Not a "consistent" schedule - always a bad thing?

[Zanreo]

So, a while after I started making comics I've noticed discussions about reader preference for "consistent" updates - not only updating regularly, but also at the same day(s), same time every week as far as it's possible. Sure, I understand it can be good to know exactly when a comic updates, but I was wondering more if it would be something that could significantly HURT a comic/its readership?

I've never had "consistent" updates - regular, yes, as in "trying my best to not let it go more than 7 days between each update, but not consistency with certain update days and such. First of all, my comic isn't a story-based one - it's a mix of 1-page jokes and shorter multi-page stories. I really just make pages and then upload it right after I'm done - unless the point is to post it on a certain day, which was the case with one comic - in which case I just queue it up. Anyway, a big reason for this (other than impatience and just wanting to get my page out right away) is that quite a few of the comics are based around recent news. In those cases at least, it feels better to just get them out as soon as I can, while it's still "fresh", rather than waiting. Say I got Friday as my update day, and... I find out about a piece of news that gives me a comic idea later that Friday or on Saturday. Should I wait all the way until the next Friday to post that comic? Though would this still be a good idea for the non-news basd ones (say, one-page fun facts?)
Another type of comics is the multi-page stories one, typically "history" comics, that tend to be about 5-9 pages. Now, one thing I want to avoid with these from now on is having other kinds of pages in-between (several critiques pointed out this was an issue when reading through it, and well, I went back to fix it later) and from now on I'm trying to finish all or most of the pages before posting so I can just post them after each other with no breaks, but if I were to post these on the same schedule as the rest, just once a week (which is usually the most I would be able to do, 2 a week if I'm lucky) I'd have to possibly miss out on the "news" pages. So what I've been doing with the last one, and plan to keep doing, is queue them all up and post with 2 days in between - I feel this is a good amount of time for a "break" between each while still getting all the pages out as soon as I can so I'll have time for potential news again as soon as possible (that's the thing about them - I never know when they'll happen). It's a kind of "consistency" in a way, but does this make sense to only to for one kind of comic? Maybe I should keep a consistency for the non-news fun facts-type pages, and just post news right away whenever instead... but non-news fun facts are really the least common type of page so I don't know how noticeable this would be.

So yeah, what do you think? Do you keep consistency or not, and do you find this important? Could there be cases when irregular consistency of the "just post a page whenever done" would actually HELP a comic?
(Plus, maybe this doesn't feel like that big of an issue to me because I'm also subscribed to most of the comics I read on CF or here, so I can just easily go into updates and see the newest updated comics right away... which probably makes this easier for me than, say, someone not registrered to those sites but just likes reading comics and might want to know the "right" time to return for a new update)

[J.Lovelace]

I post whenever I can. I don't have any schedule or deadlines.
I just post a message on my wall, so that people know what to expect in the next few days.
For example "hey guys I am currently working on a new page for [comic name here], I'll post it either today or tomorrow, after that I'll upload [another comic name]".

That's pretty much it. And I don't mind when other comics post irregularly too.

[evegwood]

For story-based comics I think consistency is best - your readers are there to find out what happens, and if updates are too irregular with no explanation they'll lose interest. I know there are some comics that do make irregular updates work for them though so it's an individual choice!

I think it's more acceptable for gag-a-day comics or non-story comics to have irregular update schedules, but I do think that some sort of schedule is still better, even if it's more spread out. Having some idea of when the next page will go up will encourage readers to come back and read more in the future.

Your plan of posting every couple of days would work fine, I think!

[Zanreo]

For story-based comics I think consistency is best - your readers are there to find out what happens, and if updates are too irregular with no explanation they'll lose interest. I know there are some comics that do make irregular updates work for them though so it's an individual choice!

I think it's more acceptable for gag-a-day comics or non-story comics to have irregular update schedules, but I do think that some sort of schedule is still better, even if it's more spread out. Having some idea of when the next page will go up will encourage readers to come back and read more in the future.

Your plan of posting every couple of days would work fine, I think!

