How should I post my soft reboot?

[TheDoublekey]

Alright, it's no secret that I plan on remaking the first three chapters of my comic, since I'd like
to print it one day and it's not possible with the current versions I have (the resolution and size of
the pages are wrong and there are plenty of rookie mistakes such as wrong use of speech bubble, bad panel layout, etc.).

I'm taking this opportunity to do a soft reboot of the story, but I have some questions:
how should I be going about posting it? I've contemplated various options, but each has its own pros and cons.

A) By far the easiest route. It would just consist of replacing the old panels (in the already existing episodes) with the new ones. Seems pretty easy, right? The main issue here would be the updates. I can't post the entire chapter all at once, since I would finish all my buffer, but at the same time, if I publish it weekly, new readers would have a hard time reading and understanding the story. For instance, let's say they read Chapter 1.1 and it's the remake, then they go to the next episode and it's the old one. They wouldn't be able to read the story for a long time!

B) This other option is the one I was leaning towards the most, but I'm not sure. In this case, I would have to post the remakes as new episodes during their run. Then, once it's over, I rearrange those new episodes, while keeping the old ones. To differentiate the two, I would label the new ones as [NEW] during their run, and then, after rearranging them I would label the old ones as [OLD] and remove the label for the new ones. There is a major downside to this option, though... it will probably cause confusion! Also, this can be done on Tapas, but not on Webtoon.

C) This option is quite the extreme one, especially for a soft reboot. It basically consists of pausing forever the old series, creating a new one and posting the new chapters there. This option is also very problematic because, first of all, I would pretty much have to start from scratch and I would also have to re-upload chapters 4-7.

D) The last one is another possibility I thought of, but I'm not particularly fond of it. In this case, I would have to leave things as they are and just post the new chapters on my site or keep them exclusively for print (meaning that you would be able to read them only if you purchase vol. 1). Sure, this would be a great incentive to buy vol. 1, but personally, I don't like this option at all, because I'd have to keep my readers without any updates for a whole year, most likely (unless I magically speed-up). It usually takes me about 4 months to complete a 20 page chapter and, considering the first one will be double the amount of pages, it's going to take a long time. I don't think I can manage such a long hiatus, to be honest and I would feel very bad.

I'm sorry if this whole situation seems super complicated, but I really have no other choice if I want to print the series. I made a huge mistake years ago and now I'm pretty much paying the price for it. Mistakes are important for growth and, of course, I'll be extremely cautious from now on.

By now I would've finished the first volume, if it weren't for these three chapters. Feel free to give me your advice/suggestions on the matter, because I really have no idea what to do in this situation. Do you have any alternatives in mind? Thank you in advance for your answers and your patience.

[RedLenai]

I think option C is the most logical one, you'll just have to make an announcement update telling your readers about what is happening so they can move to the new version, and it'll also give you a real indication about your active readers or at least whose subscribers aren't ghosts. Then, when everything is settled down, you delete the old version and the new one will be the one you'll focus on.

You can always do a retconing as the series goes by, basically, you keep what you already did especially if this series has been running for years now, there is nothing wrong is correcting as you go, be it through flashbacks or just leaving a note somewhere telling readers that things are changing.
Like, I don't get why you need to erase your past mistakes, it's proof of how much you've learned and improved through the years right? Even so, I don't think retconing is such a bad idea, since this has been done all time in TV with series and movies, especially the ones that have been around for over a decade and more, you'll either forget something or you'll change things, as if you're a different writer.

[TheDoublekey]

Yeah, the third option does seem like the least confusing and more logical one. As you said, this way I'll be able to see who is reading and who is not.

I'll still have to think this through, but as you said, this way I'll be able to keep all my old stuff. Don't get me wrong, I do love my previous work and I actually want to keep it because it shows my growth as an artist and a writer. If I do end up following option C, I don't think I will delete my previous version.

