My Misguided Attempts at Tapas Publishing Strategies, the article

[Juniper_dG]

Hey, everyone! I wrote an article about my experience during the first few weeks of posting on Tapas--all of the alchemy, sleight-of-hand, and invocations that I tried to use to get views and subscriptions. It's published on K-Comics Beat.

Was your experience similar, with all of the doubts and missteps and grandiose expectations? I've settled down quite a bit. I'm leaving If I Never Saw the Sun in the LGBTQ+ genre category and have a regular posting schedule that I'm not going to change again.

Are there any tactics you used that were successful in getting more views and subscriptions?

Tapping into Tapas: An Author’s Insight into Digital Publishing

[jwabeasley]

Thanks for sharing! Before I started posting, I did some research on webcomics that were similar to mine, to see how they performed and what they did, and assumed that I would do slightly worse since I'm awful at marketing. While I'm not a mega-hit or anything, I've done much better than I expected, which is a pleasant surprise.

I haven't tried traditional publishing yet, though.

[kyupol]

Wow so just getting staff picked spiked your views...

As for the tactics I've used...

1) promotion threads

2) engagement with other authors on this site and in other places (webtoons and webkomph in my case)

3) Discord servers. Especially if the admin of the said discord server likes your work. And by like I don't just mean "this is cool" or hearting your posts or even regularly commenting one liners. I mean when they ask questions and "interview" you. Or when they write up a literary analysis of your work like what they ask you to do in school to literary classics like Shakespeare, Mark Twain, etc.

4) online radio shows or streamers or vlogs that don't necessarily have to do with art or comics. Whether they praise or diss you, still it's free advertising the mere fact you're mentioned. Don't cry or feel bad when you're dissed. Don't get massive ego inflation when you're praised. Because either reaction will backfire on you. Big time.

5) online forums that don't have necessarily to do with comics. A certain place on the internet mentioned my work on a thread and I seen both diss and praise on it. (Hint: a place that overall thinks that webcomics are trash compared to anime.)

6) other social media websites... I'm on Instagram, YouTube, bitchute, and sometimes on deviantart, reddit, cara

Here's my stats in case you're wondering

[arcaneer99]

Hello

Thank you for leaving a link to your insight.

My exposure experience has felt like ups and downs with subs and reads. I'm satisfied with how I have things setup for now. Weekly releases, a sub every now and then, and constructive feedback with other creators. Best to tread light before big leaps.

[jwabeasley]

Yeah. I haven't gotten into the Staff Picks, but I had a comic do really well on Reddit last year that helped boost things along. I mostly just hope to build general momentum - if I can keep my current readers and add a few more here and there, that's great.