i'm kinda curious honestly...when i mean famous i don't mean the media knows you, you just gotten yourself a decent fanbase of sorts. i tend to like smaller niche things more since it feels more close knit...but ey that's my opinion.
Feb '19
Feb '19
I can say I have a good folowing, but not here - here:
I wouldn't consider myself famous, but other writers I've spoken to on Wattpad pretty much treat me as one. I mean, I'm flattered but I've had my fair share of trouble that came with the attention. So, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet I have on Tapas for now.
https://www.wattpad.com/user/ProjectMyst11
Most of my follower count came after I won a Watty award a few years ago. For those who aren't on Wattpad, the Wattys are an annual, international writing contest hosted by the website. The recent few years they split it up among each language, I think, so they can give out more awards. The most read/view count I've ever had on a Novel over there is over 120k, but it went down to 97.7k after I deleted some old chapters. (I unpublished most of the chapters for that specific story for editing and it brought down the vote/like count, but not the read count. Which really bothers me whenever I see it.)
LOL I didn't. ÂŻ_(ă)_/ÂŻ
There are several people who really read and discuss my creative work regularly, and I'm grateful for that. But I'm not sure that it can be called "fanbase" or something.
i don't consider it a fanbase and i really don't know how i managed to gain a following but ive always figured it came down to relative consistency and just interacting with readers and other creators 
I have a pretty OK following on social media (about 43-44k on Instagram and counting).
I was trying to get it going for a long time and tbh early on the work just wasn't very good. I've known people who start working on comics and their very first works BLOW up and its usually cus they had a lot of practice offline that they've honed and turned into something that people were really eager to share. For me though, it wasn't really "sharable" for a few years. I think maybe three or four years ago was when I started posting comics on Tumblr that outta nowhere just BLEW up. And when I started getting a little more confidence, the work started getting better, and then more people would talk about it with their friends and word of mouth really got around. Then I submitted comics to a news site online and that made everything blow up even MORE.
I think before even getting into the minutiae of how to optimize your socials the very first thing that matters is the work itself. After that then its the same thing you've probably heard over and over again; post content daily, figure out your best posting times, engagement, etc. But none of that really matters if people aren't biting in the first place.
Most of my fanbase on social media are friends and acquaintances looool.
I mean, of my 600 ish Twitter followers, I recognize the names of about 200 of them!
For Youtube (~900) and Tapas (~7000) and Webtoon (~6000) though, Idk who they are... they probably find me through friends or some community projects.
I'm not popular, It's still an enigma to me 
Guess to attract people, you've to get what people like 
While it's true to some extent, I'm honestly tired hearing "WaNnA bE PopuLAr? ThEn BE GoOD," kind of shit. It's not that easy, this world isn't fair. If the world was fair, the tax-frauding 1% rich guy who is just eating his inheritance money that he don't have to work wouldn't exist.
For me it's rather: "Wanna be popular? Then be loveable." Be likeable.
If quality really determines your chance for popularity, then why is the shitty Twilight fanfic called Fifty Shades of Grey being made into movies? Why are publisher choosing on Wattpad stories that are cheap-ass disgusting romance written by horny teens who can't differentiate between "they're" and "their"? Why is the popular webcomic has shallow overused plot with people that have same face syndrome? 
Quality-wise and theoretically, their crappy ass of quality should prevent them for making it
The main thing is that they like it, quality doesn't matter if you already hooked to something. It's like when you fall in love with someone, you'll excuse and not mind all their flaws.
As shallow and stupid as its sounds it is true; a simple slice of life with no plot might be more successful than a long-form story with sophisticated plot because it speaks to people and they love it, a simple anime style comic with cel shading that an 14 years old deviantArt kid can pull off might be more appealing than a painterly semi-realistic comic because the design just looks sweet and people like it.
Yet I don't know the key of being universally liked, so having a good marketing skill might help.
I'm not popular at all but if you stick around long enough eventually people have to give you attention.
Never get popular and never get a fanbase, trust me, people become creepy when it happens.
Keep being the unknown person you are and get good friends instead.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
TL;DR:
i wouldn't consider myself "famous" or having a fanbase. it's such a big word XD"
However, the few times i actually get noticed is when i draw fanart of relevant stuff.
especially shippy, cute, or anthro-version stuff.
It's started with Okami wayyy back in the days. Then Pokemon cuz i was RPing and there was a good community there. Then The Evil Within, which is quite niche. Those are where i had the most attention.
Like, i understand some people say drawing fanart only for attention is Badz but like, if you actually enjoy the source material and could use a bit of a following, what's the problem?
As for my original content (namely, my original webcomic) i gained a good ~880subs on my own for a few months and then got lucky when Staff featured me multiple times. And now i have a decent following thanks to that.
hope any of this helps.
Currently I have 1k+ likes on Facebook
And this old SpongeBob fanart I made in 2012 that became a meme at some point
Never did actually got a consistent fanbase yet though :o but somehow how it all happened was just sharing it everywhere :'') I agree with @Rosso with the luck part... It just happens.
Always remember to never give up :V
THIS this is the main thing.
Sophisticated plots can hit it big though, like Game of Thrones. People can like crap, people can also like good stuff too. Sure the good stuff may be more niche, but if a dedicated few find it, they will really love it, and if some movers and shakers happen to be a part of that group, they can make your long-winded, difficult-to-follow, high-fantasy epic into a smash TV series for the masses.
Wouldn't say I'm famous, but I do have a nice size of regulars reading my comic. And it happened by just putting myself out there.
I build up my internet presence before I started posting. I talked around the forums, posted a little bit of my work. I also advice to people who wanted feedback on their work and promoted others. Keep in mind, this was before I had my own comic, so I wasn't promoting to get a promotion. I did it because I wanted to.
And then once I started posted, things just kinda took from there. It's a slow pace, but I'm of the idea that "slow and steady wins the race".
I can also point out that people who do get famous have been at it for a while. They definitely have works that didn't get much spotlight and had to go back to the drawing board a few times.
Luck can play a big part sometimes, and I won't deny that, but it's also what you do with that luck that helps. Can't rely on luck alone -- you have to put in some work too.
@joannekwan
While it can, it's not guaranteed That's what I meant. People naturally think it will, because lot of effort poured into it and it may have superior technicalities; but in reality, it's not always.
After lurking through old forum posts that have been created before I existed here, and observing things via Wattpad, Webtoon, or chat groups; many long-form creators are dissatisfied with their audience number, to the point that they blame creators of mainstream genre (Slice of life, BL, romance) for overshadowing them.
Even they blame the audience for being such a cheap ass, that they enjoy "Mass produced crap for popularity whoring" than their "Carefully crafted long dwindled epic."
Yeeeah, I see that around, and that attitude kinda makes me pull away from ever wanting to see their work. I think another big part of getting up there to to help each other. So whenever I see some creators kinda giving into their dissatisfaction and bagging on others, it doesn't really convince me to look at their work. I get the feelings, and I've been there myself, but there are other ways to express it.
Things are hard enough as they are! Bagging on each other makes it even harder. 
