Is it worth it to advertize among furries?

[TAMAnnoying]

Mk real talk

Furry community is kind of about self identity and kink. So unless you’re story got som hot bois doing hot things or some identity struggles it won’t have a big take off. It’s not something that I can fully judge, the community is huge and has a lot of different personalities, looking at your aliens I think you could gain a few subs from it but don’t know if it would actually blow up

Real pros
If it dose blow up, your gonna get lots more people wanting commissions of your art. You’re gonna get a lot more veiws on your comic. And if you got merchandise is gonna fly off shelves.

Real cons
The community might care more about you making commissions then the comic itself. The furry community tends to care more about the creator then the creation (which could be Pro or con depending on the person). You may also get more nsfw commissions then sfw.

Just like with any community there’s the good eggs and bad eggs just like with the romance fans, bl fans, video game fans, YouTube fans. All these groups have bad eggs. The one constant thing that Furry fandom has that the other fandoms don’t have is that they are willing to waste there money on things they like :v

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Yeah I agree with the cons outweighing the pros. I used anthro tags for a little while on Instagram, but phased it out. I have animal based characters, but they don't have the 'furry' aesthetic really.
Plus I just don't like being boxed into a scene of any kind. All I want is to make my story, get some readers, maybe make some money.

[Darth_Biomech]

Since you already have "furries" in your comic, I guess it's fair to say you're basically did that already.

Well, yes, but I can always use rebuttal (including "official" statements) that I have no relationship with the furry community whatsoever, and they won't be able to prove otherwise. Once I post or register o a furry website for promotion, though, that line of defense is right out of the window.

[Azifri]

I read your comic, and unless something weird happened over the last months, the thought of it being furry never crossed my mind, or else I wouldn't be reading it.

[Darth_Biomech]

Not all furries are bad, however having seen the worst I understand where your worries is coming from. The stigmatisation of furries also does not help.

It's actually mostly about the stigmatization. I know furries are mostly normal (as far as normallness can go), I have nothing against them really, a couple of my friends are, if not furries then at least draw furry art, but they're a minority on the internet that mostly hates them. However soulless corporative that might sound, associating with them without actually being one of them sounds like a bad decision.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Oh that was part of my other reason for not using those tags anymore. Being a 'poser' is never good press, unless attention of any kind is what's sought xD

[Jenny-Toons]

@nathanKmcwilliams hit in on the nail. Furries or otherwise, people can tell if someone is trying to bank off their fandom but doesn't actually like the fandom. It gets worse if said person doesn't respect the fandom or its folks but expect to earn some money.

Even if people are hungry for more content, most won't support someone who does this.

I say if you're trying to advertise in that fandom, you've gotta at least like some part of it. If not, I say it's not worth making stuff you don't like. It's not nice towards yourself or towards the people you're trying to appeal to.

[DiegoPalacios]

Not a furry, but i have met some of them....

Stories dont need to have sexual content to appeal to furries. Sonic the hedgehog is pretty popular among the furry fandom, but you dont see the hedgehog nut in canon.

If your story contains antropomorphic characters with an appealing design (not neccesarily sexual), you may attract some furries among your audience, but that doesnt make your content furry in itself.

[Darth_Biomech]

Sonic the hedgehog is pretty popular among the furry fandom, but you dont see the hedgehog nut in canon.

Sonic fanart, on the other hand...

[Iris-Grimoire]

If it's not an audience you want as the majority, don't screw yourself over in the long run. I know tons of furry comics that are great and have a good community (and don't get into 18+ subjects), but it takes knowing people who are nice about it and share your tastes to begin with - if you don't have a lot of internet buddies that would love to see and share it, it's a bad idea. However, tagging your artwork or something could help you get some extra eyes without fully advertising it as such, if at the cost of some really rude people who go out of the way to put down furry stuff simply because Reddit or whatever told them to hate it.

As an example, Splitting Image has animalfolk which are basically furries with a more cartoony design, but I don't tag it unless it's single character artwork. The story is about a variety of fantasy creatures which includes anthrophomorphic and shapeshifting animal people, it's not about just them; I'd be disappointing both sides of the matter.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Well you said it bolder than myself.
Isn't it a bit disrespectful to target audience who you don't respect.

[lynestjules]

There's a furry community that exploded a few years back in my neck of the woods. It's not sexualized though, they attend all kinds of family friendly events. There's a whole event created for them as well as part of the community and again, it's completely family friendly. Little by little, they're opening the eyes of the people around here and it's really a positive thing.

Yes, there's a high chance that your current readers might drop you. However, that doesn't mean that you won't gain any. And who knows, because it's less of a popular genre, you might get more an audience because there's less competition.

