How did you choose which platform to post your story on? (comics AND novels)

[MimSS]

Thank you for your answers!!

[MegaRay]

Both. And now I have to write 20 characters...

[nellie_warren]

Which platform(s) do you post your work on?
Tapas and Tumblr.

How did you hear about that platform?
I wanted to read a webcomic made by a YouTuber I liked which led me to Tapas.
As for Tumblr I inevitably heard about it over the internet a long time ago but only made an account as of late.

What stood out/ what you like about the platform?
It was easy to navigate and well-laid out, functional and full of comics and novels with plenty of variety.
Tumblr is more customizable in terms of creating your own blog, and it's also relatively easy to use and looks nice.

What are some negatives you heard/experience about that platform?
Tapas is often plagued by bots and spam which have been an issue on my comic/page in the past.
Tumblr is massive and not solely focused on novels/comics and so much harder to get noticed on there. The website itself has some questionable rules and regulations.

[MimSS]

Thank you so much for you insight! It's really helpful!

[IndigoShirtProd]

1) I post on Tapas exclusively now, but I plan to begin posting on WT in the future and used to post on DeviantArt and tumblr in the past. I followed the advice of casting a wide net.

2) From a youtuber I watched in the past. Then I did more research about different platforms.

3) I thought Tapas had the vibe that would better suit my comic. I draw in a more western, cartoon style in page format, and I thought I would get more traction in comparison to WT. I found out about a year after I started posting that Tapas had forums, and I really like it here which is one of the reasons why I've stayed. I had (and still have) a DeviantArt and noticed that comics get a lot of traction on there. Webtoons has a big audience, which is why I'm planning on putting my comic on there in the future, and they finally have scheduled posts.

4) For DeviantArt I wasn't really getting any traction myself (maybe I should've waited longer) and uploading became a hassle since I'm not a core member meaning I couldn't schedule posts. I just plain couldn't get into tumblr. I never hopped on WT when I first starting posting my comic because it's not kind to page format comics (so much to a point that in their 'how to begin posting on WT' tutorial comic for canvas users, they explicitly say to format the comic in the "webtoon" style) and at the time you couldn't schedule episodes so I thought it wouldn't be worth it. WT doesn't really have much else going for it other than what I mentioned; it's not a bad platform, t's just not intuitive or friendly to comics that don't fit a certain mold.

[jcmraz]

I started on Smackjeeves because I liked the customization and format but then they went and changed everything. I still uploaded there until they announced that the website would be shutting down which is sad after so many years that I've been doing comics there but they did it to themselves. Now I upload basically everywhere but I focus on Tapas because it has a community and is better for page format comics than a lot of them out there

[MimSS]

Thank you so much for your answers! They're so detailed and intuitive that it really helps me out!!

[KGBrightwell]

I am brand new to Tapas.

1. I have posted my work on Wattpad for about a year and a half. And I JUST posted the first 6 episodes of my work here.

2. I stumbled into WP while reading translations of Thai and Chinese stories; I definitely came in as a reader first.

3. To be honest I lucked into some very helpful people in the forums on WP. I also liked the interactions between creators and readers. There were a number of stories that I liked. I enjoyed reading things written by people of many different ages.

4. I heard about some hateful behavior but I'm not sure what it was that resulted in the forums being shut down.

[Legendofgenii]

Not gonna lie, it was the top search result when I was looking on Google. 🤣

I moved from Smackjeeves in June.

[Prisim]

I started off on FictionPress. Can't remember why I joined it at the time but it was likely the only one I could find when searching for a place to post my crap. Then someone plagiarized it off of FP (back then it was literally as easy as cut and paste to steal someones work) and posted it to Wattpad. I liked how Wattpad handled getting it removed so I decided to stick around. Cosmetically it was soooooo much nicer than FP, especially how to upload chapters. I remember trying to go back to FP for a short time after being on Wattpad and I just couldn't do it. Everything felt so archaic.

I started to post here because I wanted to test waters elsewhere, I soured on a few things Wattpad has done over the years and I wanted to find a new and/or additional home for my stuff. I don't have too much to say about Tapas just yet because personal issues have kept me from being able to dive into it too far, but I did really enjoyed my time on Wattpad. I had a really decent following after 7 years of hard work and I hated how I soured on it. I'm hoping once I get the personal issues that keep me just toe deep in the waters here are resolved that maybe I can keep posting to both.

