Novels on a site of their own?

Seaby 2020-10-30 23:30:43 UTC #1

It's clear that novels don't do as well as comics on Tapas, partly due to unfair competition - pitting full color comic pages against just words* - and partly because Tapas advertises itself as a comic site so readers come onto Tapas primarily looking for comics.
It's also difficult to get readers to click on a novel, especially if they're skimming the Novels tab and only have the thumbnail/cover to rely on - it might be hard for a writer with no interest in art to have to scrounge up a decent image for their novel that can be eye catching and intriguing enough for a reader to commit to.

So I wonder if it would be beneficial towards novel writers that Tapas separates the comics and novels and places them in a space of their own, where they wouldn't have to fight against comics for attention. I'm personally unsure, but I'm wondering what novel writers think and whether they find it a good idea or not.

*Nothing against novels - I love reading and joined Tapas primarily because of the novel section, but reading as entertainment has become less popular over the years and I can see why readers would prefer a comic over a novel.

DasIstWunderblyat 2020-10-30 23:55:18 UTC #2

I actually don't mind that we stayed on the same. Many people do read both comics and novels, and there have been an influx of new novelist and readers from failure sites like Wattpad looking for new hosting platforms.

What I expect are only better representation for novels in the main front page (the ratio in featured categories and so on), and more options in respective "Comics" and "Novels" tab. Another thing is better built-in word editor and features for novelist, because the current one is very lacklustre compared to novel-only sites I have been in even in small middle-of-nowhere sites.

Seaby 2020-10-31 00:35:18 UTC #3

I agree in that a lot of the problems novels on Tapas face can be attributed to poor representation, and as you've mentioned, there aren't a lot of on-site resources for writers to make use of. I also personally appreciate the variety of content available on Tapas - but I wonder if it wouldn't be helpful to more novel writers who struggle with minimal traffic for their work to be contained on a different site.
Wattpad is an excellent example - it's not as difficult for writers to get a ton of like or followers (I have no idea if that's what they're called on Wattpad) because the users visit the site with reading in mind. More so than just promoting novels on the home page, it would require Tapas to alter their marketing strategy so that they attract more novel readers as well as comic readers, because it's not certain that a decent enough percentage of the current audience would read both.

KRWright 2020-10-31 00:57:38 UTC #4

If you struggle on Tapas, Wattpad is about 100x harder. I don't know anyone who finds it easy to gain readers on Wattpad these days, whether they have 100 followers or 50,000. There's much more to it than just separating out the sites.

cherrystark 2020-10-31 01:08:40 UTC #5

I think it's totally okay to shop around for different sites to post your work. There are tons of sites out there. I shopped around a lot before coming to Tapas.

@KRWright does have a really good point about Wattpad. It's super tough. There is no real way to get ahead on that site. Unless you are writing one of 2 or 3 genres, it gets buried. The work that gets features is often stuff promoted from the inside. The higher ranked stuff is often unedited and often vulgar (depending on your taste). Sometimes a story can keep it's high position for years without an update. On the flip side the writers who are anxiously trying to improve their craft, are buried.

domisotto 2020-10-31 01:37:13 UTC #6

I kindda like it the way it is. I figure people who look for comics will check out novels too.

If you have problems with novel covers pixabay have copy right free art and Canva makes it easy to put covers together

rajillustration 2020-10-31 01:43:09 UTC #7

Well in a bookstore comics aren't sold as often as books so...depends more on readership habits than on colorful pictures. While there is a lot of people who read both, most only read comics or books, not both. It's a completely different medium.

linaket 2020-10-31 02:33:10 UTC #8

There are plenty of sites that host only novels. Tapas isn't one of them. One of the reasons I chose to join Tapas was because it had both comics and novels, and the diversity of that gives Tapas a leg-up over other sites, imo.

The thing with online platforms, and a place like Tapas, is that its a one-stop-shop for those who want to consume media. Maybe a reader came for the comics, then stumbles on a novel and gets drawn in or vice versa. In this way, creators have access to an audience that they would not have had on a site that only hosted one or the other.

Additionally, creators have access to other creators they might not have met in any other way, and these meetings can lead to some pretty spectacular team-ups.

joannekwan 2020-10-31 07:41:25 UTC #9

Yeah, speaking as a creator who makes novels and comics, I like having both mediums together. And it's a selling point of Tapas! No other site hosts both comics and novels.
If Tapas in its current state were to make a separate site for novels it would just split the consumer-base and it probably would take a long time before they get a return on the money spent to do so.

Maybe they could build a novels page that mirrors the current front page? But I don't think they see a need to expend resources for that. And going by UX practices, the more times a user has to click to find something, the more their attention/interest wanes. I think for now having the comics and novels tab feature prominently in the bars on desktop and app are working fine if people want to sort by medium.

Dysis 2020-10-31 07:55:17 UTC #10

Given how new the novels-section is, it's still too early to create a separate site. The novels and comic readers will flock to the comics section more as that's what Tapas is known for whereas the novels-only readers will remain pretty much the same in number be it in combined site or novels only.

It would be beneficial only when readership on novels grow. Will take time, have patience.

mcarrowolga 2020-10-31 08:11:13 UTC #11

Having a site for your novel is what I definitely recommend.

I made a simple site on ComicFury for my "Cold Obsidian":

Pros:
- I put a ComicAd banner there, it earns me between 20cents and 1$ a day (the same novel on Tapas earns me 0)
- I can make as many extra pages as I want for art, character bios, anything
- I have full freedom to change my site's design
- readers can comment there without registration
- a site I made by myself just feels like home

Having a mirror on Tapas is nice but having a separate site for your novel is great.

