It is BL, but is this the right Cover?

Maxedrox 2022-05-02 21:30:23 UTC #1

OK, honestly, it was hard to make the proper question, because it would be dumb to ask "is this queerbait?" or something like that, because, it's not the Voltron situation or something that says "Look, this is BL!" and never happens anything related to that.
The issue that kinda worries me is... Well, is this the right cover?

Because, in terms of the story, nothing between them happens until Chapter 10, there are 28 chapters and they start to be together in Chapter 11, and their relationship becomes an important factor that plays into the climax. So... The main reason why I choose this cover is that I don't want homophobic people to be like "I sign up for this and you suddenly shove me this gay plot into the face?!" and I know it can happen because I noticed how people are not focusing in all details that happen in this story. Everything is connected and related, and affects each character involved, in the present or future, but some people focus on their preferred plot and get confused when they're finding out that something that was related to a plot that they didn't pay attention to was an important fact into their preferred plot.

I actually don't mind that, I think that gives people time to examine the previous chapter when they missed something, what I do want to avoid is making people uncomfortable because they weren't expecting a gay relationship and leave the comic because of that.

I'm not sure if I did the right decision, because I feel that people who want to see their relationship are not willing to wait, and people who don't want to see the relationship are not willing to give this comic a chance.

I don't know... I would like to read some opinions about this situation...
Sorry for the long text...

RedLenai 2022-05-02 21:40:39 UTC #2

What is queerbaiting?

The term queerbaiting refers to the practice of implying non-heterosexual relationships or attraction (in a TV show, for example) to engage or attract an LGBTQ audience or otherwise generate interest without ever actually depicting such relationships or sexual interactions.

For example, a TV show may be accused of queerbaiting when interactions between two same-sex characters are consistently suggestive of sexual attraction or a sexual relationship but the characters never actually enter into such a relationship (including and especially when their sexuality isn’t otherwise discussed or portrayed).

The term queerbaiting is used to criticize the practice as an attempt to take advantage of and capitalize on the appearance or implication of LGBTQ+ relationships without actually having real LGBTQ+ representation.

So, if your story is about two guys who eventually fall in love, and as well you have a cover of them hugging in a very close manner as well, you have the BL tag and even the description has mentions of love. Then, it's quite obvious that this is a story where BL/MLM are an important part and not just a pinch of salt or just the mere illussion that there is a pinch of salt in there, therefore is not queerbaiting.

In any case, it would be the reader's responsability to check the Cover, the Tags and even the Summary that actually make the thing extremely obvious at the point that they should be blind to not notice the turn this story will take, and in any case someone is so... unattentive of checking the info before reading then they cannot complain about "getting gay plot shoved into their faces".

Aleksei 2022-05-02 21:58:46 UTC #3

Worry not. There is a term for this, its called an slow burn. A relationship that it grows in time, to make it more meningful. In fact, I prefer those kind of stories than the ones that people got on relationship 5 minutes after meeting each other. Not that I don't believe in love at first sight, is that if the meaning of the story is publicited as the relationship and they are already a couple, then there is not conflict and the couple loose all interest. This is not the case, though. You are doing great. Keep up the good work!

BoomerZ 2022-05-02 22:11:34 UTC #4

Think of it this way, would the cover be a problem if it was just a boy/girl romance and you have both of them on the cover? I doubt it. You are overthinking this. Make a good, eye catching cover and write your story.

Maxedrox 2022-05-03 00:11:51 UTC #5

Yeah, well, this is the recent Cover actually, but yeah, I wanted to be more clear about the subject but thanks for making me feel better about the decision that I did make.

Oh, I thought that a slow burn only counts for situations that involve both characters meeting from the beginning and then starting to fall in love . But if them able to see each other after 10 chapters counts, then I guess it is a slow burn.

Well, if we forget the controversial part of homophobic people... Then... I guess it should be the same treatment as well, mostly to avoid people who complain about romance being an important part of the climax.

Well, sorry for bothering all of you, I feel this was kinda unnecessary but I guess I needed to recover some confindence on my self and my project.
So, thank you so much for your words

Aleksei 2022-05-03 00:25:21 UTC #6

If you needed to make the question, then its not a bother at all.
All your doubts are valid, and here are people eager to answer them, so go for it. Have a nice day!

NickRowler 2022-05-03 00:32:43 UTC #7

You could put a disclaimer on your first page of your comic stating what is in your comic. You can say something along the lines as "This comic contains LGBT including MLM pairings." You can also add something how the main focus is not to be a super romantic BL.

I am not sure how often your are going to run into vocal homophobes. I know this was a huge problem when I started making webcomics in 2012, but I don't see them that often now. It's not like something that never happens but I think it is far less common, most people tend to be open minded.

Maxedrox 2022-05-03 02:51:11 UTC #8

Well, no is not a big issue nowadays, they just go away, but yeah I put some indications in the presentation about the subject and said to people that be patient if they want to see some BL in action because other characters are sharing the same plot and you know, they need their time.
Thanks for your answer

MartaTod 2022-05-03 09:59:37 UTC #9

Oh, I feel your struggle. I have a MLM relationship that's crucial to the plot at 2/3 of the comic, but there's nothing about it before. And I didn't want to tag my comic as BL because it's not about romance. It's so frustrating because I don't want the readers who would like that to not see my comic, because they don't know it's there. But I also don't want to look like I'm dangling it like a carrot on a stick, when nothing happens in the first 1000 pages.

My 2nd chapter reveals one of the main characters is bi, so hopefully that's enough to push away the homophobes and give a hint at future happenings. But now looking at the suggestions here, I'm thinking maybe I need more tags in the description or at the start of the comic.

Maxedrox 2022-05-04 05:36:57 UTC #10

Yeah, I get it better to clear things out quickly to avoid any uncomfortable situations
As I said before, nothing really bad happens, but losing readers for that is... Well, kinda sad actually.

BoomerZ 2022-05-04 05:44:53 UTC #11

Don't ever say this. You are a storyteller and you should never push anyone away. You bring readers in, tell your story, and entertain. Pushing anyone away should not be an option.

MartaTod 2022-05-04 07:29:37 UTC #12

I feel like we're going a bit off topic here, so I'm just going to clarify this and move on. If you want to continue to talk about it, I'm open to move it to direct messages.

I get what you're saying, and maybe my choice of words was poor, but I'm really talking about a specific group of people that gets angry and often outright harasses the creator for drawing queer characters. I had comments from such people on my work before, and as a queer person myself, I'm tired of them and I'd rather avoid them in the future.

system 2022-06-03 07:29:57 UTC #13

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