Feeling discouraged as a small creator

oOafterburnerOo 2021-01-06 16:48:17 UTC #5

I have felt like that all my life.
But your comic intro had me hooked and made me laugh right away so I think you're doing a great job, keep it up.

ninjashira 2021-01-06 16:48:29 UTC #6

It can be especially hard early in your Tapas career to gain any kind of an audience, and it can be a little frustrating. You never know if your comic is going to take off and become popular, or live in mediocrity for its entire run. My growth on Tapas started fairly slow, but I was happy every single time I got one new person who liked it. I stayed consistent in my updates and turned out fairly decent work (it's gotten better lately but the first chapter was a little rough). I have nowhere near the following that some of the very popular comics do, with their tens of thousands of subscribers and hundreds of comments every episode, but I'm very happy to have the audience I do have. But it took me about a year to get to a thousand subscribers. It's definitely the long game.

Puck 2021-01-06 16:48:31 UTC #7

First you need a smashing idea, a story and characters people can relate to.
Does your story and the characters have the potential to speak to a lot of readers?
Are you convinced about your story and characters?
If you have all that then it´s a question of presentation and a question if there
is a group of readers who might be interested in that genre of story

Comic.Kikikora 2021-01-06 16:55:37 UTC #8

Thank you for all of your encouragement.

Actually what really puzzled me is ... I clicked into some of these creators and they don't seem to have previous projects ... so cannot tell if they have built in follower bases ... prehaps it is just simply anyone viewed have subscribed and commented ... which is really amazing as after doing webcomic for a while, I know this is really difficult to retain active readers.

Comic.Kikikora 2021-01-06 17:03:09 UTC #9

Getting over 1k sub on Tapas is really not easy, congratulations!!!

cassidybueter 2021-01-06 17:04:00 UTC #10

The people that start with loads of followers and viewers probably had big social media followings to begin with. But if there's one thing I know about webcomics, it's a long game. A lot of people fall off in the first few months. Also, I've found that crossposting to Webtoon helps.

TedGravesArt 2021-01-06 17:23:03 UTC #11

Quality does not equal popularity. As online creators we have to be responsible for marketing ourselves as well, which is a completely different skill set that's really difficult for a lot of artists, myself included. Little things can make a huge difference, like posting individual pages rather than chunks, or posting on forums to get your name more visible. There's a lot of noise in the creative space these days and often the platforms that we use to drive traffic to our stuff actively suppress smaller creators. Keep consistent, and don't get discouraged!

Puck 2021-01-06 17:32:15 UTC #12

I got what you mean but I also think that the really popular stuff is just simply good in a way that it speaks to a lot of people.
You can do a lot with promotion but only to a certain level

darthmongoose 2021-01-06 17:32:58 UTC #13

There can be all sorts of reasons for a person seeming to have no history on Tapas but having a fast growth due to an established fanbase or experience that allows them to make more polished work. For example:

This might be their first comic on Tapas, but they might have made comics on another platform, maybe an older one like Smackjeeves, or a less comics-focused one like Tumblr, or perhaps they previously posted on Webtoon.
This might be their first webcomic, but they may have made lots of print comics on their country's small press scene.
They could have made a comic on Tapas before but deleted it or made a new account because they put it on hiatus or don't like it any more, or they're rebooting.

I don't have any previous work on Tapas, but I've made comics on other platforms (Drunk Duck, Smackjeeves, Hypercomix, Deviantart... some of these don't even exist any more) done print comics for a bunch of UK anthologies over the years etc. Errant definitely isn't my first comic or even my first webcomic by a long shot. I'm still working my butt off to try to hit 1k because Tapas isn't an easy platform for Action genre comics (but it's the most LGBTQIA+ friendly one so.... Grind grind grind, I guess).

ninjashira 2021-01-06 17:43:53 UTC #14

Thank you! I'm fairly convinced that only about 40% of that was my hard work, and the other 60% is dumb luck

BrambleberrySquirrel 2021-01-06 18:48:35 UTC #15

Visibility and the gate to popularity as a creator on the internet is mostly ruled by algorithms. It can be really discouraging when machine god doesn’t smile on you for whatever unknowable reason. But, whether or not a soulless collection of equations decides your art is worthy of praise does not reflect on its value or on your value as a person or a creator.

You can’t give up on your art, that’s the only sure fire way to insure that it goes nowhere and no one will ever see or appreciate it. You’ve gotta keep pushing through and know that you will find your audience. Maybe it’s not even on this platform, but there are billions of people on this planet and if even less than 1% of them take notice and enjoy what you’re doing that’s a massive audience.

These feelings are normal and I certainly deal with them myself on a regular basis. I’ll work really hard on a piece of art or a comic update I’m really proud of and think shows some big improvement and once I chuck it out into the void of the internet it’s met with silence or just a handful of views and likes. It’s hard, but you can’t let yourself drown in that feeling. Those few people who liked what you made matter and they’re not wrong. You just have to keep moving forward and pursuing your passion as a creator. One day you’ll look up and realize it was all worth it.

migxmeg 2021-01-06 18:51:01 UTC #16

This is exactly how I feel too . And it's important to be proud of yourself and your own work as well.

cherrystark 2021-01-06 18:54:02 UTC #17

Don't give up hope! All good things take time. I'm still miles away from where I want to be as a creator but I'm heaps better off now than I was a year ago. Keep moving forward!

