How Did You Build your Tapas Following?

[iamamason123]

Hey! ew to tapas, just a question >~<

I just showed up to Tapas after I used to write solely on Wattpad (my goodness-this site is so much better if I'm honest-) and I just wanted to know how to build a good following? I write novels and I want to reach other people who like reading those types of things

[eloquent]

• Find a schedule. Doesn't have to be weekly if you can't handle it, but if you state it publicly, your fans know when to go back.
• Don't underestimate social media! I know we hate it, but it's useful. Even if you don't have a comic page to post, you can interact with your following and share other things like art and whatnot. I have an art twitter, since that's popular nowadays.
• Connect with other artists! Promote theirs so they promote yours, join discord servers, etc!

[WOSTR]

I've been here just under 2 weeks, so I may not be the ideal person to post but I'm optimistic.
I uploaded two chapters, the first last week, I have 3 subscribers and I'm really happy with that.
I would say being interactive, this forum is excellent and you're allowed to promote quite a bit.
Upload your work even if like mine it's not the best, just to give people some content to like or pass on and motivate yourself to keep at it, I look forward to looking over my old work and seeing the improvement.
Be consistent, projects that have been abandoned for whatever reason may not feel worth checking out for some people.

I use to be on WP loads, I halve so much work over there but it's s not what it use to be.

[KoreanTacos]

blood, sweat and tears.

Lots of "favors" I'm not too proud of. How much of your innocence are you willing to sacrifice?

[iamamason123]

XD Oh god. Um--I don't have much left so I guess all of it??

[iamamason123]

Oh for sure. I feel that. Thank you for the advice though!!

[iamamason123]

Okay!! The discord server thing seems interesting. Are there any discords you're in that I should join?

[Rhonder]

A lot of my early growth came from folks that I met here on the forums. A little self advertising here, a lot of participation in all sorts of threads there, and the common practice of adding a link to your series or profile in your "About Me" section of your forum profile (it doesn't look like your series/profile is linked in yours yet. To see what I mean, click my name and see the little blurb that pops up with my link at the end of it).

After my series hit its stride and had some momentum going it honestly just seemed like a lot of the readers I picked up discovered me either in the "Fresh" or "Trending" section of the website/app. Many of the subscribers that I don't recognize from around the forums would show up on upload days presumably while I was still in the Fresh section

One thing that I've noticed that doesn't work so well for Tapas (for me at least!) is trying to get other people here from external advertising... a lot of folks who don't already have a Tapas account seem to be disinterested in making one. For example I have some irl friends who have seen my posts on social media and read my comic, but who never subscribed because they would just click over to the site to catch up when they'd see my posts every so often even among more avid webcomic readers, I've met and talked to a lot of people who only use the Webtoons app and so I usually just point them to my mirror on that site rather than try to coerce them to download an app they don't want.

Despite the above I consistently had a higher number of readers on Tapas than Webtoons, for my first comic at least~

[lauragarcia511]

I did the following:
1. Set up a schedule of when to post so that my story had consitancy.
2. I built my following right here in if forums through promotion

It has been slow, but what I learned from the process is to have patience and to find readers that truly enjoy the story you build.

[iamamason123]

Thank you for the advice!! I can use that.

[Penni]

What helped me the most was

• being consistent with uploading
• providing the best product I could make (and continuing to learn how to write better)
• being an active/helpful member of the community

It's going to take time so don't be discouraged!

[sistergirl88]

The #1 Tip: Don’t rush the process.

Keeping posting and stay positive.

[SagaHolmgaard]

Like sistergirl said, don't rush it It's a slow process, so being too impatient and expecting fast growth is probably gonna get you dissappointed (It CAN happen but for most people, it doesn't, lol). I've been posting for almost a year (I believe I started around July 17th last year??) and I'm just short of 50 subs, and many of those are people I know IRL or knew on the internet beforehand...
Posting regularly, staying positive and interacting with the community is the way to go! Good luck!

[RainbowCat]

I just started sharing my novel everywhere and showing everyone that I'm very passionate about it. That made people interested, I guess. And I tried finding places where not many other Tapas writers are, but many readers. I mean, this Forum is great to find help and subscribers, but in the end you need people who really read your story and don't just subscribe and then never read it. So I promote my story on another writing forum where I have some friends and that seems to work pretty well for me

[DualDragons]

My number one advice is: don't give up!

I noticed that readers tend to go to stories that keep going. Stories that just start out don't do so well in the beginning usually because (from my perspective as a reader) the author might bail on the series.

As a reader, once I see and feel the author being committed to his/her project and gives it their all, I'm much more interested in following it.

[SeraphicMayin]

Like people mentioned : Keep a consistent schedule. This is actually more vital than people realize. The reason all the Premium content is on a set schedule is to create a reading habit in our readers.

It helps give people routine and stability--something everyone enjoys. It also smacks of reliability, which is important in building trust with your audience that you won't abandon the story until its finished.

My second point in building a following is put out good content. You're asking people to give you and your story their time and attention, something I'm sure everyone finds valuable. So as long as you're always striving to tell the best possible version of your story, then it will retain any new readers that come across your work.

And as mentioned by lots of others, it will take time. Perhaps a lot of time. The webnovels scene is still fairly new at Tapas but growing. So as long as you stick to finishing stories then you'll build the sort of reputation people are willing to follow.

[drcharlotterodricks]

This made me laugh so hard XD

[WhoDrew]

Thanks Penni, this really does help

[WhoDrew]

You are awesome, thanks for that

[DeleteThisAccountFag]

I want to chime in to confirm the majority of the advice here by saying that being patient, having a constant schedule, and being active in the community is a good way to go. Though it won't net you a million subs, you will start to get traction and see those subs go up. This community is great and I highly encourage to not only participate in the discussions, but to even check out other people's work.