LINE Webtoon - Opinions?

[eleoza]

I started to post my comic on webtoon 1 week ago and now I regret I didn't do it sooner xD I'm nervous starting over at new places, so I kept delaying making an acount there. The rating system also scared me a little. But so far I'm loving it, just like tapastic. The community over there is nice too ^^

Oh and gratz on being featured, Affected! I hear it's quite a big deal ^.^ that's awesome!

[casinojack]

yo new here and probably goin to try out line webtoon too...
i dont know if this was answered already but, can i post traditional style comic on line webtoon? i mean the same format we can see on printed comics...most of the comics there (or webtoon if thats what they call it now?) are on a awkwardly very long and somewhat tension cutting format? (i dunno what to call it..)ah well my question again, does line webtoon accepts traditional styled comic? does pitchin a comic there on traditional format affects somewhat on gettin featured? and if somehow a traditional styled comic was featured, does the author need to rework the whole thing and make it awkwardly long? i kinda dont know if its worth tryin out there on webtoon i mean i make comics traditionally...pen, ink and watercolor (sometimes eggs?)...if somehow i got featured with my print comic styled comic/webtoon (if thats what they call it now..) reworking on a full page just to make it awkwardly long will be the same as re-drawing every single bit on it...

[69Michi]

does line webtoon accepts traditional styled comic?

The discover of LINE Webtoon accept all style of comic be it vertical scrolling style or traditional manga page. But you have to keep in mind the majority of readers on Webtoon read comic on their cellphone, so be mindful to not make your pages too busy and font size too small, you will get a lot of complain.

does pitchin a comic there on traditional format affects somewhat on gettin featured?

I would say not at all. If your comic is good enough to catch Webtoon's attention, you will receive the same ticket to Featured line just like anybody else. The only difference I know is that once becoming a featured comic, you HAVE to change your comic format to vertical scrolling style. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

[casinojack]

well that was enlightening ero...but i kinda still want to stick to print style format cuz who knows? i might get it printed one day? so ero, got any tips or examples for me if i want to venture out to the world of vertical scroll style with print style format? i mean is there anything i can do to change in terms on paneling to make it seem like a vertical scroll type but still print style?

[Aspie_Gamer]

I haven't used LINE in a while on account of putting my Life of an Aspie revamp on hiatus until I build up a significant buffer for Chapters 1-4, but I will say that LINE is the place to go if you want subs and you want them fast. In the two weeks I was posting my small Chapter 1 buffer one page a day 5 days a week, I gained almost 40 subscribers. Something that took me a couple of months to do here on Tapastic. In fact, it feels like growth has been slow for LoaA here as of late. Some of it might be because of my "meh" art that I am in the process of revamping and will exclusively be revamping until its done once I'm finished with Chapter 5, but I think some of it is because A. Tapastic doesn't have the numbers LINE has and B. LoaA has been and always probably will be a niche comic compared to what "sells" around here i.e slice of life gag comics, BL, etc.

[69Michi]

i mean is there anything i can do to change in terms on paneling to make it seem like a vertical scroll type but still print style?

Sure you can! Take a look at Overdrive, I know that they do their comic page by page format and you can def use those to print out in the future if you ever want. I also know Lumine does the same thing with their page by page format. I'm trying out the same thing, and each page usually consist of 2 to 3 panels. Think of it like an anime screenshot and try to keep your page not too busy to the eyes. I know personally I rather like vertical format because I tend to skip over speech bubbles a lot reading normal manga style format.

[casinojack]

oh mind tellin me your comic ero?
also as for aspie yeah youre right when it comes on getting readers fast line webtoon is a good place to go..g'luck on your comic aspie!

[69Michi]

My comic is :Rebirth! It follows the vertical format haha I used to do long strip instead of print page. Only just come around to try out page by page recently.

[beerpongmanga]

Alright folks, here's my one month update.

WEBTOONS:

Currently BP has 124 subscribers, 2.5k total views, a 9.25 rating, 90 hearts, and about 12 total comments. We're seeing a steady rate of about 18-25 new subscribers every update. We update twice a week.

TAPASTIC:

BP has 32 subscribers, 450 total views, 55 hearts, and 30 total comments.

---

So while the community seems more active and engaged on Tapastic, our comic has grown about four times faster on Webtoons Discover. Also, we haven't done any promotional efforts on Webtoons, whereas on Tapastic we've remained actively engaged in the forums in the hopes of promoting readership.

I also attended Emerald City Comic Con this past week and handed out free promotional postcards, though that doesn't seem to have paid much dividends. Though to be fair I also had two other books to attend to at the con (which I was selling prints of), so besides having them at the table to grab I didn't do much pitching for BP. I did include a copy in every package we sold, though again there doesn't seem to have been any immediate benefit the week after the con.

Cheers!

• The BP Team

[Elm]

I've been following this thread, and I may have missed this if someone already said it. But I think to understand success on Line, you probably have the understand the market a little more. I think a lot of Line Webtoon's audience likens webtoons to that like dramas, and so except an upload to feel like an episode.

This was 2 years ago, but clearly the approach to online comics is very different.

I've also been hunting down a bit more about comic creating, and what some other artists have to say about webtoons. I'm not adovcating Webtoons, as much as I am trying to learn from other artists as a way to grow myself. I think Line had a financially stable upper hand though, thats allowing them to really invest in future artists.

[shaneoid77]

I'm in a similar boat, I'm smashing my Tapastic views. subs and comments over at Webtoons with minimal effort. Perhaps it's a lesson learned that engaging with people isn't always an avenue to quantitative results.

