How long is too long for hiatus?

[Chocolate]

Let’s say you’re burned out from social media and your comic. You want a break. But how long should technically, a hiatus, be? Without losing your followers’ interested in your story? You can be off for so many days before readers simply moved on to the next big comic. Any advice on this matter? :Y

[acazzola78]

I don't know.

But your story Larvae is pretty cool.

[NickRowler]

I personally do not think you should treat a hiatus as a bad thing if the reason is for mental or physical health. Because that is more important than losing a few readers.

Also do not look at webcomics as me vs “the next big comic”. Readers usually read multiple series. Unless you are competing against some like, I don’t know… you wrote something similar to Lore Olympics and got over shadowed by the more popular series then I think you being concerned is justified.

[powerplantanimations]

I've personally thought about this. I'd make a survey and ask how many days they'd honestly be okay with. Like grab a chair, seat it in front of your audience and be like "look, just lay it to me straight. How long before your ADHD unsubscribes my ass?".

[igneriss]

From what I've noticed, 1-3 months of hiatus did nothing to me in terms of readers interests- at least, readers who used to comment before came back after my hiatus and everything was fine.
As for longer periods of time- 3 years of hiatus kinda killed my series cx some of my old readers came back (though some also took time to re-read everything and then resumed reading new updates), some didn't (but I'm not sure if they are still on tapas).
But after coming back from hiatus you eventually gain new readers, so it's still okay as long as you come back c:

[TheLemmaLlama]

For me, at least, it depends on how much comic you've already created. If you're just starting out, then I'm not too hooked on your story yet and I don't have that much faith in your ability to follow through, so if you go awol for, say, 6 months, I'll assume you abandoned it and unsub accordingly. But if you're already a good ways in (say, with at least one finished arc), the either I'm too hooked on your comic to drop it no matter how long you hiatus or I haven't even caught up to your most recent update yet and therefore hiatus makes no difference to me

[EverydayWonderlander]

I definitely thought about this, too.

I was gone for about a year due to The Plague and other things, so I think I kind of got a free-pass in that way - a lot of people had the same problems. But it probably also helps to declare your hiatus and roughly how long you expect to be gone, especially if you have a lot of active readers.

[sushy00]

one of my comics has been on hiatus for more than a year now... Oops XD
I really should get back to it but when it is not possible, it is not possible.

[Shanny8]

I've been on a hiatus for about 2 years with my webcomic and 1 year with art overall. I have pain in my arms, my back, my shoulders and while it has subsided considerably, it's not enough for me to go full throttle again trying to churn out pages.

Listen to your body; take the rest that it needs. Trying to put time constraints on how long you need to rest when your body may need more could make things worse than they currently are.

[system]

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