How do you advertise your work on Tapas? (And what made TBATE so successful?)

AAVI 2025-08-19 17:24:23 UTC #1

Hi everyone!
I’m curious to learn from experienced writers/creators here on Tapas about how you advertise your stories and grow your audience.

What strategies do you use to get your fiction noticed and reach a wider audience?

Do you mainly rely on Tapas visibility (like trending/updates), or do you also promote outside platforms (like Discord, Reddit, TikTok, etc.)?

And, looking at one of the biggest success stories on Tapas—Turtleme’s The Beginning After the End—how did it gain so much traction? From what I understand, there are quite a few “rebirth in another body” stories out there, so I wonder what made TBATE stand out and spread so widely. Was it primarily word-of-mouth, Tapas features, or strong external advertising?

I’d appreciate any insights, especially from those of you who’ve been publishing for a while. I think this discussion could help a lot of us small creators trying to grow!

Thanks a lot...

toonben 2025-08-19 17:41:57 UTC #2

Basically, I rely on tapas forums and discord to promote my comics. Also I participate in art contest when I have time or when I feel like it. That is the most I can do. I was thinking what more I can do.

I used to use Instagram but I suck ass at social media and I ultimately gave up.

Senin 2025-08-19 18:19:49 UTC #3

I’ve shared a few times on forums, but other than that I’m a shy person. I’ve never tried social media, and Discord is banned in my country... I’m trying to get discovered on my own, and of course the result ends up being disappointing

bulgariansumo 2025-08-19 19:06:21 UTC #4

Iirc, TBATE started on Royal Road, got really popular there, and then Tapas acquired it as one of their premium series with a webcomic version. The kind of action fantasy genres that picked up steam here were already Royal Road's niche, so being able to stand out among a sea of similar series on that website proved to Tapas that it was worth picking up. Same with Salvos.

Leonotis 2025-08-19 19:17:27 UTC #5

Promoting my story on TikTok and YouTube Shorts hasn't been very effective so far. It's interesting because my story on Royal Road is getting consistent views with hardly any promotion at all. I tried a $20 ad campaign on TikTok, but the clicks I got didn't seem to lead to actual reads. I suspect a lot of them were accidental. It's slow going, but I'm getting a few views here and there. I'll stick to posting chapter updates in the forums and social media for now and see what happens.

kyupol 2025-08-19 20:02:31 UTC #6

1) promotion threads, sub4sub, like4like, etc
2) community engagement. Like, comment on other works. Join contests

TBATE? well it's always a hit or miss like the lottery when it comes to success. You can have very high iq and learn all the art, writing, and marketing you want and still fail.

This is something you should treat like a hobby and enjoy the doing regardless of outcome

jwabeasley 2025-08-20 00:11:01 UTC #7

TBATE was a premium series with an already established audience before Tapas. Those of us in the community section don't get that kind of support from Tapas. Tapas uses those pre-established series as audience draws, and advertises them regularly.

Even if you get on the staff picks frequently (like Blade of Mercy has), it's only worth at most another ~100 subscribers, which ain't nothing but won't boost you automatically to the big leagues.

It's essential to advertise outside of Tapas. You can do a bit on the forums, but there are only a dozen or so forum regulars and we're all fellow creators. General readers do not use the forums.

I advertised Etherwood on Reddit, Deviantart, Bluesky, and Instagram. Of those, Reddit was the most successful for me, but only with contained joke pages. Most people have the most success with communities that they are already in and a part of.

Either way, temper your expectations and get a realistic definition of success. I recommend picking two webnovels that started at the same time as your series, one that you think is better and one that you think is worse. Keep track of them, use them as your metric for success, learn from them if they outperform you.

powerplantanimations 2025-08-20 01:25:53 UTC #8

DO NOT USE SUB 4 SUB!!!!!!!

I REPEAT DO NOT USE SUB 4 SUB!!!!

The people who sub to you won't read your comic. Sure your subscriber count will go up, but then there will be no engagement. They might check in here and there, but then there will be a point where they just stop.

Here's why Sub 4 Sub is stupid:
My readers cross-pollinate from every story. Dream Goddess Chronicles got a boost because people who were interested in Alternative Happy Ending's world OUTSIDE the GL will go onto Dream Goddess Chronicles. Coco is a sister of Quincy from That Stick Figure Isekai and he's already a fan favorite. Plus it uses the same structure as TSFI where pages are notebook drawn and it shifts. I put TSFI on a MASSIVE hiatus so devoted readers can hop over.

IF YOU WANNA GET AHEAD, DO GL!!! I am not joking. When we posted Alternative Happy Ending the algorithm carried it up and sent it to Heaven

Here's my stories for reference:

That Stick Figure Isekai: Took a lot of work. I was doing YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and it was the story I used to understand the algorithm. I realized that we could just post panels every week and people will still read it. We're doing a GL iteration of it while ending this one. It took FIVE YEARS for 100,000 views. I did a poor job with content and not getting enough people to donate. We're looking to fix that. Made it to the top 100 comics multiple times. According to my friend Kate (author of Errant), once you make it to 100,000 you're set for life. Because then they'll just advertise for you.

Alternative Happy Ending: A Story my co-writer, PANDA WHITE, made back in Japan during her publishing days. It took her a few short weeks for her to get THREE HUNDRED AND IT'S STILL GETTING SUBS. Simply because it's GL. No advertisement. Nothing. We just posted to see what happens and what happened was insane. Made top 100 (like in the 50's). We're thinking of continuing it.

AAVI 2025-08-20 10:36:44 UTC #9

What does GL stand for?

AAVI 2025-08-20 10:41:22 UTC #10

I really like the exercise you mentioned to check my progress.