[GoldenPlume]

I think Line had a financially stable upper hand though, thats allowing them to really invest in future artists.

First off, thank you for sharing these links. We really appreciated listening to Coffee Table Comics Podcast since they are similar creators to us in terms of personality. Sometimes things can get to feeling very isolated and knowing that there are others out there like us gives a sense of community and that we're all in the same boat.

As far as LINE, yes, they have far more financial resources at their disposal than any other webcomic platform. This allows them to market heavily, offer huge monetary contests, pay featured artists, give out Patreon money, etc. They don't have to generate a profit. Tapastic on the other hand has to stay in the black, so they have to be careful about what they do in terms of everything mentioned above. Having a budget means they can't do a lot of things that LINE can, resulting in a smaller readership. However with the tipping program doing so well the hope is that over time they can slowly expand growth efforts and increase reader numbers for all creators. Over time the gap between LINE and Tapastic should narrow.

[Elm]

I do enjoy listening to CTC and a lot of Jason Brubaker's stuff as he seems to be very open and intent about inspiring other comic artists and what he wants to achieve personally. I only started watching more of his things recently, but it was very refreshing to see an artist like him.
I do hope the gap closes, I know tipping has been going quite well for people, but I'm sure there are more ways to improve Tapas and Tapastic. Especially when it come to reaching a wider audience.

[jurinova]

I've been thinking about maybe trying out Webtoons but I fear my comic may not suit the platform very well. My paneling style is more European, so it's quite far from the large vertical paneling I see a lot in Webtoons. I fear my panels are too tightly packed to work in a vertical form. I'm curious if anyone else has had similar issues and how they worked around them? Is it worth completely re-doing the paneling to be more suitable for Webtoon format?

I suddenly feel so weirdly old when I stuggle figuring out these new directions webcomics are taking. I never thought I'd have to make sure the comic was easily readable on mobile platforms, heh.

[Devika]

Thanks for sharing those videos! Only watched the first one so far, but it's very informative. : D

[69Michi]

I suddenly feel so weirdly old when I stuggle figuring out these new directions webcomics are taking. I never thought I'd have to make sure the comic was easily readable on mobile platforms, heh.

Soon enough in the future we will toss away cellphone and read and watch everything on hologram. LMFAO But yah, because as of today, smartphones have become a stable thing that pretty much everyone would have, so it's no surprised that other entertainment also start to try to work around it too. (Heck, having a cellphone might as well be a lot cheaper than able to own a laptop/computer)

I would say even if you are not following the vertical scrolling style format, your comic should still work as long as it's not way too crowded and hard to read, but I can see where your worry comes from. I know a lot of people who have manga format try to reorganize their panels to be more suitable for LINE Webtoon, but it really depends on how worthwhile you may deem it to be. Would you want to work extra to appeal to even a wider audience range? Or nah? All up to you.

[keii4ii]

I suddenly feel so weirdly old when I stuggle figuring out these new directions webcomics are taking. I never thought I'd have to make sure the comic was easily readable on mobile platforms, heh.

Interestingly, the vertical scroll format goes back to low resolution desktop days. Because typical readers were using low resolution displays (say 800x600 or 1024x768), creators were having a hard time fitting each entire page into one screen. So instead of struggling to make the book format work, they embraced the need to scroll and ran with it. This happened in early 2000s, way before phones became the most common way of reading comics in Korea.

[brokeninjascomics]

I started Broke Ninjas (a gag strip) on both LINE Webtoon and Tapastic about the same time last summer. Just those two, since their Alexa rankings were highest compared to other comic self-publishing websites I saw out there at the time. In nine or so months, about 1,100 subscribers found my comic on Webtoon and about 80 have found it on Tapastic.

Webtoon does have a much larger audience than Tapastic, and by default their Discover page pushes comics with fresh updates whereas Tapastic's default pushes just the uber popular ones. So, it feels like readers are able to find new creators and comics easier on Webtoon. I haven't noticed the readers being any less supportive on one platform or the other. Maybe I'm just lucky, but BN readers are super fun and encouraging.

For monetization, Webtoon has that partnership with Patreon, but it doesn't really help that readers have to leave the app, create an account, and link an existing payment account in order to make a contribution. Too many steps. And for readers who are kids without bank or PayPal accounts, Patreon's not useful at all.

I like the new tipping feature on Tapastic a lot, and I wish something like that was available on Webtoon as well. But I know building and implementing something like that can take a lot of time and expense, and I don't know if Webtoon is keen to dive into that.

It's really encouraging, however, when I recently announced the tipping feature on both Webtoon and Tapastic, that some readers opened Tapastic accounts because they wanted to support my comic. I've said multiple times before that I intend to keep my comic free to read, so it's awesome that several wanted to jump on board with me and mitigate some of the expense that goes into making the episodes every week.

Anyway, that's what I've observed so far.

[jurinova]

Honestly, technology is moving so fast that it's actually getting hard to predict all the things to come. People thought we'd have flying cars but nope, instead we got tiny computers we can carry around us. (I'd still like to see some flying cars in my lifetime, though...)

Thank you for your input! I feel like right now I'm doing fine with my comic but I do worry that in the future more and more people are going to be reading comics only on mobile platforms. I guess this is a matter that I should spend more time thinking on.

[GoldenPlume]

in the future more and more people are going to be reading comics only on mobile platforms.

Tapas is pretty much the undisputed leader for mobile app webcomics. Their usage rank among all apps is 2,300. Meanwhile LINE Webtoons English mobile app useage rank is 288,000. So desktop traffic wise, Webtoons wins, mobile app traffic Tapas wins. So if the future is mobile, Tapastic is ultimately the place to be.