Featuring Novels!

[milejdyvan]

I've been thinking about this for a while but I feel like it is a bit of a shame that there are so few spots on the homepage for novels to shine... While comics get the staff pick section (around 30 spots in that one), they also get at least three different sections which are unique to each week, with around 10-15 spots each. Overall, this means that around 60 comics can appear on the homepage weekly, and that is not even counting the spotlight on top, and all the other categories like trending, new from the community and so on...

Novels... On the other hand, only have the staff pick section which only feature 10 stories... And to make things worse, only five of those stories get to be of non-paid stories. Even less so recently, as the last few weeks we have seen only paid stories on the staff pick section. (this week's list only includes 2 unpaid stories too, which again, feels like a miss to me)

I have to ask, why is this? And even a more important question, are there plans to start featuring more unpaid novelists on the front page?

To be clear, this is not a complaint from my part like "oh, why am i not getting featured", not even close to that. I was one of the lucky few who had her story featured and to this day, I much appreciate how much that helped me. This is extra reason why it bothers me so much because I wish more novelists got to feel the same way I did on my feature week. It's a very humbling experience and I really wished more novelists got the time to shine.

I understand that tapas is mainly a comic site, but I also don't think that we need that much attention either. I believe simply increasing the amount of stories which could appear on the staff picks would be more than enough. Could it maybe be 20 stories instead of 10, and half of those get to be unpaid? Or if not that, any other idea that could help the novelists would be much welcome.

But that is just my opinion. If there are any novelists out here, please give your opinion. Do you think that I am overreacting or do you agree?

[crosswarrior7]

My guess is just because this place started as a webcomic place and has only recently added on the ability to also write novels here, so most of the audience is also webcomic readers.

[milejdyvan]

Ask mostly anyone working for tapas (at least on the forums) and they always answer with "novels are an important part of our community". Everybody knows they care, but I believe that some of it could be shown on the homepage as well. Slowly integrating more and more of it. To be clear, I am not saying that I don't like the way it was implemented until now, I just believe it could slowly change to include more of the novels at this point.

Plus, there used to be the "community picks" or something like it which also included novels. That I don't believe is a thing anymore so you know, maybe something to replace it... Something... Novel related lol

[crosswarrior7]

It may come back to audience then. Perhaps as the audience for webnovels grow, they'll feel more comfortable putting more into them. They likely care for their webnovel writers, but caring for them doesn't also mean able to take the financial move of putting more into their promotion. At least, that's my guess. They are still a relatively small app compared to some other writer sites (Wattpad, Webtoon) so may have to be more considerate of audience right now.

Again, just guessing xD

[ratscout]

I mean, it would be really nice, teehee. Old Ratscout used to get quite a few features on the front page, but no more, LOL. It's fine, though--there's something to be said for pushing yourself to market so you can at least get on trending--which I have, quite often, actually--but still, getting a boost from the site is REALLY nice and about 1000 times less work, haha. Although, I typically don't mind the work at all since it pushes me to actually read the work of MANY talented authors on the site who deserve more love. Still, I feel we novelists wouldn't have to work so hard if they gave even just a tiny little more space on the front page.

Speaking of which, does anyone know what happened to the Community Picks section? I really liked that section as it advertised for both novels and comics and had input from the community.

Anyway, all this is a lot to say, but to get back on point: I don't exactly think you're overeacting. Back in the early days, Tapas had a popular section for both comics and novels at the top of the page, and then had staff picks for novels and comics at the bottom. Basically, staff picks featured unknowns, and popular featured the money makers. I liked this system quite a bit more, as it gave everyone more of a chance to shine rather than just premium/popular. I think there's a way for Tapas to keep their bottom line but also advertise for lesser-knowns--they just need to find it.

I would also appreciate more of a variety in WHAT Tapas promotes. It's all romance? I dunno, how about some horror and sci-fi or something~! <3 I know it's a risk, but when risks sell, they sell WELL.

[milejdyvan]

I agree completely! Especially as the end. I feel like Sci fi novels and horror don't get as much attention as fantasy, romance, bl, and so on... It's a shame really, cuz how are the readers supposed to find these stories otherwise? I feel like there could maybe be at least two stories for each category? Okay, maybe that is a bit much, but at least one for each category would be nice to keep it diverse! ^^

I wasn't around tapas for too long, so I can't say how it was before but I very much appreciate your insight as an older user! Hopefully, we can make a change slowly happen. It would be cool to see 2021 be the year more novels get to shine

[crosswarrior7]

It is honestly because of all the romance attention I figured most of their promotion focus was on audience. Romances and isekais are super popular right now in general, and that tends to be the things promoted as well.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I am actually thinking would it be good if besides the main landing page, each novel and comic menu has landing page-like format. Unlike the current model where when you click each menu, there would be only a boring list in ranking-like format which unsurprisingly dominated by premium series because of their promotion and you have to scroll all the way down or switch to "Fresh" to find obscure series.