There's definitely a market for it. Sure, there's a lot of cons, but if it's a project that you are passionate about. I say, drop the pros and cons list and just go for it. I don't come from "the big city" and to say that people can be very old fashion and a little close minded here is an understatement. But, we have respectable people who are furries and they're putting themselves out there in the community and they're accepted. There's the occasional hater, but overall... people views on what can seem a little "weird" can be changed.

So, yes, there's a lot of cons in your list, but a lot of those cons are "fears". Those fears can be overcome. You just need to take the plunge and see where it takes you. Especially if it's something you really want to do. Don't live in regret because of fear.

I say, advertise among furries. If they like it, they're read it. If they don't, then they won't read it. You win some and you lose some... it's just the way the cookie crumbles.

[rajillustration]

I mean, having known people that are furries, there is a really big difference between furry art and anthropomorphic art. Anthro is just like--happens to be an animal/human looking creature. Stuff like Micky Mouse, Sonic, most anthro stuff. I do anthro stuff all the time, but what I make is so different from not only the "furry artstyle" but also the types of stories that I would bother advertising on their website.

Furry culture and furry stories have different definitions depending on who you are talking to (some people will argue until the end of time that anthro is furry and like...no bud), but largely they are like an animal persona that you make and RP as (and some people make it sexual, most don't). So a furry comic, in my opinion, in order to be a truly furry comic needs to be a persona. Otherwise...you've just made an anthro comic.

But, I have noticed a few people who make anthro comics and advertise in the furry community despite their stories not being furry--Lackadaisy, most notably, has been doing a lot of collabs with furry cons and that's been really great for her since a lot of people like to dress up as Lackadaisy cats. But I think part of her success in doing this is that her comic and art style was an inspiration for a lot of people who were already making Furry personas. She was just cashing in where there was already demand.

So, tl;dr if you aren't doing a furry comic for that community, I don't think it'll have a great payout. You might get some new eyes on your stuff, but if it ain't furry, it's not furry.

[amortelito]

Stories dont need to have sexual content to appeal to furries. Sonic the hedgehog is pretty popular among the furry fandom, but you dont see the hedgehog nut in canon.

This is so true! Not every Furry expects sex and kinks. But honestly, Furries that post stuff about Sonic seem to be watching it for the reinterpretation they can make from the characters: the fanart, fanfiction, etc. Like people watching My Little Pony seem more interested in the subtext than what the show is really about. So there is always a "risk" of fans wanting your content to go on directions that you didn't plan at all.

[DiegoPalacios]

So there is always a "risk" of fans wanting your content to go on directions that you didn't plan at all.

"In that case you T pose in front of your fandom to assert dominance"

serious answer: readers having unexpected interpretations of a work is an unavoidable thing, specially if you sow the grounds for fan theories. But in the end, is up to the author to decide where the story goes and what is canon.

[LCT_m_a_d]

I mainly draw anthropomorphic characters and I have used a few "furry" tags on my instagram posts.
Doing so, while I have picked up a few furry followers, It hasn't really effected my audience base or stigma.

I also haven't leveraged Furry platforms/ social-networks, and my style doesn't present as pop anime/furry culture brand so I think the tagging is just functional and doesn't come off as a statement or label.

I've also seen massively popular artists leverage furry tags on anthropomorphic instagram post and avoid furry stigma.

Maybe a good portion of the concern comes down to social activity and online presentation.

[writercynknapp]

Take advantage of free linking services:
TopWebComic
Comic-Rocket

Take advantage of mirroring.

[DeleteThisAccountFag]

Is that Comic-Rocket site still active? The announcements date all the way back to 2013!

[writercynknapp]

The recent updates list shows when comics have new chapters.

But the announcements are ancient.

[allenT]

I would call myself a furry because of what i like, but i'm don't associate myself as a “member" of fandom. I'll only speak about the lewd fanart part because I'm concerned about this for mine too.

If it's me to post to furry sites i would also hesitated, as my character designs are more likely to attract those people. We can't prevent them from doing so but we can control the content we post. If i'm ready to put stuff on the sites, I would post more arts of places, items, interactions between characters(sfw), than just character pinups. It'll sent an overall image that is it‘s a comic with a story I dedicate and care. I'm sure it'll attracts more people coming for your story than those who look for the body eye-candies.

If your comic becomes REAL popular, Lewd fanarts will exist, and you need to live with it. 'Beastars' creator has broke convention as first successful "furry" manga and i must applause her bravery to breakthrough. Regardless of how many Legosi x Louis porns were drawn, it didn't stop her from working her series ya? (i don't think it's a fair comparison to us but) I think if you care about your work strongly, don't let those things drag you down. Gotta be brave i must say, @Darth_Biomech

About the furry stigmatization: There's almost a trend of furry/anthro on cartoons, animes and movies in recent years (that shines positive light), so I'm sure it will only gets better & less stigmatic from days to come.