True, for story-based comics it might be best - and it also seems like less of an "issue" for them since there's only one story to tell anyway.

And the "posting every couple of days" would... only work for the story-based ones (for others, I'd have to pretty much make all the fun facts at once, and then I'd run out of them pretty quick) Other than those, most of them are news, which again would have a reason to be posted inconsistently. And when the 1-page non-news ones get posted maybe... once a month at most usually, I'm not sure how much it would matter if those all got posted on the same day when the rest of the comics aren't. If I had a regular update schedule where I could still be sure news would be more or less relevant when posted I'd have to update... at least 3 times a week, which is not something I'm up to, not at this point at least.

[AnnaLandin]

I do a storybased comic, which I update consistently (except when I get, like, food poisoning or the cold from hell that had me practically bedridden for a week straight). For me, that consistent schedule matters because if I go too long between updates, my readers might lose track of the plot, or who the characters are, etc. If I just updated whenever, people might a.) forget what's going on, or b.) be flooded with pages and not know where they were and whether they've missed something.

I agree that subscribing to a comic on Tapastic means I don't need to keep track of the updating schedules of other comics - I just get notifications when they do - but at the same time, if something goes for too long without updating, and then suddenly does, I find myself having to re-read earlier pages to even know what's going on.

For gag-strips or the like, a regular schedule isn't as important - people don't need to keep track of long-running plotlines, etc. - but it certainly doesn't hurt, as the more regular the updates, the fresher you comic is in people's minds, and the more often it appears in the Fresh category, which can net you new readers.

I can't think of a scenario where irregular, whenever-it's-done updates are superior to regular updates, though.

[Mane]

If keeping the same day isn't possible , try to at least keep the same number of pages per week. Seeing a regular update schedule keeps people interested. But of course you need to have a lot of pages done in advance in order to manage that. Look at me, my buffer shriveled down to almost nothing without finding the time to add to it, and now I'll miss my planned update for the first time.

[Zanreo]

If keeping the same day isn't possible , try to at least keep the same number of pages per week. Seeing a regular update schedule keeps people interested. But of course you need to have a lot of pages done in advance in order to manage that. Look at me, my buffer shriveled down to almost nothing without finding the time to add to it, and now I'll miss my planned update for the first time.

Yep, and in my case... many of them would not be possible to do in advance since they're about recent news that wouldn't have happened yet back then (and if I had a long queue behind here, they'd get old long before I could post them). Other than that I usually keep it at "one page a week" though, though if I get time/energy for more I've been known to upload 2 a week a few times.
Again it WOULD be possible for the comics that aren't news or longer stories... though again, those are the least common type. In the end, it all boils down to the "news" being what they are and not working with a regular schedule in the same way (and not wanting to choose between interrupting the longer stories -- don't want to move comics back and forth anymore at this point - OR posting a new comic WEEKS later just to finish up the storyline first. Unless I post all the pages in the story at once... and I'm not feeling that, I like posting each page by itself to get its own impression by itself and more comments for each page)

It seems like a lot of big gaming comics commenting on recent events update quite often... that's not possible for me though.

For gag-strips or the like, a regular schedule isn't as important - people don't need to keep track of long-running plotlines, etc. - but it certainly doesn't hurt, as the more regular the updates, the fresher you comic is in people's minds, and the more often it appears in the Fresh category, which can net you new readers.

Even if it updates less often as long as it's regular? Would a comic updating once a week every Wednesday go "above" a comic with 2-3 (as in, sometimes 2, sometimes 3) irregular pages every week in this category?

[AngieVX]

I don't really remember when the stories I read are updated and don't really care. Except for shounen jump, when there are my favorite characters in the chapters! XD

[AnnaLandin]

Even if it updates less often as long as it's regular? Would a comic updating once a week every Wednesday go "above" a comic with 2-3 (as in, sometimes 2, sometimes 3) irregular pages every week in this category?

No, irregularity is more of a problem if the gaps are large. If you update at least once a week, sometimes more, then irregularity doesn't have much of an impact (though you'd be surprised how much people enjoy knowing what day to expect a new page on; we are creatures of habit) - but if you update once every two weeks, and then suddenly go for a month and a half without updates, that's a problem.

