 10 chapters ago, but now they're acting a lot more jaded. It's interesting, and a bit sad, to see the change." Or like "OHHH now I see what character Y is up to! They want [insert McGuffin], but they don't want anyone else to know about it, so that's why they did A, B and C!!! Clever!"

I do have enough information to comment on things like the art style. I consciously avoid doing that, though, because I think comic creators prefer to get comments on the story/characters. (Maybe I'm only speaking for myself? XD) So just be patient and keep working at it!

As for critiques, the only thing that I can say is because the art is so stylized, sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on at a glance. This isn't an issue for everyone; I just happen to have a strong preference for visual clarity being super high. But yeah, the characters blend into the background too much for me in a lot of the panels. This leads to some side effects as well: e.g. I don't have a clear image of the main character's likeness yet. I wouldn't be able to pick her out if she appeared in a crowd shot on the next page.

While this could entirely self-resolve after reading a few more pages, it's not an issue I usually experience after seeing an important character in an unobstructed full body shot. So it might not be a problem... but it's something to think about?

Reading a couple more pages... Yep, now I'm getting a clearer picture of her, since page 5 and 6 have some shots of her against simpler (like solid color) backdrops. Again, I have very specific preferences with regards to visual clarity, so maybe this isn't a problem for most people.

Hope that helps!

[TomorrowShines]

Some people feel awkward starting the conversation. I would recommend asking questions of the audience to remove that barrier.

edit: reading through some of the subsequent answers, I'd emphasize the following--if an author (or another commenter) doesn't regularly respond to comments on a comic, then I stop making comments.

[shazzbaa]

Keep in mind, too, that usually a very small percentage of subscribers comment!

This isn't super scientific because it's a small sample, but I looked at a few comics I follow and counted up the comments -- not counting replies -- on a few semi-recent pages and averaged them out. For me (1.2k subscribers), I get around 1 comment for every 126 subscribers I have. Grassblades (5.3k) gets 1 comment for every 385 people. Centralia (571) gets 1 comment for every 87 people. Pest Caravan (1.4k) gets 1 comment for every 93 people. Demon House (13.8k) gets 1 comment for every 265 people.

Even without taking into account things like "how far in the story are you" or "are these pages easy to comment on" or "is this a genre that people tend to respond to", it's completely normal for a comic to get only one comment for every 100-300 people that are reading. So getting a couple comments on each page doesn't necessarily mean anything's wrong.

I'll also note that it's really normal to go through slow periods -- like, you could have 6 people comment on one page, and then only 1 person comments on the next three pages, and that doesn't mean anything is wrong with those next few pages.... it might just be people waiting to see how something turns out and feeling self-conscious typing out "hmmmm I wonder how this will turn out." That just comes with the territory sometimes!

[Mharz]

I'm having the same circumstances too. It's baffling me cus you would think that 8 chapters in, many people will have a say but I only have 1-2 comments per update if I'm lucky. So I just shrug it off and continue with the constant update and just think that maybe my intimidating personality is seeping through their computer monitors.

Enough joking aside, I think you're doing just fine though. Keep up the good work. 98% of my subs are pretty much just dead in the water.

[Caelestie]

Well I got 129 subs and I usually get between 2 to 3 comments per pages. I mean I just try to interact with the people that comment! The more people are invested in the story and into the character the more they will react to events happening to them. I had one of my main characters get stabbed and I got 12 comments for that page! Someone wont just leave a comment when nothing is happening in a page they don't know what to say and that is fine. It is to be expected! tho it also depends on the reader base also, you might have just attracted more lurkers!

[KoreanTacos]

400 can't wait till I get to 50. So to answer your question about comment and Feedback we can say it's because of the fanbase or content, but looking over your page I do have an answer that actually does make sense. You release your comics by single pages (let me explain and bare in mind this is going as someone who not only has his own series of comics, but is an avid reader of other peoples work). If you look at something like Furi2Play, Jeff & George, or Pow! Right in the Nostalgia those series give the readers more lead way to make comments because they're short and to the point. Every update/page has a beginning, middle, and end so there's actually something a reader can comment on, I should know because it's easy for me to read something short and not too plot heavy and say "Well I agree with X, but Y makes a funny point." Don't get me wrong we need feedback from readers it's what helps us improve as writers/artists. However when it's released as pages all the reader is wanting to do is know what happens next and can't really muster up a comment until after they know what's going on. Youtube as an example people can comment on youtube videos because they have an ending, your work is continuing people want an ending (or a minor break/twist) and I'm sure you get comments closer towards the end of a chapter than you do in the middle or beginning, I know when I'm reading structured comics I normally make comments at the end of a chapter rather than the beginning or middle. Honestly give it time and patience people will eventually have more to say after sometime.

[ghostmaya]

i got 500+ subs and comment average 3-7... i dont where the others are. but at webtoon many people do comment with 7k subs with hundreds of comments. i dont understand why....

[Rueleer]

Do you reply to your comments? D:

Personally, as a reader, I rarely comment, but I am much more likely to do so if I've seen that the author regularly replies. It tells me that my comment might actually be noticed~

It's why I've always replied to as many of my comments as possible. .3.

I've also noticed that you don't seem to take advantage of your description box to interact with your audience. (While I tend to go overboard and use that space like a diary entry X"D) including some personal thoughts or comments that you may have had for the page could spark some points of conversation with your readers~

[Wishjacked]

I tend to get a lot of comments, and it's always the same lovely group of folks. The core group of commenters are all my friends— mostly other creators who have comics that I read and comment on and love. I interact with these people all the time, especially on Twitter, but also on their comic pages and sometimes on Tumblr. So in a way it's a lot less about the comic and a lot more about the networking, I'd wager.

And I'm going to second what @rueleer just said— looking through your comic, it looks like you only respond to a few of the comments. As a reader, I notice when authors don't respond to comments, and I tend to not comment on those comics— especially if comments aren't even "liked", I have NO IDEA if the author cares about getting comments at all and I can't be bothered to sit around and think one up. I always do my best to reply to comments, even though it's a HUGE personal challenge for me. I often have to think about the response all week. And if I honestly can not come up with any response whatsoever, I always make sure to like the comment.

[Mocha]

Hmmm it's really hard to say why or why not someone would be compelled to write a comment... From personal experience I know that sometimes I just don't have anything to say even if I'm really enjoying a comic.

[Jabbage]

I think it can depend a lot on the type of comic and what's happened on any particular page. On my autobiographical comic i get lots of comments because people comment with their own annecdotes, or to ask for more detail. Plus they feel they know me better because the comic is ABOUT me.

With my story comics I tend to get more comments when something significant has happened - a twist revealed! Sometimes I'll go a few weeks with very few comments and it's just because there isn't much to comment about yet.

(Although there is a special kind of pain as an author of thinking "Oh BOY I can't wait to see what they make of THIS!!! They're all going to FREAK. OUT!!!" only to get absolutely no or few comments. I think that happens all the time even to professionals- I was listening to a DVD commentary a while ago where a writer was always sad that fans didn't freak out over a particular thing that they expected to get a big reaction. But what creators find notable and what fans find notable dont' always overlap.)