How is Tapas for Novels?

[tinalynge]

Hello!

I am completely new to Tapas.

I have been writing web novels since September 2015, and finished 2 series (Blue Phoenix with 1.600.000 words and Overthrowing Fate with 300.000 words). I am currently writing 5 series (Condemning the Heavens with 650.000 words, My Life or Your Memory with 200.000 words, Rest in a Demon's Embrace with 160.000 words and two casual projects I write whenever I have extra time)

I have some supportive friends and readers, but my books are currently looking for a new place where I can upload them.

So here comes the question! How is Tapas for novels? Is there a reader base for these novels, or is it mainly a place for comics?

I write two different genres, one is Eastern Fantasy and the other is Modern Romance.

I really know nothing about Tapas, apart from what I have been able to see from looking though the sites, so I was wondering if anyone can give me an honest opinion on the site for novels?

Thank you!
Tinalynge

[MiniSheepPencil]

Objectively, I prefer Tapas over Wattpad and others.
Reason for this boils down to the community we have here on the forum.
Every platform requires a lot of work in regards to promotion since no one will do it for you. In that sense you can aquire a lot of information, tools, tips and tricks here on the forums and you can ask questions.

The Novel section is still fairly new to Tapas, but that is not a hindrance for growth as Tapas are among a few selected spaces where both comics and novels are promoted/featured.

Also, the audience that comes in for comics is a benefit as there are a lot of ppl who loves to read novels too.

I haven't even touched on all of what Tapas has to offer as a platform, but know this, you will get to be part of a large community (especially if you keep on interacting with the forums) where you can seek support/feedback as well as contribute with your own knowledge that will be helpful to others.

[tinalynge]

Thank you so much!

I do not fear having to promote, that is life anywhere you cannot gain anything without working for it.

I was mainly wondering whether or not the site was friendly towards novels or if it was only webtoons.

I am very grateful for your answer and feel that Tapas maybe could be the new home for all my novels

[xeu]

Hey. I'm fairly new to Tapas as well. I think the novel section is gaining traction on the website. Like @minixira said, it's a nice community and that's why I switched over from Wattpad. If you do the right things (no lazy writing, timely updates, sharing on threads), you can become popular. On Wattpad, that's not always guaranteed.

Other than these reasons, I like Tapas more now because there's way less fanfiction, there are some writers that seem serious about writing well (not only popularity), and there's a good amount of well-written fantasy.

[tinalynge]

Thank you very much for your comment!

I had a few novels on Wattpad, but it was never my main site.

I am happy to hear that Tapas is growing so I hope to be able to be able to be part of this growth!

The fact that he community seems awesome so I am very excited.

Once again thank you so much for your comment!

[mrtoontastic]

Eastern Fantasy? Modern Romance? Oh you'll do just fine here.

With the way the site operates, novels akin to those are more welcoming and inviting to the platform. Though, to be fair, it can also look like its the only thing powering both the comics and novels of the website. You'll might as well change the website's slogan to be "Romance 'R' Us - Bite Sized Edition."

In my honest opinion, the novel section of Tapas is good, but feels kinda tacked on... like a secondary feature that works, but needs more updates in its coding. The limit is 15,000 characters so if you're a big, long writer, you're gonna have to learn to separate your episodes to meet its limits, or chop up longer chapters into parts (i.e. chapter 1 - part 1, chapter 1 - part 2, etc.). The scheduling aspect is nice if you want to create a series of buffer for when your story is complete, and you want to post everything on the stop without worry. When you post something using the scheduling option, you can set the time (though in Pacific Standard Time) and date, and Tapas will take care of the rest. You can add music from soundcloud to your chapters to add some more atmosphere to your chapters. I've used it, its nice.

The site is welcoming, but it IS more comic-based than novel based. From my experience, chapters in my stories don't get a lot of attention, and the comments section is mostly barren. You're gonna get around and have some cool readers to be a success here. Look I have a friend who's hit premium at least ONE time for novels, but her other works that she wants to promote here barely get a similar treatment despite her first novel being popular. It's not easy. Unless novels are your only thing and you somehow tap into something the majority of the audience wants, scoring trending/premium or not... You're better off sticking with Wattpad or Webnovel or something more, Novel-based. Or creating a Website to host your work. Outside of maybe the scheduling feature, the ad revenue option, the ink donations, and the forum 'community,' this site doesn't have much to offer, or just has a very selective niche that only make the site earn 'big bucks.' A VERY, very selective niche.

They say there's no competition here, and there's something for everyone when really everyone else's material is practically buried even if it IS wholesome.

But hey. Everyone's experience is different. Maybe I should just get out of Tapas to make room for the more qualified. All I can say is... Expansion is Key.

[tinalynge]

Wow! Thank you so much for this very thorough description!

I am a full-time Author, most of my income comes from Amazon sales, but I always prefered having my books available online as well. I am currently a Kindle Unlimited author, but KU and I are not working together that well, so I am going to find somewhere to post my books as webnovels and then sell them on Amazon when the books are complete.

I have tried Webnovel, but I could not approve of the contract. I have tried Wattpad, but only as a secondary site while my main site was elsewhere. I do have my own website, but I feel that it is better to find somewhere with other people.

Since neither Webnovel nor Wattpad has worked for me, I think that Tapas would be the best option for now.

Three of my novels are currently being made into webcomics, which will be released in late autumn or the start of the winter. Hopefully that will spark some life into my stories.

Thank you for your honest review of the site, I will give it a try, as I simply can't figure out what else would be better.