Probably the biggest negative for Wattpad is that it has gotten a bit too big for its britches so smaller writers tend to get left in the dust.

[ble]

1) Which platform(s) do you post your work on?

Webtoons and Tapas. I don't know others.

2) How did you hear about that platform? (word-of-mouth, ads, social media, etc.)

Probably from sites like tv tropes or bad webcomic wiki.

3) What stood out/ what you like about the platform? (it's free, looks nice, easy to use, sounded fancy, etc.)

It's freeeeeeeeeeeeee and well it's already customized.

4) What are some negatives you heard/experience about that platform?

Tapas = no audience.

Webtoons = no notifications.

[rizamasuyama]

I asked writer friends before posting but I post my OC's here as well as Neovel, a newer site that's also dedicated to supporting writers (see link below). And for fan fiction I use AO3.

I chose Tapas and Neovel because they're both platforms that not only cater to the reader's experience, but they have many systems in place to help all creators, big or small. But, I'm coming from a novelist perspective and I know that there are many more options for comics.

Things to consider in general are:
-How does the site treat their creators/what are the benefits
-How does the site protect its creators
-Visibility of the site (though if you have a small faithful readership this doesn't matter as much imo)

Here's my profile on Neovel: https://neoread.neovel.io/user/8604
Here's more info in general: https://neovel.io/

Hope this helps!

[arpeggiomax87]

I found out about it when I had hope of sharing something people might have loved.

Whoops.

[colorgoat]

I post exclusively on Tapas!

I found it through a certain comic an artist I liked posted a looong while back, and soon before starting my own, I thought why not look into it a bit deeper? I thought it'd be a nice place to find an audience since posting original work on sites like Tumblr can feel like shouting in a void, lol. I found a ton of people and other comics in the process!

I've considered cross-posting to Webtoons since it's also a popular webcomic platform, but...not gonna lie, navigating it makes me dizzy. Who knows, though? Maybe one day I'll change my mind.

[domisotto]

I started on Wattpad and was satisfied with the experience until the forums went down. It was a very hard site to get readership on since 2018 at least, but thanks to the forums and clubbing culture, making friends was easy.

Wattpad also has a stream of books near professional in its quality and lately seems to show preference to YA contemporary (I.e. high school) genre.

People who got readership there thing, get massive readership to the tune of millions of reads. It’s insane.

If you have a story like that, try it there, but you need to be an Instagram popular to get anyone to read your story.

---

Second site I tried was Royal Road that is like Wattpad for boys, Gamergate crowd. If you have a man-facing story with izekai, boobs and system or litRpg, that’s a great place to try out.

Their interface is best in business, and they are dead-serious about preventing plagiarism. They also show new releases/updates on a separate list, helping people who do not have social media outreach to find at least someone to read their stories.

---

Finally, after Wattpad removed forums, I started on Tapas. It is small for novels, but it has a wider range for genres than Royal Road, more interested in fantasy, more male protagonists, particularly BL & the forum.

The downside is that it is harder than on Wattpad to get props for a more complex novel. The short-chapter, easy-writing with simple plots seem to do better, but that’s Internet for you.

On Wattpad you can always hope to win a Watty, while Tapas doesn’t acknowledge writing with an award like that, but runs a Premium program instead emphasizing a potential commercial success.

Tapas algorithm is great for while you keep posting the story, but it doesn’t support completed novels

[Eiranyx]

Which platform(s) do you post your work on?
- I post it on Tapas and Webtoons
How did you hear about the platform
- I heard about Tapas from my friend, then I was a reader on webtoons before until I discovered I can publish my work there too.
What stood out/what you like about the platform?
- Tapas has a notification when someone either comments, like or subscribe to your work. Also it has a dashboard where you can interact with your subscribers and can make an announcement there and of course, the forums.
- Webtoons has more simpler navigation and has a larger number of site visitors which means larger audience.
What are the negatives you heard/experience about that platform?
- Tapas: Well I heard Tapas has slow growth rate.
- Webtoon: Well aside from the fact that they don't have notifications and their terms and condition about NSFW are really strict, I would say that the number of page views you have to reach to qualify for ad revenue is really high.
Also Webtoons has no forums.

