Is it worth it to make every page its own episode?

[miss.monocle]

I've been posting multiple comic pages within episodes on here (ex. 3 pages for episode 2) since it was easier for organization and I already had 5 scenes created before posting them all. I know that if I edit in new pages to a scene, it will at least notify my subscribers to the newest page, but I don't know if updates like that will show up on the Fresh page of Tapas. Would it be more worth it to separate all of my pages in order to get more attention from new readers?

[artemficta]

It's hard to deny that individual page updates will at least show up in the fresh section more often which is a very good thing, but it's somewhat jarring as a reader to have the episode break after a single page with how the site is set up. I dunno, it's a tough call, I've seen successful creators do it both ways too.

As for updating your current episodes to have less pages in them, that I'm not sure if it will show up in the fresh section or not, my assumption is they would but I can't say for certain.

[joannekwan]

You can appear once a day on Fresh max. So if you just upload an episode a day, you can take advantage of that.

The Fresh section does not take into account episode edits where you add on pages, as that only counts as an edit and not new content (for the purposes of people perhaps updating a file after they've corrected a typo, etc.)

[miss.monocle]

Ah okay. Kind of wish they could allow for organizing groups of pages together while still letting them be their own pages. Kind of like how smackjeeves originally was years back.

[miss.monocle]

I suppose if it's only once a day on the fresh page, that isn't as much of a huge deal. I only post once a week, along with using certain forum threads on here to promo. Too bad you can't group pages together without them being locked into episodes though

[artemficta]

Oh gosh yeah, it's clear the site itself wants you to post batches now too. It used to be better for single page updates a few years ago, but now Tapas has been really trying to encourage a webtoon format with posting.

[miss.monocle]

That sucks. I feel like websites are trying to make the format better for scrolling comics instead of paged comics, which is kind of lame because I've always preferred drawing in a page panel format. Makes things easier to publish too.

[artemficta]

They are definitely doing that, because it works better on mobile and the focus is really on mobile viewing. I've always preferred reading page format comics myself, but I know it definitely hurts me a bit that I chose to draw my comic in page format versus in vertical scroll. It's a huge bummer really but that's the way the internet is moving with comics.

[miss.monocle]

Yeah Well at least sometime next year I'll be able to attempt publishing and then it will be time for my panel pages to be more useful

[artemficta]

Yes!!! That's why I chose to go with it too, haha. I wanted to be able to print it and have a real looking comic in my hand XD

[Rhonder]

I think that having slightly longer updates makes for a better reading experience, but a lot of folks opt to simply post what they can put out weekly, which for a lot of folks doing comics on the side and/or as a hobby is ~1 page per week. There's not a right or wrong way per say, but I think epsides of the length you're suggesting (~±3 pages) are nice.

for this though:

but I don't know if updates like that will show up on the Fresh page of Tapas.

I... think this is a case of "no, it won't". Not entirely sure and things may have changed recently but I always think back to this thread:

Losing activity and I don't know why

At the very least it doesn't show up in your Subscriber's bookmarks (so people on the app wont see the update to the episode at all) but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't "re-Fresh" your series either.

[miss.monocle]

Yeah, it seems like posting batches is the preferred way to go on here, which kind of sucks. I do almost all of the art on my own and I do pretty detailed pages, so it sucks that its more encouraged to post lot's of pages at once. I get it from the reader's standpoint since I also like to read a full scene, but as a creator, oh my gosh is it so hard to pull that off without a whole team.

[Rhonder]

For sure, like my preferences are as mentioned above but I totally was a 1-page per week person when I was uploading my comic last year too lol I do think there are pros and cons of doing it both ways and it's important to consider your preferences and needs as a creator to pick which way to go

For me, it was important to do the weekly updates even if they were only 1 or rarely 2 pages each to gain visibility through fresh. It was my first comic not only on Tapas but in general that I got further than 5 pages in so I was willing to sacrifice the reading experience a little bit for that xD I'm contemplating trying something else out next time to get slightly longer updates though- my next project will be chapter-by-chapter, so I'm thinking about finishing a chapter before posting (so I can choose the best places to break it into episodes) and then just taking small breaks between chapters. It's a trade off the other way: better reading experience, but less consistency (or rather consistency punctuated by periods of inactivity while I finish the next chapter lol)

[miss.monocle]

I've been looking into finally buying clip studio paint ex just so I can take the sets I make in sims 4 and extract the lines from them for indoor scenes. Then maybe I'll be able to crank out more pages at once, but it's also tough keeping up so many pages once college rolls around again. It's sort of a choice between whether or not I post a lot of pages at once or save them so that I can post more consistently during times when I'm too busy. It is certainly hard to find the balance!

[Rhonder]

Yeahhhh.

That's totally another reason I'm going to try out the "save pages to post consistently" approach is because it was too stressful on me trying to keep up the drawing pages weekly thing xD My comic was only 70 pages long but I ran out of buffer around... page 30 maybe? So I went the rest of the time frantically drawing to get the pages out on time(ish) and... not a fan haha. The time consumption is immense @u@;;

[jcmraz]

That's what I do. But I also create Runner as a traditional format comic

[miss.monocle]

Oh yeah. When I first created the comic, I had to rush so many pages to keep up with high school. Now I have to force myself to be patient with pacing and save up pages because getting a degree does not leave much time haha