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Apr 2017

Sorry if it seems I am asking weird questions. I am not the best as being social (due to social anxiety) and I am trying to get better at talking to other people.

Lol I talk too much and fail harder than anyone at socializing in a pleasant way so hey you may think it's bad but it could be worse ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Oh goodness, maybe I just need to just work on interacting with more people in general.


Step 1...find people??? I think.

A broad praise like that, you can prompt a more detailed response by asking questions like "Thanks! Just out of curiosity, who's your favorite character in this comic? : D"

That is actually a reader poll question I want to ask.

Tho part of me wants to wait until I hit a larger number of followers so that I am pulling from a larger group. Like it's the difference between 10 people answer a poll card vs. 70. (I'm not really demanding more followers with this statement, I am more talking statistically)

Personally, I wouldn't save all the good questions for a poll. There are many other questions like that you could ask, so if you really want to do a poll later, save one or two and ask other questions in the comments section?

I will still ask in the comments, I was just stating that I also want to use it as a poll question.

(Sorry I didn't make that clear flushed )

If you have questions about your followers, aim the questions at them. You repeated the fact that you don't know what your readers want or if they'd be ok with changes/stuff you plan for the future... just ask them? Make a post on your wall addressed to them?
I see people do that all the time in the status updates on Deviantart.
Mostly people asking their watchers about their opinions on things.
If you don't get critiques, ask your readers if they have any advices. Voice your concerns to them. You seem to be worried that nobody will respond to it. Well, you may never know.
Just do it.

Where are good places to post this information?

I do post updates and other stuff on my walls but I don't really get feed back there. Would it be better to post directly on the series?

The profile wall is among the worst places to have a discussion for two reasons:

  1. A lot of people either ignore them, or can't even access them (no wall access on the app).

  2. Even if they do check out your wall post, they may be reluctant to reply because once you've replied to a wall post, EVERY TIME that post gets a reply, you keep getting a notification. That gets annoying.

Try your author's notes section?

Do you push the bell button so that they notice your posts on the wall?

And yeah, you can also do that in the episode description as well.

I sometimes write weird witty stuff or "fun facts' in the author's note section. Are you suggesting I put notes on every episode? Ask more questions? (Sorry I just trying to understand all this)

Yeah, I know what you mean. I think Tapas REALLY should improve that thing... if we can't rely on it to casually reach our readers, then the purpose of it is pretty much lost

For example you said that nobody may enter if you make a raffle. Well the, just ask if your readers want a raffle.
That kind of stuff.
Each time you are in doubt about how your readers may react to a certain thing, just ask them about it.

This sounds like something where, if people don't respond strongly, make the choice you want to make.

If you tell your current audience, "hey, I'm thinking I'd really like to finish this comic up and work on a new comic, but I do enjoy this making this one, and I could stick with it if enough people really want it to continue -- what do you guys think?" and you don't get enough people telling you that they really want you to stick with it because you simply don't get many responses......... then don't worry about it, go ahead and start on something new! You're free to do what you want to do.

I really feel like getting a responsive audience is something you can't force. There's no way to demand other people put themselves on the spot or force them to be open with you -- you can only put yourself out there, and hope some folks respond in kind. The way you interact, the way you talk in the page description or in replies or on social media, the kinds of things you draw outside of your comic -- that's all you've got.

The weird thing is, though, that it kinda is a numbers game. Only a tiny portion of any audience is gonna be outgoing enough leave comments. It's gonna be REALLY HARD to have 70 subs, and get 10 of them leave a comment or respond to a question, just because of how small a percentage of readers are vocal. So, how do you get at least 10 folks to respond to a question? Have at least 200 subs.

flushed Oh, OK. I don't really want to finish the comic right away (there are way too many loose ends), more like stick it in hiatus and work on something else for a while (a shorter comic). And once I done with the shorter comic, I would go back to the main one.

How do I get better at interacting on social media. I recently got a Twitter but I am not sure what to do with it. I put that I have a Twitter on my wall but I haven't seen any new followers since that post.

Additionally, my comic has much less then 70 subs. Um..the number in my profile is sort of split with about 45 on main and 32 on an older comic.

That's fine too! My point is, if you ask and don't really get any or many strong responses, then you don't have to fret as if you can't make that decision UNTIL your audience is more responsive -- you can just go ahead and make the choice to do what's best for you. ;u;

There's a bunch of threads on social media -- here's one on twitter specifically2 that I link to a lot -- but the basic advice I give everyone is just, follow some other artists and watch what they do!! It's really hard to figure out how to use twitter without any examples, and it's also kinda hard to know what to tweet about if you feel like you're just yelling into the void.

Look for Tapastic artists you like or folks on the forums that you admire who are also on twitter, and follow their accounts, maybe follow @webcomicchat and @comicbookhour. You'll see comics folks talking about things, and sometimes those things will just give you an idea of how other folks are using twitter, and sometimes those conversations will give you ideas of things you want to talk about, too!

If you announce that you have a new comic, but you haven't really posted any pages yet, people probably won't follow it until there's something there to see. Social media is kind of similar! People who do check out your account won't have reason to follow it unless it looks interesting.

It says some people do daily doodles...like of whatever?

Like part of me wants to draw drag queens but my comic isn't really targeted at that same audience...well, At least I don't know. Will follower of your comic get annoyed if you are posting on a topic/fandom they don't much care for?

So I tried to do that thing with the questions in the author's notes...and I still am not getting feed back. Maybe I need to wait longer...but part of me just feels a little sad/mad.

(I will continue to post pages until the current chapter ends...but after that I am a little unsure about what to do. I know I should not let my anxiety get to me but this is sort of getting to me)

Consider that app users don't get notified when their comments get replies. Also, the biggest thing probably is what @shazzbaa said; only a fraction of your readers will be vocal, so be patient and try to grow your audience (easier said than done, I know...).