How long is too long for a first update?

[9outofPen]

I'm planning to post the whole first scene of my one comic to get viewers interested, but I'm wondering, is there such a thing as too much? I personally would be thrilled if I found a comic that didn't cut off after the first few pages, but can it be overwhelming to others?

This comic is in a vertical, webtoon format, so each page isn't very much content, but it totals to about 15 pages? Should I break it up into two updates?

[Rueleer]

How many pages an episode do you plan for the rest of your releases? I'd say just match the format you'll have for those, and simply upload a couple of episodes at the same time to start with.

Otherwise, in general, it's a pretty good idea to give people something to jump into~ The more the merrier, I guess? Try not to burn out your buffer though.

[keii4ii]

There is definitely such a thing as too much. It varies from reader to reader, and from place to place. People on Webtoons EXPECT longer updates; when they click on a comic on that site, they do so, mentally prepared (and desiring) to read longer chunks.

But people on Tapas generally prefer shorter episodes. Even when they want to read a big chunk at a time, they still seem to prefer reading multiple episodes instead of one huge episode. Notice how Webtoons has a "bookmark" feature that lets you save where you stopped, in the middle of an update. Tapas doesn't have that, so if someone wants to stop in the middle of a long episode... that's a bit of a pain to come back later.

If you want to give people enough story to hook them on, so to speak, I would say divide it into two episodes, but post them all at once. Like, upload episode 1, then episode 2 within a minute?

[spadesart]

i started with two, ik webtoon has this weird issue with updates being 'too short' but theres not much concern about that here

[Evan]

A normal sized update is usually around 8-12 panels as far as I've observed.

For your first update, you should try to get the reader hooked and however many pages it takes you to do that, you should do that. However, It shouldn't take long to hook your reader when you're writing your story, so it should still be about 8-12 panels.

[9outofPen]

Cool, I can do that, divide it into multiple episodes! (though I'll have to ask my writer) To clarify, for now I'm only posting on Tapastic, not Webtoons. Hopefully if I break it up and post over the course of a day or two, it will be fine. In my opinion, it reads fast, so there won't be too much to take in at once? ><

[punkarsenic]

hmm... on one hand, short attention spans, scrolling culture, all that, short is good. but also, i rarely subscribe to comics that dont yet have enough for me to sink my teeth into.

id say a good compromise would be to break it into episodes, but release them in close succession (daily? bi-daily? not All At Once so you can work the fresh page) i think multiple, smaller installments is more encouraging to new readers than one big one somehow.