[MylCreates]

I don't keep consistency. I haven't posted to Death Prince in weeks and still get a consistent flow of new subscribers. only once in a while does one of them ask where the next page is (because the comic has a bigger readership than my other comics and they're unaware that I'm on an semi-hiatus). I've never had anyone approach me about keeping up consistent schedule though.

When I did keep a consistent schedule I did not notice much difference between posting on a specific day every time verses just generally every 1- 2 weeks. The success of the page seemed to do more so around what the content was or if it was a pivotal point in the comic. As long as I was posting weekly generally everything was pretty up in numbers.

I suppose if your comic revolves around recent events then you probably shouldn't post the comic 2-3 weeks later if it's around an event that just happened. If it's a historical event a year or so ago then there's no rush.

Then again, a lot of the readers on Tapastic follow around 40+ comics so you not posting on a specific day probably won't attract their attention/suspicion unless they're an absolute die-hard follower who just can't wait! (Or if you're constantly advertising that your pages will post on these specific days)

Never have I seen someone post on their wall apologizing for not updating consistently and see readers bashing them for it here.

It's pretty safe to say that content beats consistency if you're wanting to look at numbers. Some mass-followed comics don't post for months at a time.

[Zanreo]

No, irregularity is more of a problem if the gaps are large. If you update at least once a week, sometimes more, then irregularity doesn't have much of an impact (though you'd be surprised how much people enjoy knowing what day to expect a new page on; we are creatures of habit) - but if you update once every two weeks, and then suddenly go for a month and a half without updates, that's a problem.

Yeah, I do (as long as I have time... school is draining a lot of time and energy lately, but when vacation starts I'm gonna get back on track again) update at least once a week/no more than 7 days between. So if you visit my comic once a week, you're very likely to get a new comic each time either way.

There has only been one time (not counting April Fool's pages) I needed a comic to post on a specific day - to comment on a ridiculous patent ending that same day. Otherwise, it's All Good as long as I don't wait too long with news - there are actually some news comics I had finished ideas for I dropped completely because it took too long before I could get them ready... some of those I might actually bring back later a year or so as a fun "hey, remember when this happened?" kind of flashback, when it seems like a good time for that rather than "news" that are super out of date at that point

[shazzbaa]

Here's another thread with some thoughts on this topic!

Schedules and the Webcomic Scene

My feelings:

• it's better to have an inconsistent schedule than to claim a consistent schedule that you constantly fail to meet, e.g., if you can't usually make a Monday update, don't say that you update on Mondays. Missing updates is more harmful than being inconsistent.
• if your comic updates less frequently, then update schedules become more important. People need an idea of how often a thing updates so they know it hasn't died off.
• you can definitely work with it if you're communicative. Order of the Stick is a very popular webcomic, existed before the days of subscription services like Tapastic, and back when I was reading had "updates 3x a week without warning" as its schedule because the author had health troubles and never knew which days he'd be able to work on it. I think that worked just fine!
• I think your comment about not waiting on news-based comics is very wise!!

[kkitty]

It depends on your genre really.

If it's chronological and it ends in cliffhangers or plot points often, not having a consistent schedule can be a pain. But if it's like a daily bite or so it's not like people are bent on the next update coming along.

[Michelle]

Nothing wrong with having an irregular schedule, so long as your readers are aware of it. Posting at least once a week is a good minimum. It only becomes a problem when you have a stated update schedule that you consistently miss.

Reliability is huge in comics; people want to trust that you're not going to fall off the face of the earth mid-story after a handful of episodes, especially when it happens so often in comics. In your case it's a little different, since you're not doing an ongoing story, but in a long-form comic, consistency helps build that creator-reader trust.

[Zanreo]

Yeah, in my case it's not as much "might not update for 3 weeks and then suddenly back without explanation" but more of a "updates once a week at least but you don't know WHAT day". So if you look back once every week there will be a new comic.