[joannekwan]

Definitely try posting your work here!
One great thing about the novel section being newer than comics is there's a greater chance to get featured in Staff Picks or in one of the curated lists on the app. If you write decently well and have an interesting story, you've got a good chance!

I started my webnovel here after years of posting comics, so I may have had a good number of readers stacked in my favor already when I announced my novel in my other series. But I have found a nice steady growth outside of that. Be sure to advertise your novel here in the forums too and let the community get familiar with you!

And as a side note, there is a 15k limit because a HUGE portion of the Tapas audience is mobile-based, so the company has put an emphasis on a more 'bite-sized' delivery system of content. Works all right for me and other creators, as each time you publish a new episode, your series appears in the Fresh section.

[tinalynge]

Thank you so much for your comment!

I am definietly trying it out. Trying it with one novel first and moving the others later, I hope it will become well received

[KRWright]

I’m going to come back to this later with a more detailed response but:

I found that if you want engagement and exposure, Tapas actually is more likely to get your books in front of eyes than Wattpad will. Wattpad requires years and years of patience usually to receive a pay-off. But obviously if you do get traction on Wattpad, their new PaidStories, WattpadStars, WattpadStudios and WattpadBooks divisions are pretty much a career fast track. (WattpadBooks are now partnered with a Big 5 - Penguin).

In comparison, Tapas is much better at getting your books in front of readers and converting those readers into fans and potential income sources. I earn my money on Tapas from writing and I love the community here which is FAR more giving than Wattpad was.

This is out of date now (Mortician has over 1k subs) but I made a comparison of what you can expect from Tapas and Wattpad in terms of exposure on this thread:

🏳️‍🌈 KR is dreaming of a Royal Wedding 🏳️‍🌈 on Twitter

[tinalynge]

Thank you very much for your reply
I have never really considered Wattpad, I had 3 of my books there, but they never gathered too much fame and it wasnt the genre that would erupt on that site either.

I am not looking for a fast track to my career as I am already a full time author, what i need is to get more exposure for my stories

I am glad to have read your opinion, it is really helpful! Thank you so much!

[GesuGesu]

I much prefer reading on Webnovel since the site/app is for web novels. I don't really like how Tapas tried to incorporate Web novels here and is barely managing to advertise them as well as comics.

But you do you.

Also I just realized that Tapas also has Er Mu's RTW on their premium selection, but I read it over at WN. Did Tapas steal that series?!

[cain3]

WebNovel agreed to publish a few novels with us as Premium!
I assure you they haven't been stolen!

[GesuGesu]

thanks for the info!

[MiniSheepPencil]

It could just be me and my skeptic logic, but I do not trust any company aside from Tapas and Line Webtoon to handle my creations =w=

[Penni]

For me, it comes down to what Tapas have given me.

If you're looking for instant fame, it likely won't happen here. The novel sections of Tapas is still small (but Tapas is working to make it grow) BUT if you're looking to learn and grow as a writer then there's a lot the community here can offer you!

I love the community. They are so willing to offer advice and encouragement. I think it's part of why I've improved my writing in a relatively short time frame.

It will take time to build a follow here. I've been here about two years and I wouldn't say I have a huge following but, I appreciate every sub I do have (and the comments they leave me. Those are the best.)

The only other place I've posted is Royal Road, which hasn't been terrible but I haven't felt the sense of community there as I do here. But maybe I haven't found the proper place to socialize and network -shrugs-

[nostalgicroxas]

I just made an account on WebNovel to see it's UI and how it goes and overall, meh...? It looks on the PC like it's made for mobile, and does not support italics (which is a biggie for me). It does have a schedule releases like Tapas though so, yay? shrugs It just doesn't catch my interest. It looks a lot like another site I experimented on that died- think it was called "figment".

Views wise, Tapas is consistently okay for me, getting maybe 100 a month or so. It's not a bad steady growth but definitely use the schedule feature so you have consistent release days during the week, or month, if you're doing one a month. It also seems to help if readers can see that there's another chapter coming and the story isn't "dead" or being updated randomly. That isn't the be-all, end-all, of course, but just something I've personally taken note of.

Considering all of the sites I've tried before with little to no success, Tapas is one I'd actually recommend to people. You don't have to do a lot besides some simple regular stuff (update on a schedule, make some comments and jokes in your descriptions, be polite to your readers and update them, and even if no one comments, just have fun by yourself). It's overall UI seems easier for newer, and older, works alike to be found by new readers consistently unlike some other sites (Booksie, basically dead from what I can tell, and Ao3, lol fanfic, little love for original works).

[mrsubhanshud0]

I know I am quite late to message her. But one of the reasons why I am writing this is that all of you who have conversed here are quite successful right now on tapas. So I am just being a little superstitious and posting this here. XD

Also, many editors are present here so I just thought of letting them know that I exist. Thank you for reading.
One more thing, I am a legit writer and want more people to read my content so I am just trying my luck here, so don't get offended, please.
Reincarnated as an Error Holder

[cavralcheriye]

This comment is probably late but to summarize the following: (these are based on my observations)
Wattpad = lucky to those stories under the dreadful Romance, Love, Being pregnant and etc.. They do not care about other genre
Royal Road and Scribble Hub = have choosy readers and lucky to those stories under the new "Sci-Fi/Gaming/System/Cultivation" or all about gaming stuff.
Penana = 8/10. Mostly caters different genre. My Fantasy story florished there after 15 months while on the first three above never.
Web Novel = I am contracted unpaid author there and it literally taxing to compete under these mediocre genre thet mostly cater: Romance, Historical Fantasy, Love, CEO and stuff, "Cultivation/System".

Thank you.