13 / 32
Sep 2019

:sweat_smile: <- this is my reaction haha. Do better next time...
when It´s about a series that doesn´t do well for a longer period, I reevalute what might be the problem. Am I not reaching many people because of presentaion, content or reach?

I'm disappointing for sure, but because I am emotionally invested in my projects I'm able to find the motivation to soldier on. Loving your work helps.

I just look at myself, see what I can do to improve it, and see if I'm still going to have fun doing these things. I'm not getting paid for it (yet) and there's no crazy expectations, so if the lack of results is actively making me sick, then it'll be the time to take a hiatus or stop entirely.

But for now, those are just a day or two of a bad mood. I work on another picture that'll be fun to create, I do studies, or I stop drawing entirely and just go treat myself with a meal or watch something that's enjoyable. Gotta make time for your own well-being, aside from health and excercise.

Higher numbers of likes and subs used to be my main motivation to update as often as I could, but after being too preoccupied with the rest of life, it's all about getting that epic story out of my head and out there for the world to see :blush:

I mentioned it kind of in a joke on how many views you get per update that I get one, two, or sometimes three and that's really not a joke. Those are my real numbers.
I actually have a lot of self-esteem issues and for some reason, somehow over a decade+ of time online, I've built up a giant wall about looking for approval from the internet of all places. I think a lot of my way of dealing with it, is I just enjoy my story and my characters. I draw them myself, and I get free art when available, and commissions - I like to try to get more dynamic pictures that's not "something I would draw" - like an art of the boys fighting each other in a Wii-mote battle.

I like to gush about comic work among friends as well. So even with the low numbers sometimes, it's nice to sit around with my buddies and gush over what happened in our works. :blush:

There's been a thread about this on twitter that I've been thinking about quite a bit, it's an excerpt from Paul Williams that went like this:

And like I'm not as old as Paul Williams, but I'm old enough that I've seen some of my projects that I figured were failures get noticed by random people who send me a message saying "are you ever finishing this, I love it so much" and one particular project was one when I had carpal tunnel and couldn't even draw. So like...you sometimes never know who it really resonated with and who just didn't say that it did, youknow?

I do get a little disappointed at times when I look at stats. But when I look at what I've written (and have yet to write), I feel happy, excited, and accomplished. And that keeps me going! :smiley:

The occasional comment that I get also makes my day and motivates me to write even more. I'm very happy that so far, a lot of people (on other writing platforms) have given me support and encourage me to continue my craft. :heart: I think the main thing is to always look on the positive side and that writing/art-ing should always be about what you love to do. :thumbsup:

Haaa, i wanted to rant about this! I have only 3 followers in webtoon, one is me, the other is my boyfriend and the third one surely is a friend of mine. I have better performance in tapas tho, but it still low, i wonder if there is something wrong with my first pages, the texts, te descriotion, bad english, or that story dont have a good start. I dont know. Somethimes i just want to give up and continue with the next comic, but then i told muself, "its summer, wait until october, everything will be better then"
The other reazon to jot give up is that i want to finish something in my life, it migut jot be sucesfull in my comic, but i want to finish it.

I want to post another comic, which i have been striving with the storytelling, paneling, pages and all, and im scared that the raings will be so low!

Posting and promoting here on the forums helps me a lot by the way, not pretty much with the followees numbers, but it helps me with my social anxiety in some way.

I admit I get pretty flustered when it comes to having low views and subscribers, but I do light up when I get a comment. That's enough for me to keep doing.

All you need to do is be active on Tapas forum, post anything you want and at the same time if you have a moment reply to their post.

Also, you have to comment, like and subscribe to many other author's series and hopefully they would do the same to you.

Spread and share your work through the media such as Facebook, twitter, and Instagram etc.

You may not get as much subscribers, comments and likes as you expect, but always be patient, the moment of you're expectation will come one of these days.

I may not be the perfect example, but It is growing slowly but surely.

I have no idea how everyone else does it, but I find making webcomics a soul destroying, miserable experience. You work your arse off only be ignored. You’re out-skilled and out-talented with no chance of catching up. All you’re doing is adding more to the heap of forgettable rubbish that plagues internet.
The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that not making comics makes me even more miserable.

i get like maybe 10 likes on my art and now my webcomic has a couple of people saying they enjoy it. I just don't expect much and I appreciate those two or three people who comment that they like my stuff.

I really love the story i'm making so sometimes it's just the lack of self confidence that drives me to frustration. Then I remember that my friends are really supportive haha.

But the webtoon rating system definitely ruins all the confidence I have lmao. Especially when I think about the fact that there is someone who probably rated me very low. :joy::joy:

Lol, just noticed how even a single comment on a single episode of an averagely popular webtoon, gets about ten times more likes than my entire actual comic has views. Frankly, not sure how to deal with that at all.

Ny reason for doing this is because I've had this idea stuck in my head that has consumed my life so much I had to get it out, in its entirety. And that's going to happen either with or without other people. I don't do it for them, but not gonna lie, I'd love to do this for a living, simply because I don't want to waste time doing my regular job and having to worry about money while doing this simultaneously. And its normal to want to get something out of a project that is taking so much out of you. When I don't get the results I want, I ask myself is this something within my control? If not, such as holiday lull, slow months, etc, I just carry on without worrying about it. In fact those times are good to take a few weeks off :wink: If that's not it then I ask myself: how could I have executed it better? What is in my power/control that could at least improve the stats for me? Getting crits and taking breaks to practise your art and story fundamentals is a good way to see your work in a fresh light. Take a step back and see what you've done that may have held your story back from achieving its full potential.

"Did i TRULY do my best?" Is a good question I ask myself. And if I did and my #s are still not as high as I want then, I'll just chalk it up to my story being too much of a niche, entering the market at the wrong time, or the platform isn't a fit for the story, etc. Its good to remember market value should not determine your self value or artistic value. Sometimes the idea may be solid and your art skills are there but the way you put those things into use can make quite a difference. IS your story a slow burn or is it fast paced? Is there a way to change the pacing of your story and still convey the same meaning?

I don't really mind,marketing is fairly hard for me. Plus most of my stories have a bit of a broken English,and the actual story that i want to publish is still in the progress of getting made.

I write for fun but I don't keep track of views. I find it tiring

The best way I found to stop crying about not having enough exposure, is to understand that it is apart of the process.
Even though whatever you post doesn't perform well, it still build a credential of your work and it's as important as exposure.

Somebody might see it and appreciate it for what it is and stick around for more.

I can't say I do anything hysterical. But, on both Webtoon and Tapas, while I don't have a boatload of subscribers I have some readers I've grown used to seeing. The funny thing is I've grown so used to seeing them that when I don't see them I get a little nervous. It almost feels like that, "could they have died?" feeling... which is incredibly dumb. I don't know why my brains' so silly about it...