Have I made a mistake?

[Darkshines]

When I started my comic, I decided that I would release each chapter as its own series. It seemed like a good idea at first, however what I've noticed is, the second chapter hasn't had anywhere near as much attention as the first.

Should I have just done all the chapters as one comic?

And is there possibly a way to merge the two together?

[Kelheor]

Yes, this was not a good idea. Readers don't get a notification when you make a new comic series, thus they never saw you created chapter 2. Also more often than not people don't like to sub to a new comic at all - the library can fit like 500-1000 comics and many people have it filled to the brim.
I don't think you can merge two series either, sorry (although you can look closely on dashboard, but I don't think it's an option). Well, things happen, it'll be alright. I would post whatever pages of chapter 2 you already posted in chapter 1 (just not all of them at once! give yourself more chances to be seen) and make an announcement or two...or a few on chapter 2 and send readers over to the first one - use banners, links, whatever you can.
Don't spread your comic and your readership thin until you know the content is really different from the main plot so creation of the new page is justified.

[Darkshines]

Nice ok thanks!! I'll work on doing that over the next months.
Glad I asked now and not when I was 4 chapters in!

This story is gonna be part of a trilogy. Would it work having a separate comic for each part? Or label it all under one?

[jwabeasley]

Just make it one long comic that updates regularly! Think of it like asking "Should I fight a boss in this rogue-like game with a new character or with the one I've already leveled?"

[Kelheor]

What @jwabeasley said!
So the numbers/engagement will drop with time on every comic. Not because a comic is bad, but because some people stop reading (for many different reasons), it happens naturally with time and you pretty much cannot influence it. The longer the comic is, the more dramatic of a drop there is. And that happens even if we make one long comic, so publishing different chapters as different comics just makes this seem even more dramatic.

In the end, just make one long comic and it'll be great

[Gaxtry]

That's strange because you do get notified if a followed creator creates a new series. It might be dependant on your notification settings.

But this is my biggest complaint about Tapas. Their app and creator wall are not linked. I'll only learn about wall posts if I check the website on desktop. The app will only notify me when: A new episode is out, a new series by a followed creator is now available and if an upload has been modified/updated which is pretty useless considering it's usually grammar corrections and you pretty much won't remember what the mistake was originally.

[Gaxtry]

I'll say I'm mainly a reader so take this as you will. A series will lose the audience's interest if: the pacing is too slow, the story doesn't go where the audience wants it to, inactivity/hiatus and sometimes it just gets buried in the pile of "I'll read it later/I'll wait for more episodes". A new series should really only be created if you're doing a spin off and really want to give the spotlight to some already established characters or even focus more on another aspect of your world that has nothing or almost nothing to do with the original series and can be read entirely on it's own.

[Kelheor]

@Gaxtry Oh, well, maybe you get a notification, but let's be honest, how often do people check those xD
That would still be only one notification of a newly created series versus all the notifications of new chapters getting added to one series and you will be lucky if readers decide to check it out.