Fast updates with fewer pages or Slow updates with longer pages?

[tsukiko]

Hey fellas just wondering what do readers and artists/writers prefer? fast updates with fewer pages or Slow updates with longer pages? Share your experiences, your insights on this matter anything! It will all be VERY VERY helpful !!!! thanx a lot

[shazzbaa]

This is a trade-off that depends on the pacing of the comic!

Readership-wise:
Regardless of which is best for the story, updating more frequently will almost ALWAYS help you grow your readership more quickly. It's just a rule of the internet -- the more often you post a new piece of content, the more chances you have to be noticed. That doesn't mean it's best for the comic, but it's something to take into consideration.

Story/Pacing-wise:
If you have a lot of atmospheric, slow-paced pages where not much "happens" except scene-setting, it can be tougher to post those sorts of pages individually. It can make the pacing of a comic slow to a crawl if there's a bunch of these as individual pages, as the reader feels like they keep checking in and nothing has changed -- you don't get the full effect of scene-setting and strong sense of mood that would happen if you read them all at once. There's an advantage to posting enough pages to get a single "beat" of story, so that readers feel like they got a satisfying chunk.

On the other hand, too much of a gap between updates and it's harder to keep track of the story -- readers could see a new page and feel like they have to scroll back and reread to remember what was even happening when we last checked in.

I think you really have to read your own pages and decide how much you would feel "satisfied" with as a reader. How much would you want to read at once to feel like you've learned or seen something new in each update, even if the something you've learned is just a mood, like "this town feels eerie," or just a fun interaction between characters!

I try hard to make sure my own pages have enough going on in a single page to feel like a satisfying "chunk," since I can only do one page a week and I don't want to update more slowly than that! I take my update rate into consideration when I'm pacing my story and deciding how much should happen on each page. But it's going to be different for each comic -- some comics take more time with their scenes, and would be more boring if they updated with one page at a time like that.

---

As a reader, I tend to prefer more frequent updates -- a couple of times a week is ideal for me! But if nothing really happens in each page over a bunch of updates, I will lose interest faster.

[tsukiko]

Thank you for this absolutely awesome reply. i wilk ponder in each point thouroughly thanx a million

[Michelle]

I'm fine with waiting for a longer update, so long as there aren't ginormous gaps inbetween pages. I'd much prefer that to getting quicker updates at the expense of quality. So long as there's some kind of story movement happening, I'll be happy.

I update my comic with a new page each week, and do my best to ensure each new page gives some new development to the scene or overall story. I also try to leave off with a reason to look forward to the next page, something that gets the reader wondering what's gonna happen next. If I have a splash page or a scenery page, then I'll do a double-update so there's more content for that week. :>

[Starfestival]

I do halves. One half one day and I try to get the final half out by the end of that week.

[MylCreates]

I'd do longer updates, as it'd be easier for readers and you wouldn't have to go back and try to compress the pages in a single episode loosing all your comments if your comic gets so long to the point it becomes intimidating to read.
BUT, this also counts as a single episode too, so, you miiight get less views that'd contribute to your Ad sense because there's ads for every episode, not every page in an episode that readers would be scrolling by. Then again it's also nice for the readers because they don't have to keep scrolling to the next page past ads time and time again which again would suck for those who are just getting into the comic if you already have a lot of pages. A middle ground for this is also manually going in and updating an episode with adding a new page and clicking the "notify subscribers" button, so that readers would come back to the same episode to see the new page. Your comic won't show up in the comic-notifications tab though if you did this, just the messages notification tab, so idk how much people are keen on looking in on updated episodes.

Personally for the comics that post a single page often, I usually wait a few weeks before jumping in to read it so i can read it in bulk and get more out of it than a single splash page or a page with some dialogue .

[dglisson]

I personally update three times a week, one page per update. Beast Bait is pretty action-packed, so there's usually something of interest in every page to move the story or characterization along. I definitely have had that experience as a reader where I get on board with a great looking comic, dutifully wait a week or more for the new episode, and it's one gorgeously rendered page where nothing happens... makes me a little less excited to read it when the next update comes along.

[tsukiko]

yup, I understand what you mean, that was also my reason in doing longer but slower updates, and binge reading was quite my thing so i tried applying it on my own manga xD. thanx for the insight

[tsukiko]

nice, a good way to push yourself in making your comic. I would keep that in mind as well thanx for this

[mariusthered]

At present my story is playing catch up here on tap. I was remaking every page to re size them for this website, but I got board of working on stuff i made two years ago. so now i just re size the old art work and put new speak bubbles on. this means a quicker turn around for me and i can put two old size pages on the long ones i use for this site. I update Daily Talesfromswipecity

I enjoy comics that update on a quicker rate one comic i follow i enjoy the artwork very much but the posting is once a week and the plot is starting to feel like a tooth ache.

[niinasalmelin]

I have two comics and I'm trying both of these update methods with them. My main project and a long term comic Numb updates every week with one page. Little tales, updates very randomly, between every other month with a whole scene. I've been doing them both since last fall so let me share my experiences so far!

Numb, one page every week:

Honestly I'd say that at the beginning this method was somewhat poisonous for Numb. You see the story takes it time to set up and is heavily focused on character interactions and dialogue. So while I felt like updating the first chapter was just a drag and it went ooooonnn and onnnnn. Don't get me wrong, I got readers that were intrigued of the setting and are still there reading, but some others said that they just feel like nothing's happening.

I was starting to grow unconfident ("my comic is really boring and nothing can save it") until one other art critique friend read it in one lump and said to me that there's many things happening so fast. One reveal in chapter 1 shouldn't have been so soon. Also, after that things started picking up with the story and what was amazing was that my readers were noticing it and told me about it. It felt great!

So even thought first 5 months updating this comic felt kinda like suffering, I'd say now that it's worth it and this is why: Even if the story felt like it moved really slow with weekly updates there's now showing that I've been steadily updating it without a single error for 8 months now. I'm consistent creator. New readers who can now read more before waiting for updates know what they're getting into, and if the comic isn't their piece of cake they know it from the material that's out already. Start is always hardest for both readers (who don't have clear idea yet what's the comic going to be like) and the creator (staying firm with update schedule even if the good parts are far ahed).

Let's move on

Little Tales, once scene every other month/random

Little Tales gets clearly less views (so far it's 498) than Numb (7.7k), however the subscribers seem to find it, slowly but surely. Comparing to Numb it has less, but comparing to the views and pages being uploaded it's doing oh so much better.

I don't promote it as much, since the updates are more random and I do think that the fact that mystery genre doesn't have as many comics under it as slice of life for example, it's easier to get noticed. Anyhow neither of these comics isn't exactly popular yet, but both are getting slowly rising with traffic every month. Numb faster and more steady, Little Tales gets more big tips with every update time, but not so often random views.

I hope there was something helpful for you

Edit: OH AND as a reader I prefer to have more often updates. I often go through my reading list and if I've managed to forget the comic I drop it. So if it has fewer updates the quality has to compensate and make me remember it if I'll see it again in 4 months.

[KreativeConfusion]

I had this problem a while back too. At best I can only update once a week, but considering my story that makes things slow. I generally try to stick to a 3 page is rule where I try to add a little something to keep readers interested. Such as making a silly lil joke or doing something a little interesting to transition. I don't mean have every 3 pages be intense or anything, but keep in mind on not dragging the subject on for too long or doing nothing but talk for a while.