I'm thinking of posting my novel to Tapas-- How is the GL scene here? (and other questions)

[thedude3445]

I've used Tapas for quite a long time for reading comics, but for some reason it was only recently that I became aware that it had a pretty popular novels section too. I am the author of several web novels that are posted on other websites, but after looking into it some more, I've realized that one of my stories might be a good fit for this site!

The story, which I assume I'm not allowed to link, is called Hands Held in the Snow, a queer fantasy romance story that has been serializing elsewhere since December.

It's primarily about the romance between two young women in a fantasy city, but explores queer identities in several respects throughout the story, with a primarily LGBTQ+ cast and a setting where gay marriage is already very common.

So then my question is, what's the right way to "market" the story? I see that there is an LGBTQ+ genre, but also BL and GL genres. Which genre is better to put the story in? Does GL have different connotations like it often does in Japanese manga? I know BL is extremely popular on here but I'm not sure about GL, especially with novels.

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And another question that googling has not given a clear answer to: Can you easily add images to novels on Tapas? There were no clear answers given in the forum threads I found, and there weren't any newer than early 2019 so I assume it was outdated info. My novel has many illustrations (by the very great Mikayla Buan) and they are integral to the story, so if they can't be added then I can't post the story

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I probably come off a little over-worrying about all this, but I just want to prevent another case like Wattpad, where Hands Held in the Snow was published for a few months and absolutely flopped on every level. I will cry if that happens again lol

[k5rakitan]

Welcome!

I say post on as many platforms as possible to get your work out there! It sounds like a great concept.

I'm not sure about the nuances between BL and GL, but you can have multiple genres here, so you might as well do both!

You can add thumbnails of images to each chapter, but full images aren't supported in the novel format. One thing I really like about this platform is getting to add songs to the chapters.

I've had my own issues with Wattpad, too. I write about polyamory and sex work (prostitution) and was following Wattpad's content guidelines, but I got kicked off the site for "banned content." I tried to appeal, but I basically got ignored.

All that said, this place has a nice community

[thedude3445]

Oh hey, nice to see you here too lol. And sorry to hear that Wattpad sucks.

You can add multiple genres? I only ever see one when I'm scrolling through the site (though you can always add plenty of tags I guess).

And if you really can't do full images on novels, I absolutely cannot post this story on Tapas, or unfortunately any future story I publish as almost all of my novel-length stories have and will make use of artwork. I really hope there's an easy way that is maybe easily overlooked

[DasIstWunderblyat]

• GL is a rather new addition to the genre selection. I think for now you can choose 3 genres for your series with 1 as a main. Probably you can categorize yours as mainly a fantasy/GL genre, then the LGBTQ and fantasy/GL as the secondary.
  It is a rather small genre compared to fantasy or BL or LGBTQ, but if you tag your series as GL as its main genre it might help to make your story shines better as fantasy is one of the most oversaturated genre.
  Also I think the GL fanbase is not as thirsty as the BL one, but that is just from a glimpse.

• Adding image is currently achievable by the use of Mozilla Firefox browser on desktop. Copy the image you want (right-click and copy), then right click and paste it to your writing field. CMIIW.

[darthmongoose]

You can have multiple genres on Tapas as of like... earlier this week! (nice timing!) But only your primary genre counts for which category you'll be in for trending/popular rankings, so choose the one that best describes the kind of audience you think your work will appeal to.

The GL scene on Tapas is considerably smaller than the BL scene, but there are some good works in there! The most popular works in the genre tend to be less on the kind of "cutesy young women being sexy" sort of Yuri sense, with more of the works focusing on drama, often quite intense, but there's also fluffy slice of life stuff too, and Fantasy. Basically, there isn't really a strong trend for any one type of work and the audience are hungry for just good content generally.

The LGBTQ+ Genre tends towards works that deal with relationships that fall outside of GL or BL (ie, the relationship has one or more trans, nonbinary or ace person), works with multiple couplings across the spectrum, or which prominently feature LGBTQIA+ themes but aren't focused on a romance as the core story.

[thedude3445]

That Firefox thing is what I read in forum posts from 2018, but it sounds very strange. Why Firefox? Is this an actual feature, or just some cheesing that Tapas staff are apparently unaware of? And thank you for the info about genre selections.

[thedude3445]

Oh, nice timing indeed! ...Assuming the story is able to be posted, that is.

That makes a lot of sense about the LGBTQ+ genre; I guess this book would easily fall under GL for its main tag then, since it is quite definitely a romance. And also because a smaller genre technically means a lot more visibility, but maybe that's being too cynical about it lol

[DasIstWunderblyat]

You're welcome.

I don't know, but it is probably just some kind of a loophole.

Why aren't we getting this feature yet? Many have asked.
I also think the writing interface and features for the novel is in need to be improved. It would have been easier if I didn't need to re-italicise sentences I paste into it.

[thedude3445]

It seems incredibly easy to implement an "insert image" link where you copypaste the link to some picture from imgur or wherever and it shows up. Every other writing site I have ever used has had this as an option, except Wattpad which does direct uploads.

I'm gonna ask support about this and see if there is something I'm missing here lol

[thedude3445]

The Firefox Method seems to be the only way to do it right now; support even suggested that method to me lol.

Well, I'm gonna post my story on Tapas, then. It's not actually out yet but I uploaded all of the stuff plus the first chapter. If anyone has any recommendations or critique for the description/tags/etc., please let me know! This is my first time uploading a story to this site so I'm still behind the curve.

Hands Held in the Snow | Tapas

[thedude3445]

Update on the GL scene question: After only the second chapter released and only 13 likes, the story is already #4 on most popular for GL. That's... really sad It probably means that GL fans are super starved for stories, which is good for me I guess, but it makes me more sad how little stuff is there...