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BriggsWall
Mar '22

So I've been using tapas for almost two years, I started posting a novel there, I really liked the support I found there, and now my novel is reaching almost 1k subs, and I wanted to know if I can get my episodes to be unlocked or how does it work, bc I have no clue.
I tried searching around, but Tapas doesn't offer much regarding to this and I'm on discord but I get very shy to ask this from others. I find easir using the forum.

I appreciate your kindness.

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darthmongoose
Mar '22

Most people I know who are on bonus programs, including myself, Tapas came to us and offered a place on a premium program via email.

If you're at around 1k subs updating just since summer 2021, with an active audience and if you've had your novel featured before, it's not totally unlikely it might happen to you too in the future if you just keep updating steadily, interacting with the community and doing your best to advertise your novel on social media and stuff.

darthmongoose
Mar '22

All right, so there are basically three ways a normal community comic can become a Tapas premium comic...

  1. Becoming a Tapas original. Example: Animal Heads
    In this case, the comic will be taken down from Tapas and from other platforms like Webtoon and re-uploaded. In some cases, like Animal Heads, the creators will take advantage of this to spruce up the early pages and stuff. The comic will become a Tapas Original where pages require ink to unlock and will be exclusive to Tapas. This way almost certainly gets the most money of the three because it's an exclusivity deal, but generally only happens if the comic has a huge readership, probably over 30,000 subs.

  2. The Early Access Program. Example: Alien Heart, Charity Case
    This is more common, and tends to happen to comics above 5,000-10,000 subs. Tapas enables the creator to make pages available earlier to readers who pay ink, and then the pages become free over time. The creator earns money from ink unlocks. This has been rolled out to community creators creators with a strong following over the past year or so.

  3. The Creator Bonus Program. Example: Errant, BREAKS
    This program works a bit like monetisation on Webtoon. If you hit certain targets for views each month, Tapas gives you a lump sum bonus payout (of money, not ink) that increases by tier (and sorry to anyone curious, I'm not allowed to disclose the numbers of the views to hit the bonuses or the amount of money given for hitting them). Previously it seemed like this was generally used for quite large comics, but the recent addition of Errant (1400 subs) and The Moth Prince (around 500 subs when brought onto the program) may perhaps be a sign that Tapas is trying it out with smaller comics to see what happens.

So really, I think the Tapas Original or getting greenlit to make something via Studio Tapas is the only way to get something like a "grant" where you get the money up front to work on and develop your comic. The other ways it's a more standard "make the pages now and hopefully get some money later" model. I might get a small bonus payout at the end of this month if I hit a certain number of views, but I probably won't be giving up my part time day job any time soon :sweat_02:

Panpan
Mar '22

Darthmongoose did a good job of explaining! Someone already mentioned the premium program but they’re not accepting novel pitches right now, which is where you keep full rights to your work and do whatever you want with the story. There’s different contract types.

Studio Tapas, aka Tapas Originals, is more exclusive to the site only and are excepting series pitches, but they work with you with your story, suggest changes, help edit, etc. Some novels in this program have become comics.

BriggsWall
Mar '22
1
darthmongoose

Hey, thank you for replaying. I see how it is, i had a gist how it worked, bc I read some comics on the early acess, and premium, but i didn't know how it worked for the bonus program. Anyways, thank you all so much to explain this for me.

I feel kinda dumb, bc this is info is hard to get and once again i'm super shy. But thank to you all, I got to finally understand how it works.

1 month later

closed Apr 14, '22

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