TheYaoiEmpire 2021-01-06 18:58:26 UTC #18

I get discouraged a lot, been working on my project for six years, wrote a novel the size of three lord of the rings books, but I got told it was, waaaay too big so I am currently redoing it into seven different books. I get discouraged because of the lack of feedback and the years of silence so deafening I feel more alone than a party clown that has social anxiety at a large party he was determined to go to at first, but the fear of rejection holds him hostage constantly.

But he goes to the party and performs regardless, because he can’t give up, it’s his dream to be a party clown that people enjoy.

Rhonder 2021-01-06 22:39:29 UTC #19

I think it's a pretty common feeling among smaller/newer creators. I think the main thing to keep in mind is that these things:

DO more often than not happen, but often times not as fast or in as big of numbers as we hope. It depends on a lot of factors and many of them are out of your control. You can't make people read or subscribe or leave likes after all. The best you can do is to work your best, try to do what you can to get it in front of more eyes, and see where it goes

Lastly is that it's not uncommon to see better results on your 2nd, 3rd, 5th, etc. project than on the previous ones. Little by little you build up familiarity and a base readership, so even if your first or second project doesn't take off, they're not necessarily for nothing. All of it builds up your brand as an author~

domisotto 2021-01-06 23:23:12 UTC #20

My second novel had a harder time than the first in terms of visibility because of the genre. The first one could make trending and popular fairly often, the second never does. By now, my second though finally gained as many subs as the first did before it was featured, but far less reads. I honestly don’t know how to compare the two.

Darth_Biomech 2021-01-07 03:30:06 UTC #21

I'm in the same boat, but I try to calm myself down with three thoughts:

I suck at advertising, socializing (How much people follow me on Twitter? Whooping 30! And I think that some of them might be just mass-followers...), so I don't do that much or at all, and honestly I have no idea how the people find my comic when it's not me who they learned about it from.
my art isn't stellar, so at least some people will be definitely turned down by it, and I don't think that I can write quirky funny likable characters.
I'm doing a niche spin on an already niche genre. So I'm culling my target audience and then I'm culling what was left again. Should've gone for some fantasy adventure with sexy overtones, I bet I'd be swimming in followers by now then XP

At least one can be cured with time, but I can't do much about the other two (It's unlikely that the genre will ever become popular or that I'll do 180 on my psychology, habits, and basically the entire self image). But on the other hand I amassed something like ~300 viewers in 4 years. That's actually a sizeable crowd that won't fit in some theaters. So I must continue, if not for myself then for them. Because it would be pretty rude to flip of quarter of a thousand of people and disappear into thin mist.

monotone_ink 2021-01-07 03:34:28 UTC #22

Don't you dare give up

rajillustration 2021-01-07 03:39:43 UTC #23

I know exactly how it is to feel discouraged when something you work so hard on--like SO hard on--gets completely ignored. Thing is, not every story you make will pick up. And that's OK. That's pretty normal for most creators--so keep making stuff, keep improving, and keep learning how people consume and find their comics in this 2021 world. And if it's really not working, it's fine to step back and do something else like a different comic or something like that.

I've been in and out with comics for years and years, but I come back to it because writing em and drawing em soothes me and I just love to write stories. Just because this may not have hit does not mean it's the end of your art at all. It's just that this particular website (that is difficult to get seen on) didn't work. But after this website passes on years and years from now, if it does, no one will know how many views your work had. You will always have the work you make. And that's pretty neat to have.

WinterFall 2021-01-07 05:54:40 UTC #24

I understand how you feel. Everyone would feel discouraged at times, and probably some authors would think about discontinuing their stories. I know that being a small or new creator to the Tapas community is really hard and challenging at first, because there are so many other novels/comics which are already very popular, and you would just randomly start thinking to yourself, "I have to catch up with them if I want to become a big-time creator." Nonetheless, don't let negative thoughts take over you! Let me share my little story here...

I am actually a bit of a newbie. I've just joined the community seven or eight weeks ago, more or less. Before I joined Tapas, I was already into writing. I had a deep passion for it, and ever since I joined this community, I've been thinking if I should publish a novel here. And so, two weeks after creating my Tapas account, I have decided to publish a novel in here, despite being a new user.

Of course, it wouldn't be THAT easy to catch people's attention. After all, I was a new user, I wasn't a known creator. I had no notable works. I literally started with zero. However, after publishing my first chapter, I got a bit more views, to the point that I got my first likes and subscribers! It was kind of a roller-coaster, but so far, I really appreciate the fact that even though I am a new user, I still got views and likes.

Right now, my novel so far has 109 views, 19 subscribers, and 31 likes, and I've only published one chapter (although I have three episodes, the first one is me introducing myself, the second one is the update schedule, and the first chapter is the third one; which technically means I've only published the first chapter)! I do hope that I would get more likes, views, and subscribers as I publish more chapters, but right now, I am already thankful for all the views and subscribers my novel got! Even when I had not even one view yet, I was really motivated into publishing my story, since I wasn't really doing this for views, but for my passion! Now that I actually got plenty (it's already plenty to me) views, ahaha... I'm really fired up!

I just really wanted to share the story behind my novel, so I'm sorry if it's too long! What I'm trying to say is, once you create your story, you would find happiness, joy, and love in it, especially if writing/drawing is really your passion. Please don't feel discouraged! I know that you can't fully get rid of negative thoughts, even I can't... but nonetheless, please don't give up on your story. You must stand up and publish more chapters to strive, and to find your own happiness as well. This is what it means to be an author! I hope this story I've shared with you guys would help you all stand up and continue being a free and passionate author! I hope you are all still inspired and motivated into writing your stories.