There's only one question I have: do you think it would still be okay to re-post chapters 4-7 after I'm done with the remakes? My fear is that readers might find boring having to re-read old chapters and wait a long time for chapter 8 to come out.

[RedLenai]

Technically despite of the reboot, which you yourself say is "soft" isn't reading the remade versions also kind of """boring""" if there aren't going to be much changes to begin with?

I honestly don't understand why you're struggling so much with this

[hakei]

It seems like with the reboot, you're improving on not just the art but also the plot and pacing.

If working on both the reboots and new episodes at the same time isn't feasible for you, then this is how I see the listed options:

• A) Either upload all the rebooted chapters at once and take another break to build up buffers, or Option C.
• B) Don't do this. I saw another creator on Discord who did this, and they lamented the fact that they lost a lot of readers because everyone was confused. In the end the creator had to do Option C.
• C) Unfortunately not all readers will move over to the new series. But it's a fresh start, with potentially more new eyes on your comic than before. Some creators have reported better growth after they've done this option.
• D) If you take that long a hiatus without any updates, you'd lose the current readers and then we're back to Option C. Also realistically only a tiny, tiny percentage of readers buy patreon tiers or physical books.

[TheDoublekey]

I made many changes in the new versions of chapters 1-3 like new scenes, new characters, new environments, slower pacing, so I hope it won't be too boring. The major events will be either the same or a little different. Chapters 4-7 will stay the exact same though, that's why I was worrying about it.
After brainstorming a bit more, I think I actually found a way to make 'em less boring.

Anyways, thank you for your suggestion and also thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I believe option C is the only possible way to go about this whole situation.

[TheDoublekey]

Oh, I see. Then I'll certainly avoid option B now that you're telling me this. My biggest worry was that of confusing readers and I was wondering if someone else had already done this type of thing. I'm not a huge fan of option A, because making these chapters will take a very long time and there would be no updates.

So, at this point, everything is truly pointing at option C. I will have to start from scratch, but it doesn't matter in the end. I'll try my best to spread the word and possibly be a bit more active. I have seen some cases of authors rebooting their series and finding a little more success too, so if I make the right choices and use my experience well, I might make it. Also, the fact that I'll have to repost chapters 4-7 isn't that bad of a thing, since this would give me the chance to produce more buffer.
Lastly, as you said, option D would just result in a huge loss of subs and thus makes C the logical one.

Thanks for taking your time to read my question and answering! I appreciated the fact that you analysed every single point.

[hakei]

Best of luck to your new start

[TheLemmaLlama]

I've also heard that making your reboot a new series can also cause the algorithm to give it a boost because it picks up on new releases with a large influx of readers from the start, which reboots are more likely to have than a truly new series because they have a preexisting audience :]

[TheDoublekey]

Thank you! I'll do my best!

[TheDoublekey]

This is actually amazing news! I was always afraid of making my reboot a new series, but reading the things you're saying, and having seen it with my eyes, actually gives me some hope! Maybe starting from scratch is not always for the worse.

[Azifri]

I'm also redrawing old pages for pretty much the same reason as you, and I'm replacing the old pages with the new ones as I complete them (option A in your case). I don't even notify subscribers because the story is the same, so no point in making them re-read everything, plus I leave a link to old pages when there is something important readers should remember and they'll see the remastered page then anyway. I personally would never delete the old episodes because I'd lose all the comments and interactions those pages have, which are the only meaningful reward I get from posting my comic on the internet (it also feels disrespectful to people who spent their time writing those comments ^^). The other thing is that I'm redrawing old pages slowly so I can still manage to have weekly updates and the progression of the story hasn't been affected.

[TheDoublekey]

I think option A would've been a great choice for me if I was just remastering my old panels, but in my case the remakes have lots of new scenes and they're very important for the understanding of future chapters.

Also, as you said, deleting the old pages would be terrible and I would never ever do that, since I'm very attached to them. I would feel like a piece of my history and my progress have been taken away and I don't want any of that.

[system]

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