I haven't done any marketing for any of my works, but this is just what I can make an educated guess on based on my experience as a consumer (of popular webnovels and webcomics)
How have you approached marketing/building an audience for a (long-form) novel or other written work, and how has it worked out?If you haven't yet, how do you think you would do it? Have you made any plans?.
N/A.
What do you think are the main differences to keep in mind when marketing/building an audience for a novel/written work VS a comic/visual media?Pros and cons, challenges and advantages..?.
For novels, since they lack the visual aspect, you may want to rely on attracting readers based on what they feel is familiar. For example, romance readers will gravitate towards other romance novels, and fantasy readers towards other fantasy. Your job is to wiggle the "comfortable genre" bait to these readers, and then hook them in with a unique twist within the story to keep them coming back. I say this as someone who checks out novels based on existing premises that I already enjoy, and then filtering through them. If you try to introduce something too original, readers may not be comfortable with starting something they have no idea about, so it's good to slowly sink them into your story by starting with what they know.
As for webcomics, art is king. That initial thumbnail, and cover art will be a major factor in getting people to even click on your link in the first place. After that, a high enough skill level within the first 3 pages that readers understand what's going on without getting confused over "that looks like a dog but I'm not sure". Finally, solid storytelling and well-timed cliffhangers will ensure the reader will return for the next update in anticipation.
How have you approached marketing/building an audience for a (long-form) novel or other written work, and how has it worked out?
If you haven't yet, how do you think you would do it? Have you made any plans?
N/A
What do you think are the main differences to keep in mind when marketing/building an audience for a novel/written work VS a comic/visual media?
Pros and cons, challenges and advantages..?
.
I feel like it's more genre-specific than form-specific. Novel or comic, as long as you play into what people enjoy from the major genre you're writing, it should be fine.
What would you do differently when building an audience for slow-burns and long-form stories that may take longer for a reader to get invested in VS short n' sweet?
This applies to both comics and novels.
.
Make sure you position your "page turn" as the final panel on a page/update so that you make the reader WANT to flip the page/press that next button. You need to time your events so that you want the reader to find out what happens next. Effective hooks are consistent "mini cliffhangers" that keep the reader coming back due to a well-timed question presented somewhere within the plot, and the answer is juuuuust about to be answered, but NO. YOU GOTTA WAIT FOR THE NEXT UPDATE. This applies to novels too. Make sure you leave just enough of a little cliffhanger to make your readers want to continue, but not enough to stress them out every episode.
Do you think, as a reader, that the threshold to get started on new a novel is higher than that of a new comic?
Why? Why not? And how would you approach/solve this as a creator?
What are your own experiences when it comes to this?
As a reader, I feel that it's easier to dive into a webnovel than a webcomic, since with webcomics, I would have art bias. I am that type of reader who would not pick up a manga series simply based on the art style, or the art level. It's petty, I know. I finally picked up One Piece after a decade of avoiding it.
With novels, I don't have that art bias. I can go directly into the story without sub-par art distracting me from consuming and evaluating the writing fairly. However, I still do judge a novel if after about 10 chapters, it shows signs of shallowness, poor development, or lack of conflict. The number one thing that turns me off from English language original webnovels is poor grammar. I can understand poor grammar for a translated novel, but not for something that was uploaded with the intent that it would be in English from the beginning.
Hope that helps.