Feel free to ask me comic related questions (I'm a featured original webcomic artist)

[doublemelon]

Congratulations for getting featured! I hope the thread will not be deleted for whatever reason. xD And it's really sweet of you to be willing to share your experience, and I understand that you'd like to keep the anonymity.

I'd like to ask several questions then!
1. How long did you stay as a canvas until you got the offer?
2. Did you get featured as a canvas comic before getting the offer? How many times?
3. How was the process like after getting the offer? Did webtoon give a contract immediately? Did you get a lawyer to review the contract?
4. I noticed that some canvas comics that got the offer would eventually post in Original MONTHS later, what happened in those months?
5. How many episodes in advance do you have to finish before the launch? Do you have to already come up with the ending of the comic?
6. Do you have to hire your own assistant? Does Webtoon provide and pay for an editor?
7. Do you have to redraw everything from scratch from episode 1 to look better on Original?
8. How do you get paid? Is it pay per episode? Pay per view? Pay per amount of subscribers?
9. What happens if you take a vacation or get sick, and fall behind schedule of making comic?
10. Who chooses the day you post? Some post on Monday or Wednesday etc.

I could go on. You don't have to answer everything immediately.
But I'm too curious

[SurvivALIST]

I don't know why you were flagged because there's nothing wrong with it and you don't seem like a spam bot. There's nothing wrong with maintaining anonymity. If you ever were, then that's another story. If you're just fitting into the forums, then you've gotten a way bad first impression starting in the Tapas community with "the new you".

[DiegoPalacios]

could you at least show your comic?

[doublemelon]

S/he wants to stay anonymous.

[im_sleepy]

thank you so much!

1. How long did you stay as a canvas until you got the offer?
   A really really long time. Several years in fact. Which is out of the norm I will admit, and it makes me extra grateful that they eventually still contacted me.

2. Did you get featured as a canvas comic before getting the offer? How many times?
   Many times. Both on the canvas section and on the front page, as a banner and as a comic in the suggested section. There is a trend where comics that are often featured will get contract offers. It makes sense if you think about it from a standpoint of marketable comics that they'd push on their website also being ones they'd want to sign. Keep in mind though that my comic was around for a long time, while many aren't around on canvas for that long, so I had more time for features.

3. How was the process like after getting the offer? Did webtoon give a contract immediately? Did you get a lawyer to review the contract?
   I'm not gonna be able to answer anything about the contract process due to confidentiality. I did get a lawyer to review my contract but not all artists too.

4. I noticed that some canvas comics that got the offer would eventually post in Original MONTHS later, what happened in those months?
   It can take a really long time to get your comic ready for Originals, especially if there are things you need to change for it. take Graveweaver's I'm the Grim Reaper for example. They had to overhaul the comic style completely for Originals and that's usually the main reason. Sometimes you have to edit the comic for webtoons and sometimes you personally want to as an artist change your comic or the relaunch.

5. How many episodes in advance do you have to finish before the launch? Do you have to already come up with the ending of the comic?
   This is flexible. they like to have 10+ episodes if you can but you're free to discuss with your editor what you'd like. And again, ending wise, it is up for discussion but they do like you to have a firm grasp of your entire comic for the purposes of it being logical for efficiency.

6. Do you have to hire your own assistant? Does Webtoon provide and pay for an editor?
   Assistants are completely up to you, the artist's, discretion. They don't have anything to do with it. You do get an editor that helps out with feedback though from their end.

7. Do you have to redraw everything from scratch from episode 1 to look better on Original?
   you don't have to, but many artists will because they want to.

8. How do you get paid? Is it pay per episode? Pay per view? Pay per amount of subscribers?
   You do get paid. You can find old interviews about how webtoons pays artist, I won't go into exactly how we are paid, again for confidentiality reasons, sorry. However, something that is common knowledge is that we do get money if you pay for fast pass episodes.

9. What happens if you take a vacation or get sick, and fall behind schedule of making comic?
   They are very very flexible so you can let them know if something has come up. However, you are expected to be a professional about it, give prior notice if that's possible and not miss schedule unless there is a proper reason. Like any job.

10. Who chooses the day you post? Some post on Monday or Wednesday etc.
    Webtoons mainly, we can discuss, and that is the case for almost anything regarding your comic.

hope that was helpful! Sorry I have to be vague sometimes.

[im_sleepy]

haha it's alright. I've been on the tapas forums forever, and I've been on tapas itself since year 1 or 2 of it's launch so I don't hold it against them. Tapas is childhood home base for comics for me.

[noenoh]

Congratulations on being featured! I saw the announcement yesterday!
Most of the questions I had in mind were asked by @doublemelon

So bad your post was flagged, I hope it doesnt get closed or deleted.
I just get up from bed and turned on my pc just to support you man

Summary

I assume the one who flagged you either tot you might be a bot and giving false info since you are trying to stay anon or someone who wanna ordereveryonearoundtheforumandhasnotbeenaroundforsolongeithertochillabit...

.

[im_sleepy]

yeah, sorry, I can't. It's ok if you don't believe me. There are strange people on the internet that claim many things that aren't true haha. It's a matter of personal comfort and my own issues that I want to keep my name anonymous and since my name is on my comic, I can't share it. Thank you for understanding.

[amortelito]

*I'm not sure it's the reason to get flagged but I think long ago we were enouraged to not discuss Webtoons since this is the Tapas Forum. To avoid Webtoons users coming here to promote going there.

If somebody can confirm this I will appreciate to know.

