New to Tapas (mirroring from SmackJeeves), and have questions

[Eightfish]

So I would appreciate if a kind soul were to help me out.

I'm a bit confused about how people are finding newly made comics. It seems to me like tapas doesn't do much to promote new comics and it's kinda up to the person posting to promote themselves. Am I correct? If so, how exactly are you all advertising?

And to those of you also posting on multiple sites, how do you decide which one to link to?

Also, I saw something saying to post in the forum to promote, but I don't get how that would help since the forum account and comic account seem to be separated?

Are episodes usually chapters or pages?

One of my pages is a gif, but I can't get it to move. Advice?

Thanks to anyone who replies

: )

[mong2]

Let me say first that I'm not a creator, so my answers are really based on what I see rather than personal experience.

I'm a bit confused about how people are finding newly made comics. It seems to me like tapas doesn't do much to promote new comics and it's kinda up to the person posting to promote themselves. Am I correct?

I think Tapas does a decent job showcasing free comics on the website (not so much on the app). On the homepage, there's a big banner where they feature a different comic weekly(?). If you scroll down, there's the "Popular" section, "Noteworthy Comics" section, and "Trending" section. For the new comics, there's the "Fresh" page (which you can find if you press comics at the top left).
There's tonnes of new comics being uploaded on Tapas, can't really expect Tapas to be able to promote them all so you will have to promote yourself as well.

I saw something saying to post in the forum to promote, but I don't get how that would help since the forum account and comic account seem to be separated?

Well most of the people on Tapas forum also have an account on the main site. Promoting here is just another way to give your comic more exposure. There are many threads here for promotion like: https://forums.tapas.io/t/tapastic-comics-with-under-200-subscribers/6835/3 (just check the Intro|Feedback|Shoutout category). Or you can even make a thread yourself and ask others to check out your comic.

Are episodes usually chapters or pages?

I'd say it's up to you. Most of the comics I've seen are by page or pages.

[silverraven0]

Hello, welcome to the community. I could only able to answer some questions tho.

So, the only place you could find new comics and novels is dorm the FRESH section. The fresh section displayed every uploaded pages or chapters you published.

There, On the bottom.

The thing is, tapas promote the Premium comics and novels more, so the community comics and novels got put aside a lil bit.

You still can get a chance to be promoted if you got picked to the popular and such tho, and there's a chance for you to get it to premium if it have 3 chapters published and 1000 subs (I might be wrong about the subs total. Kinda forgotten but you can find it on the help).

I don't particularly have any mirroring site except one of my comic on webtoon, but I have instagram, though it actually don't help at all. XD

Tapas is my main publishing platform though.

I don't really understood the third question but basically, you made a thread or joined other thread like "show your comic here!", "shameless comic promotion!", etc. You just put a link to your comic here (and add some background, if you wish) and if you want feedback or critique, state it on your post.

You can published either pages or chapters. Your choice.

Just remembered that the more often you publish, the more it'll appear on FRESH section, and the more possible it is for you to get traffics.

Never done gif before so I don't know how.

[Cavechan]

Also, I saw something saying to post in the forum to promote, but I don't get how that would help since the forum account and comic account seem to be separated?

You can add a link to your comic in your user profile.

Are episodes usually chapters or pages?

I had a bunch of pages done, so I was able to put a couple of chapters as full episodes and now each new page is an episode.

[SleepingPoppy]

I'm a bit confused about how people are finding newly made comics. It seems to me like tapas doesn't do much to promote new comics and it's kinda up to the person posting to promote themselves. Am I correct? If so, how exactly are you all advertising?

Both the app and the webpage have the fresh section which is where comics appear ever time they update (though max of once per day). While you should also promote yourself, tapas users absolutely can and do find comics via the fresh section. However your success may vary based on luck, the mass or niche appeal of your comic, the quality of your thumbnail, art, and story, etc.

It's worth noting that community comics can also appear in the "trending" section. This works via an algorithm which, to put simply, takes into account activity (subs/like/comments) on your comic. The nice thing about it is its weighted so both very young, and older more popular comics can appear.

And to those of you also posting on multiple sites, how do you decide which one to link to?

It's just up to you to decide which platform you like best. If you start with one but find you do better somewhere else, there's nothing to say you can't switch. (Tapas is my main, but I also post on smackjeeves and webtoon)

I saw something saying to post in the forum to promote, but I don't get how that would help since the forum account and comic account seem to be separated?

As mentioned, you can put a link to your comic in your personal profile. What I personally like about this is that it rewards you for engaging genuinely with the forums. If you're being real and talking with people and sharing your thoughts, other forum users might feel curious about you, and without you ever having to awkwardly bring up your comic, they'll just go look for themselves, find the link in your profile, and pop over to your comic. Of course you can also post links to forum topics where the purpose is promotion, or it is relevant to the conversation.

Are episodes usually chapters or pages?

The standard recommendation is to come up with a schedule that you can keep up with. I post one page per episode, and one episode a week. Others post one page per episode, twice a week, but someone else might post three pages in one ep per week, etc etc. It's nice if you can post semi regularly, as that is when you appear in the fresh section and have the best chance for new users to see your comic and subscribe, however there's no one right way to do this.

One of my pages is a gif, but I can't get it to move. Advice?

I need more information! Does the gif play when you open it normally, but not when you upload it? Or is it not working entirely? If it's not working regardless, what program did you make the animation in, and are you sure you saved it correctly? (for example in photoshop you have to do "save for web" not "save as").

You might need to make a topic just for trouble shooting your gif problem, but if I can help I will.

[Harmony-S-S]

Welcome to Tapas and since I am a novel writer, I cannot answer your comic questions...Sorry

[Eightfish]

Thanks for the detailed reply! Very helpful.
I'm pretty sure I saved the gif right. I mean, it's working on Smackjeeves . On Tapas though, it just looks like a still image to me.
I think making a new topic is good advice, though, so I'll try doing that as well (:

[Eightfish]

Oh, I didn't see that. I guess I was used to SmackJeeves' system and how it shows off new comics more prominently. Thanks for the info on premium too, didn't know that before.

[silverraven0]

This is the guidelines to pitching for premium. Apparently you gotta have 2000 subs for that.

Guidelines for pitching to Premium

[SleepingPoppy]

The tapas gif is animating just fine for me! My best guess is your computer just wasn't loading it for some reason. But the good news is that neither you or tapas was mucking it up.

[Eightfish]

Nah, I think it was me haha. Someone else told me gifs do work, so I tried re-exporting and uploading. And somehow it works this time? I don't really get what I did wrong but I'm glad it works now at least.

[SleepingPoppy]

Someone else told me gifs do work

And somehow it works this time?

If it was already working, the likely problem was simply that your computer/device had trouble loading it. You can't have done something wrong if other people were seeing it work even before you re-uploaded. As far as I can tell, anyway.

Unless you had re-uploaded it before anyone looked, I suppose. XD

[jensrichard77]

Let me say first that I'm not a creator

Well hello there, I have been searching for you

So Tapas is great for creators to connect with other creators. And that is awesome. But how do we connect with all those readers that we create for?

@Eightfish welcome to Tapas and I wish you the bedst

[nostalgicroxas]

Clearing your cache and restarting your browser is a common fix for gifs/images not loading properly.