PS: how illustrations in my novel look here vs on CF

darthmongoose 2020-10-31 08:37:19 UTC #12

I think maybe the solution here is the opposite of separating them out. Instead, embrace the "light novel" format, more like Japan, and make it easier to put illustrations into novels.
At the moment, illustrations in Novels seem to be a sort of... weird loophole or glitch. I think if it was possible to make highly illustrated novels, like some of the Japanese light novels that have spawned anime, and even to push it as far as making a "comic" with the same format as Problem Sleuth and Homestuck, which instead of multiple panels on a page with speechbubbles, featured one or more separate panel images, often with animation, and a text-format block of narration underneath, there would be less of a wall between the formats, and the works in that middle space could potentially be "gateway drugs" into the other format, especially with creators around making stuff in both.
I could be wrong, but to me, at least, there's something very appealing about a site where it's all about just making entertaining content in the "words and maybe images" format that best suits the story.

KRWright 2020-10-31 13:10:31 UTC #13

Ehhh, the issue there is that a lot of novelists aren't necessarily up their with their art skills. We do need to be able to put art in to our works much easier, but encouraging the light novels aspect would basically still leave a lot of people who are pure novelists in the dust entirely unless than had a lot of money to drop on commissioned art. (Even at a $25 sketch ever 10 chapters, that could easily run up a bill of $250 to have enough sketches to feel like a light novel by the end).

Light novels can do what they do because the publisher steps in often, or the monetisation is there for the person to pay for artists. I'd be generally against anything that became a cottage industry of novelists having to pay to get ahead on the site and include novels.

I do think that there needs to be a rethink and redesign on how novels are presented to the Tapas audience though, and just... more presence on social media etc. about it. Right now, Tapas does not include novels in marketing unless there is a comic tie-in for the most part, and that creates a site where the primary audience is here for comics and then "oh some novels are here too!" rather than a cohesively packaged site of both.

domisotto 2020-10-31 13:31:00 UTC #14

Well, I am afraid it will work against the most of us who can’t draw.

Honestly, at the moment the one novel-specific thing I want is that Tapas populate Binge section with the completed free novels. Novelists tend to finish their works, but algorithm sinks the completed works that no longer update.

Seaby 2020-10-31 15:13:30 UTC #15

@KRWright @cherrystark I revoke my claim about it being easy to publish on Wattpad - I hadn't realized I was thinking about fan fiction rather than original works. Definitely a mistake on my part.

@linaket I agree that the novels can benefit from comic readers. Assuming that they don't go out of their way to search for novels elsewhere, it means that they have a higher chance of reading novels on Tapas since they don't need to exit the site to find them.

@joannekwan I agree, I suppose the matter of creating an entirely different site would be too counterproductive if the main selling point is that Tapas has both.

@Dysis You make a good point that doing so now would be a wasted effort since novels aren't all that popular yet. If there was a high demand and a need to focus as much on novels as they do on comics then I could see it being a possibility. For now, as @joannekwan mentioned the most novel writers can ask for is a larger presence on the front page.

@darthmongoose I think your solution could work - light novels are rather popular with manga readers, so there isn't any reason as to why the same success can't be repeated on Tapas. But at the same time, I agree with @KRWright in that moving the focus onto illustrations within novels has the capacity to create another divide in readership, this time between illustrated and non illustrated novels.

I did acknowledge before making this thread that it would be a bit redundant for Tapas to make a different site for novels since those platforms already exist (and if we're being honest, separating novels from comics is never going to happen). If an author is not pleased with how much traffic they're getting on Tapas, it's not as though they can't also post their work on a site that's already meant for novels. However, I was curious as to how newer novelists (new to Tapas or writing in general) would feel about an online space that was centered around novels and hosted by Tapas.

KRWright 2020-10-31 15:17:59 UTC #16

If Tapas had a feature where people could submit sketches and art from the community for novels, that could work for creating a 'light novels' feel. But I imagine that allowing image comments or something would be a massive headache and a moderation nightmare with people uploading all kinds of content as well. Still, in order for most novelists to get the most out of it, there'd have to be a some kind of collaboration between artists and writers, that didn't come as an up-front cost to writers. Not sure how it'd play out.

Dysis 2020-10-31 15:20:56 UTC #17

As a novelist, I do admit comics have a better ground here. The readership isn't very big for novels. But I also believe that it's still too early to form an opinion. Compared to other sites, visibility in Tapas is easier and the readers here are not just about "review for review" or "I'll like yours if you like mine". Genuine interactions is a plus point in Tapas that you won't find elsewhere.

surenlicious 2020-10-31 15:21:29 UTC #18

Although I understand your point, I chose Tapas for my novel because it deals in BOTH comics and novels. So many websites that are novel oriented are just...they just don't give me what I want and need.

I'm an artist that draws my novel's art so I got my main audience through my art rather than my writing. So I am not finding any problems in that. It is my hope that one day I can show off my chapter and story arc covers in my novel here on Tapas, because I really want to show my babies off. XD My main audience comes from my socials rather than Tapas too, and I think I'm okay with that. I'm so used to promoting and the marketing aspect I uh...am not all too bothered by novels not getting so much love.

I come from the old fanfiction community, so I'm used to reading and writing stuff. And that's why its easy for me to dive into both other people's novels too. It took me a while to realize not everyone vibes like that though haha omg.

I do love interacting with the community here, I love the interaction I'm getting too. It makes me happy I picked Tapas to yeet my work under.