But I was wondering if you could recommend some subreddits where advertising might be possible. I don’t think I can advertise on DeviantArt or Instagram since I’m writing a novel, and those platforms tend to focus more on visual art. This makes it a bit limiting for me, as I don’t have artwork to showcase, which I feel is essential for promotion on Instagram or DeviantArt.

Oriflamme 2025-08-20 13:34:26 UTC #11

From what I've seen the yuri audience is a lot smaller than the yaoi, but what is there seems to be starving for content. If your story features gals being very good pals , I agree putting your story under the GL tag could be helpful.

While I don’t think I had the same luck as you for getting readers and subscribers, I do think the fact that I classified my story under Girl’s Love(GL) helped me gain a steady steady stream of readers. It also helped me stand out from the crowded fantasy romance genre. Although, I did also shoot myself in the foot by not making it really clear on how the girl love fits in since the story is deliberately made to look like more of a straight romance on the outset.

Married to the Duke of the Abyss

powerplantanimations 2025-08-21 15:40:20 UTC #12

Yeh yeh my co-writer is a lesbian and eats that shit UP. Our next title is called outright "GL Stick Figure Isekai"; which is a celebration of the genre. We do wanna do a BL but I remember my friend telling me that it's difficult to write. Like she's a lesbian with a large GL story on Tapas, but even she told me that BL is trickier... so I'll probably need to ask help while also finding another artist

PapaDom 2025-08-21 21:59:34 UTC #13

I wasn't going to say anything regarding your “advice,” but after reading this post, now I just have to say what the actual fuck?

So let me ask you this: Do you want to make a GL story because you genuinely like the genre, or do you just want the numbers for fame? If it's the first part, go ahead and don't let me stop you, but if it is the latter, buddy, that's just wrong.

Good for her, Power to her, She definitely LOVES the genre, but do you do as well? Where is the passion? The love? The honesty in all that, if you just chase numbers by piggyback riding a better artist AGAIN? Y'know what you're making? Slop. Slop for people to consume just because it gets you numbers and not because of the love of it. Yes, people crave GL stories, but they want good ones and not slop that feels fake and dishonest.

“If you want numbers, do GL” is just the genderbend version of the crappy advice we had a few years prior. You basically encourage people to make slop just so they can chase the dream of fame, but in actuality, you're hurting the genre's Reputation, every author working with that, and yours because you started it.

Funnily enough, I have a friend as well, and they got over 300k and make a BL. You know what they get? Spoiler alert: nothing.
Neither promotions nor money. Maybe you misread it, or your "Friend” Kate forgot to mention this little fact that she was Staff-picked 5 times or so by Tapas, and maybe got the Boost in stats from that.

So let's talk about your stick-figure isekai:
I asked the 5 people I know who read your story (me included), and we all said it was hard to sit through because it was annoying. Personally speaking, I didn't like it because, besides the concept, it felt like you just relied on references all the time without any original Ideas by yourself. (Hey, look at that reference. Remember this reference? Want a reference to your reference? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No. It’s a reference!)

So, let me tell you this: If you didn't improve since your last time and just made the same story with just ALL GIRLS ONLY, buddy, you're set for failure. And don't come back here crying, “UwU nobody reads my series because I have low view numbers and my sub count is still the same.”

And before anybody comes at me just because I ranted, here's my advice for OP:
Do what you love the most and connect a lot. And jump over your shadow sometimes, only if you want it and not because you're forced to do it.

DiegoPalacios 2025-08-21 23:02:41 UTC #14

Trends come and trends go.....a couple of years ago it was said "make BL", then "make Isekai with overly long titles" but that advice has an expiration rate.

If you wanna go and strategically pay attention to the trends and follow them, that is not bad in itself, but if you want to succeed you need to do a solid implementation to stand out in the sea of trend followers.

ShidoDraws 2025-08-22 06:36:00 UTC #15

Something I realized is, if there's a niche for something then there's a trend for it. However, it's easy for that line to blur. You have to understand whether what you're writing/drawing is a niche or a trend.

For 4 or so years I made stuff I thought was niche, but it ended up being a "trend" because I thought people genuinely liked my work. Later it ended up being that people didn't care what I make as long as I keep churning out the stuff they liked. This was when I was met with a fork on the road, I could A) continue making what thousands of people wanted and get no reward for it or B) make something I want and get no reward for it. I picked B, because I at least enjoyed doing it. None of those people are going to pay my bills for me so why should I let strangers decide what I should do for the rest of my life?

In this current time on social media where everyone is trying to become content creators and influencers, it's a battle of the luckiest and if you don't have the gut to try new things, befriend other creators knowing it's a business relationship and posts consistently like you have no life outside of social media, then you're probably not going to see that numerical success.

There also the possibility of getting a cult following where you might not need to post consistently, same with if you're making fan content or content you express are inspired by something already popular.

There is no right or wrong way for a work to become "popular." However, you have to ask yourself why you want it to be popular. It is absolutely normal for your first few works to be, quietly literally, not good. Learn from those mistakes and hone your skills. A popular story doesn't just come out of nowhere, the creator most likely wrote other stories, and they happened to be flops.

With my current story, when I first publish it, I actually do not expect it to reach more than 10 or 20 subs. I am grateful people sub to it at all. However, I plan to learn from my story and once I finish it I would like to make better ones.

I apologize if it's a little long. Lol

svlyisanliu 2025-08-22 08:04:24 UTC #16

I admire this approach - and totally agree. I have days now when I have less strength to follow this path, though, so to read this post was a nice reminder. Thank you @ShidoDraws

jwabeasley 2025-08-23 04:04:56 UTC #17

Hm, novel advertising isn't my strong suit, but there are a lot more websites that do novel related stuff. I'd recommend a staggered upload mirroring, where you post your main story where you want people to go, and then everywhere else you post the same story except a chapter or an arc behind.