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tingchen00
Sep '14
2

So... my comic, White Angel (http://tapastic.com/series/White-Angel147), is a long-form serial story that I just started uploading to Tapastic. At my current rate, I can only turn out about 1 page per week. frowning Sad reality... but having a day job that actually feeds me takes precedence.

So my question is... how do you prefer to update your comic? Do you do it at a regular cadence of 1-page-per-week? Or do you release by chapter? What makes you prefer one over the other?

Tapastic seems better formatted for releasing several pages at once, but I've always thought it was better to create a regular cadence instead of dumping everyone all at once on a random day. I've also noticed that the status of a comic does not update if I add a page to a pre-existing "episode", so I guess I'm wondering how others work with this too?

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    Sep '14

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    Sep '14
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Spitfire
Sep '14

I didn't think, I just added everything and now I'm adding a page about once a week if I'm lucky smile

thejollity
Sep '14

Once-a-week is pretty standard for most webcomics, actually, especially if they're long-form and you don't have a massive backlog. Some strip-style comics will update more than once a week because they're shorter, though. I personally update once a week because I do full-color pages for a long-form comic (thank GOODNESS I actually got faster at it, I had so many random hiatuses when I first started LOL)

kristintipping7
Sep '14

A good rule of thumb is to figure out haw many pages you draw per week on average and post half of that. So far I've been drawing two a week and posting one. I may bump it up to posting two a week in the future depending on how things go. I agree that it's good to have a set update schedule. I think you can post multiple pages a chapter and still have schedule, though.

I prefer posting individual pages to doing larger less frequent updates because it provides a steady stream of engagement both for the readers and for me. Waiting a month to post anything would be really hard for me.

Raven_C
Sep '14

Pretty much what kristintipping7 said above about the steady stream of updates. Generally people would like a ritual they can get used to, so it's always good to stay on schedule. In cases where I get pages done beforehand, I still try to update on time instead of updating early. Up until now, I think I have updated twice a week, but it might come down to only once a week since I'll be updating in small batches now (instead of page-by-page).

LittleEndian
Sep '14

For my webcomics Leaves, I update 2 pages per week because I have some pages in advance ^^

But for the french version (original version), I cannot update faster than one per week because I have to draw the pages! xD

tingchen00
Sep '14

Thanks for the responses!
So for those of you with long-form stories... how do you handle updating with new pages in Tapastic? I uploaded a new page in to the 1st episode of mine, but I noticed that the notification feed doesn't record that. So I'm not sure if readers get notified that there's a new page. That's kinda sad. frowning

Raven_C
Sep '14

@tingchen00 yea usually people just upload a new episode altogether to notify their readers if there is a new page. "Episode" is really a very broad term here in tapastic. Some people treat each episode as a page -- so "episode 1" really just means "page 1" (instead of chapter 1). Or sometimes each episode has multiple pages in one update. I hope tapastic gets better at organizing/archiving pages in the future, though!

tingchen00
Sep '14

I see... but wow... wouldn't that get to be a very long list (160 list items on the left? That would be a pain too....)?
I hope Tapastic makes an update on this too. Thanks for the info though, @raintowns. smile

codesurfer23
Sep '14

I try to do once a week, but I'm not good at keeping up schedules and to make it clearer on what @raintowns said, episodes are instances of updates meaning each episode is for when you update your comic. Some choose to wait and do a large update for their comic with the max number of pages, and others will do a little update where they only add a single page.

Please try to keep a routine of posting episodes and try not to exceed one month of not updating though you may notice a drop in subs if you go past two weeks of not updating (without warning) The major thing though is to keep your fans in the loop as to whenever you're putting anything new up. Be it episode or page.

Sidulus
Sep '14

I pretty much update two days a week- Mondays and Fridays... or at least I try to. Sometimes life kinda get's in the way. Usually if I have to delay an update, though, I will just post the comic on the next deadline. If I can't get Monday's comic up on Monday, I'll just wait until Friday to post it. I guess I just really like consistency.

I'm hoping to possibly add some elements of animation to my comic, as well. How that will effect my update schedule, I have no damn clue.

Which begs an additional question I am going to throw out there- for anyone who does added elements of animation in your comic, how much does that effect your update schedule?

glennsong
Sep '14

I had a backlog so I played around with updating 3 times a week for the opening chapter and then 2 times a week, but now my backlog is gone and due to work I haven't really had time to work on new pages, and I'm going on vacation soon so my subs may all go away. frowning On my comic's official website I update per chapter and not per page, which can mean months before the next update since I feel that makes more sense than doing it per page. Well, we'll see how things go.

I was thinking of uploading some artwork to at least keep something going on Tapastic as I work on new pages. I can at least update folks as to the status of things, and maybe going forward I might just do a page at a time.

LittleEndian
Sep '14
tingchen00

I was wondering if readers are notified for a new "page", thanks to you, I know it is not ^^;
My comics is organized by chapters, so it's weird for me to post 160 episodes too ! xD

hades
Sep '14
Sidulus

Im not expert at animation but so far it has cost me a few hours to an extra day depending on the type of animation I'm adding in to panels.

As for my update schedule, I draw a LOT and tend to update twice a week.

AtokNiiro
Sep '14

I try to update Treehouse25 with 3 pages every two weeks.
So far with my schedule I think I am able to keep it up while also maintaining my studies, but I expect the pace to pick up at university in the coming months. If I feel like I'm going to fall behind again, I'm stretching it to updates every 3 weeks, probably.

shinepaw
Sep '14

I try to update once a week, usually on Monday or Tuesday, but it seems like Tuesday updates work out for me much better. I may try to upgrade it once to two pages a week, but for now I'm glad if I can do one ^^;

Sidulus
Sep '14
hades

Personally, that doesn't sound too bad, but I could very easily start to sing a different tune once I actually start incorporating animation into my comic while I try to keep to a schedule. :/

cyanste
Sep '14

I try to do once a week, and I plan out a schedule like this since I have two main comics:
- Work on each comic on rotating weeks (one per week)
- For my 'serious' comic, use three or four days to do each part of the comic ... one day sketch multiple pages, then line, etc

This makes it so I can usually keep ahead of schedule in case something happens or I get lazy. The pages post as scheduled.

zod
Sep '14

2 pages a month given the busy schedule one has smile

Requiem
Sep '14

For my comic strip 3 panel comic I make an effort to upload it once a week. My other comic tends to be all over the place as to when I upload new pages.

I am the same as you. I have to work full time to make ends meet, I am in a relationship, and I do commissions on the side. Finding time for my own personal projects isn't always as easy as I would like it to be. Often times it feels like I am in a race against myself to get things accomplished.