[im_sleepy]

hahaha thank you!

I won't say anything else, but I'm not necessarily in that post just feeling very nostalgic so I popped into the forum to say hello again.

So bad your post was flagged, I hope it doesnt get closed or deleted.
I just get up from bed and turned on my pc just to support you man

Yeah, I really don't know what I did wrong haha. They said it got flagged multiple times so.... I really don't know. Appreciate the support!

[doublemelon]

Wow thank you so much for answering everything! ^-^

That was super helpful!!

I'm sorry if some of the questions are public knowledge, I haven't really looked around the details on Google before xD

[doublemelon]

If a Tapas featured comic artist would bother coming here and answer questions, that'd be great too lol

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Hey Everyone! With our existing forum guidelines being over a year old, it is now time for an update! I’m Isabell, also known as Ratique, and while many of you have interacted with me for years as forum moderator and part of the community, I’m now the new Creator Happiness Manager at Tapas. My goals are to improve the communication between the Tapas team and you, and to find better ways to include you in exciting projects that improve your time here as creators! I can’t wait to see how we can …

[SurvivALIST]

Ah ok. Now I get why the post was flagged.

[noenoh]

good to know but... ive seen a lot of self-promoting only one comic or novel topics not being closed in the past months. correct me if Im wrong

[amortelito]

Yes!! Some of them used to be here a lot to share tips and answer questions but I remember the threads becoming a dumpster fire mostly because all ended up fighting about BL being a popular genre​.

[doublemelon]

Aww I was born too late to witness the Tapas genre war lol.

[Kaydreamer]

We have had some ongoing issues over the past month with spammers on these forums, so I think everyone may be a little on edge, and trigger-happy with the report button. That said, I'm certainly grateful for you coming in to answer questions! And I hope they don't close the topic for not being Tapas-focused, almost all of us post on WEBTOON as well, and this is a rare opportunity to speak with someone who has knowledge of the Originals world.

My questions:

1. I notice that it seems to be becoming normal for comics to 'pause' after a season. I assume this is because the artist requires the time between seasons to catch up. (50+ panels per week is pretty nuts. I can barely manage 25 every two weeks at the moment - I have a time-intensive style - though I am getting faster.) Is this the case?
2. If this is the case, is it something discussed during the contract negotiations, or is it flexible?
3. Do you, or any other Originals creators you know, carry on other work on the side? (I'd want to retain at least one day of teaching work for stability reasons.)
4. How much of your comic and its plot do you need to have mapped out for a pitch to be successful?
5. If you have one Original series, are you better able to pitch a new series to them as the first one wraps due to having contact with the WEBTOON staff?
6. How much creative control do the editors have over the pacing and tone of the story? Are they okay with it 'meandering' a little, or do they push you to keep it tight and focused?

[drawnbyyannan]

Thanks for doing this!

I'm wondering:
1) Was the webtoon that got featured the first webtoon you've ever worked on? Did you do any other series?
2) What was your episode schedule while it was on Canvas? Roughly how many panels and how frequently did you post?
3) Why do you think your webtoon got chosen to be featured? Do you know how that was decided? In my mind it's just a webtoon editor browsing through canvas, finds one, asks his higher-up if it's okay, then emails the creator...
4) Why do you think some series get original offers really quickly and others take years?

Not sure if you can answer these questions but I appreciate whatever insight you can share!

[ninjashira]

3) Why do you think your webtoon got chosen to be featured? Do you know how that was decided? In my mind it's just a webtoon editor browsing through canvas, finds one, asks his higher-up if it's okay, then emails the creator...

I can actually answer this one. Webtoons came to my college a couple months ago and did a series of virtual workshops where they talked a lot about the process of becoming an Original and how it works on their end and all kinds of info and details. And on this, you are actually basically correct! Editorial Interns and Editors will spend a certain portion of their time reading basically every single comic that is posted to Canvas. They monitor it for consistency, posting frequency, story potential, creator interaction, things like that. If they see something promising, they can bring it to the head Editors for consideration as an Original.

They mentioned the biggest things they look for is...

• Clear art with a distinct separation between characters and backgrounds
• Character designs that are clearly and immediately distinct from one another
• Good use of the vertical scroll format
• Consistent updates (this doesn't mean they are looking for comics that are uploading 40+ panel episodes every week, just that you are uploading on a regular schedule and are meeting your own deadlines)
• A clear direction to the story

If your comic has/does all of those things, then there's a fairly decent chance it'll get noticed by an Editor or Editorial Intern. From there, whether it gets picked up as an Original can come down to a lot of things like schedule, production timeline, whether they have something in Originals that is already really similar to what you're doing, if it fits the vibe/brand/feel of Webtoons, things like that. But that's a good starting point.

Also, to the point @Kaydreamer asked...

How much of your comic and its plot do you need to have mapped out for a pitch to be successful?

The visiting Webtoons Editor told us that 99% of comics chosen to be Originals are not pitched to them. They said if your goal is to have a comic be an Original, the absolute best way to do that is to start posting it as a Canvas series and do all of the above things in order to get it noticed by an Editor. Less than 1% of Originals are series that are pitched directly to them.

That being said, if anyone does want to pitch a comic series (whether to Webtoons or HiveWorks or any other traditional comics or book publisher), you need to put together a Pitch Packet. I started to type up a thing here, but it got a little long, so I made it it's own post. You can read my whole post here to see what needs to go into a pitch packet: https://forums.tapas.io/t/a-guide-to-assembling-a-pitch-packet/60092