[likhoradka]

1. Tapas and Webtoons
2. Researching for where I could properly post a comic without having to relearn scripts
3. Free. Convenience. I like Webtoons for the audience numbers and they apparently added scheduling (which I didn't know they had from my research). Tapas is nice since you can have a cover that doesn't have to be a separate episode. Also the forums.
4. Webtoons: lack of notifications (even for 'please comment under me to get my attention', you still have to go look), lack of forums. Tapas: I guess smaller userbase?

[carreonaiwille]

I have my work posted first on Wattpad, then Sweek, Underlined(formerly Figment) Royal Road and Tapas. Wattpad was suggested to me by a classmate back when it was starting to boom in our country. I encountered Sweek on Facebook, Underlined I stumbled through on the internet. Royal Road and Tapas, after researching for other sites for writers.

Wattpad since I almost grew up in it, maybe I'd keep coming back there because of the Filipino audience. It seemed bigger there than all the other platforms I've mentioned. Underlined had nice...quizzes. Though I heard it used to be a lively place as Figment before. I can't say much about Sweek. With Royal Road, they have nice aesthetics and neat design. Forum posts seem professional, in a sense? With Tapas, I liked that novels could have thumbnails, and I was using that feature as a motivator.

Wattpad, maybe like many said, there is a high popularity of certain genres. Not that it is bad on its own, but it seemed hopeless to try your luck if your story had no semblance of romance whatsoever. Some people I know (at least in the Filipino community) do get to make a name for themselves writing in the Horror or Mystery genre but not really big, as in, hired by a major publisher big like with romance novelists. However, some writers in detective fiction ( and one writer who has repeatedly refused romance in his main work despite the requests from audience and is now teasing each other about it) do manage to get popular.

The loss of the forums also made it hard.

With Underlined? I don't hear or receive activity on that site as often as I used to.

With Royal Road, well, there are some instances that some jealous folks would bring down the ratings of a work that lands on the Trending spot. It is good to post there if your story is mostly litRPG and fantasy. I doubt how much traction one can get in there if your story is more on the drama side or one that focuses more on character relationships than big-scale fights or good 'ol save our world.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

1. Tapas. Little vignettes on Insta, Reddit, YouTube.
2. Recommended by an online friend who was helping with artwork & review of my 1st shortstory.
3. It's free was important. Plus I could ask my friend questions about how to do things.
4. It's hard to get noticed (that's surely a common problem everywhere). There doesn't appear to be a way to know how many readers you have, only "Views" which includes click-thrus. Personally, I find comments to be far more sparse than I'd have liked, being a relatively new writer & wanting more feedback.

[RyzaCobalion]

1. Which platform(s) do you post your work on? (Tapas, webtoons, wattpad, any really)

2. How did you hear about that platform? (word-of-mouth, ads, social media, etc.)

3. What stood out/ what you like about the platform? (it's free, looks nice, easy to use, sounded fancy, etc.)

4. What are some negatives you heard/experience about that platform? (opposite to #3)

1. Before Tapas i posted my novel series on a site called Quotev.com back in 2011. But back the original draft of The Dark Children of the Night was WAY different than it was than it is now. But I delete it on that site because it wasn't performing well.

2. I heard about Tapas from a friend and I have been posting my novel series since 2018 with the final draft of my series. And I am still planning on turning it into a comic as well. But I need to finish college to set it into full gear.

3. What really stood out the most about this site was how extremely helpful everyone is on the site and on the forums. Meeting so many people on this and talking about to many wonderful authors on the Discords chats that I'm in is just amazing. Now I feel like i'm part of this online community as a whole and I am so helping every new author in any shape or form. So i am proud to be a part of Tapas.

4. Really the only few negatives things i have experienced on this site was the occasional spambot attack or people pretending to be from official publishing companies commenting your series and tricking people into their bs. And the hardest experience i have so far from this site is keeping up a consistent schedule to publish a new chapter.