Also careful to mention which genre is more popular than others, you could displease some souls here and as I write something fantasy, I can vouch it is utter garbage of a genre that should be ridiculed more.

[Black_Conscious]

As a young Novelist I haven't gone deep into the Tapas Community and How they operate, but putting my shoes on a person who reads comics/novels it is how they bring in people with their work, its like with a comic artist , they draw out their comic and put it out to the world, it brings the attention of a person who can easily read it thru and where you have an Novelist having a bunch of sentences/paragraphs it shortens the attention span and a comic gives the person to pay attention because of how, well of course the story and the way they draw out it same thing with a novel , its all about how well you do it.

This is just my intake of it, know that this doesn't happen to everyone but I would like to say most do.
And I would also like to say that the Comics are mostly more popular than the Novels and maybe that's why they have more staff picks then Novels as well, at least that's what I think.

Basically Popular takes over the None Popular

uh Happy Holidays Person****🏽
Stay Safe

[Penni]

Th novels side of the house is still fairly new (since was primarily a webcomic platform) and the team who handles novels is small (but growing). So I imagine that the novels team has stuff in the works, it just may take a while for them to be able to do more depending on their resources and whatnot.

I'm hopeful! we'll see more from Tapas for novels!

[thedude3445]

The "Novels We Love" section has featured novels updated every week and there are some Premium novels. There'll be more in the future, but no novels so far have shown anywhere near the level of success of the comics and so it'll take a huge breakout success to convince the team to make bigger investments on that side of the site, I imagine. Maybe one of us has just got to be the one to pull it off...

[Berserker]

It would be nice to see a community novel section for sure. Not sure exactly how it would be organized. Could be a mix of whatever has received a lot of interaction lately combined with some kind of cooldown. Just something so that the number 1-5 trending isn't always in the slot.

[milejdyvan]

Actually, they seemed to have fixed that recently. The popular page for example is much better now and you don't actually need to scroll that far down to find a series. My story went down to around the 20th spot now, but yesterday it was in top ten even among the paid stories. That's the thing, this part of the app is getting MUCH better in this regard but I only wanted to give some extra attention to the to the lesser known novelists via the main homepage.

[milejdyvan]

I'm not talking about the creation of these two mediums, and yes, both need to be quality to keep someone's attention I also have absolutely no issue with comics getting more attention on the homepage as I believe they deserve it. My post is only saying that in comparison, there is a lacking novel section, and I am hopeful that in the future they plan to expand that factor a little. One thing I did not get a chance to talk about was that just a few months ago there was an extra section where novels could shine, but that is no longer a thing. So this is less so a complaint, and rather an inquiry into the plans of novels on the homepage in the future, in which I am hopeful to see a positive change as everything else on the app is getting much better (not that it was bad before though)

[milejdyvan]

Yes, I do know these things, which is why I made the post to inquire into the things in the future and also make sure that the staff knows the interest for said changes is welcome. I do not expect things to suddenly change, neither do I think my idea on the post would be implemented, rather, I'm just curious what other thing they have in plan.

[milejdyvan]

It hasn't for the last two weeks though they were only featured novels. Which I hate to be that person who calls those novels "different" or whatever, as I have absolutely no isse with paid stories whatsoever (heck, I pay for and read them all the time), I just wish they gave just a little bit more attention to the lesser known writers. I know quite a few here who absolutely deserve a spot there and still haven't gotten it.

[milejdyvan]

That sounds kind of like the trending tab though no? Unless I misunderstand your idea...

[domisotto]

I am guessing their staff is on holidays for a couple of weeks, so they recycle promos for paid novels. Or the revenues are not great, so they give more slots to paid material.

[milejdyvan]

Ahhh, that actually did not cross my mind yeah, you might be right about that... Well either way, I do hope to see it come back at least to the original form soon.

[Penni]

I understand the frustration with novels. I'm also curious as to what Tapas has in the works! But, personally, wouldn't really expect a business to discuss their plans, at least not until they're at the point that they're ready to announce a launch something.

Waiting to see what's to come is frustrating too, and I get that as well!