I was literally having this discussion with some fellow creators yesterday! (And most of our one-star reviews on Born Sexy Tomorrow are from people upset that they have to pay for content.)
Most people do webcomics as a hobby, which I think is wonderful. But if your goal is to become a professional creator, then getting people used to the idea of paying for comics is beneficial for all creators, and the future of the industry as a whole. When people see comics as something that has real value, not only does this allow you to make money off your creation, it legitimizes what we do as something valid and worthwhile.
When Archia (my partner, the artist) and I started out making comics, we were happy to make them for free, and then self-publishing a print version that people could purchase from us. This meant we had to handle printing costs, packaging, and shipping and handling all on our own. It was a LOT of work! It also meant that whenever we were working on making the comic, there was no money coming in from book sales. Archia is a full-time artist, and in order to make money during those lean months, she had to manage a patreon as well as do commissions on the side, which obviously took time away from making the comic itself.
When we got chosen for the first Incubator class, it was a dream come true. The money that Tapas invested into us allowed us to focus completely on creating BST, and something that had once seemed impossible for us - making a career in comics - was suddenly viable!
Tapas itself is a small start-up company (I know it doesn't seem that way when we're using this site) but in order to pay creators, to pay for hosting, to maintain the site, to continue to update and improve user experience, as well as to market to bring in new readers - they depend on ad revenue and Premium comics. When readers pay for Premium comics, it actually goes towards benefiting all of us.
We did a warning on BST before it was locked, and I think a lot of our readers appreciated that. Also, despite being a Premium comic, our subscriber count continues to grow every time we update! Of course it won't be the rapid growth we'd see on a free comic, but as everyone else has said, the readers you lose would never have paid in the first place, whereas the ones that return again and again are your true and loyal fans.I'm incredibly grateful for them because without them, we literally couldn't do this.
As to your biggest question - we do try and advertise on social media (I'm still not very good at consistent updates, I'm struggling to get better at it). I post behind-the-scenes exclusives, world-building extras, select single panels, and I'm starting to do WiPs. However, our social media following is still quite small, especially compared to other artists. And managing social media is a lot of work in itself, so we're thankful that Tapas does feature its Premium content and take care of a lot of advertising for us.
It's actually a very exciting time to be in webcomics! Print media sales are declining in all published industries, and the cost of printing is rising due to paper mills closing (at least in the West - and I know this since we get updates from the printers that we use.) More and more we turn to the internet for entertainment. South Korea invented the webtoon (specifically, the vertical scroll format of webcomic) and it's become a MASSIVE industry there over the last decade. Webtoons are seen as a new media and their own form of entertainment - and they go on to inspire animations, movies, live-action dramas, novels, etc. (And the reason why Naver is investing so much money into LINE Webtoon in the West) If we want to see even a fraction of that kind of success in the English-speaking world, we have to convince audiences that webcomics are legitimate and have monetary value.
I was actually wondering about this, since I've seen artists use the same pay-to-read model for pages through their Patreon. It would seem to me like Patreon is at massive risk of having someone pledge, download pages, upload for free and remove pledge. That person mentions they can rip from Tapas but it's too much effort to, mostly. So there's still a possibility that someone could unlock, prt scrn it all, stitch it together and release for free? I would hope the sheer effort involved is enough of a deterrent.
I advertise my paid content by continuing to produce free content too. I crosspromote my own comics across all my free comics, along with my patreon and premium comic. This means that I always have something that draws in readers at "entry care level" and then once they become more engaged and excited about my work they will usually support on patreon or read my premium comic. It's a model that I've found works well for me, but it requires you to be a fast worker in order to manage it.
So basically: i have at least one free comic running at a time. That free comic has an optional "supporter upgrade" on patreon that gives you early access or other stuff, and on that free comic I also advertise my premium comic.
As of right now I have 3 free ongoing comics with extra stuff available on patreon, and 1 premium comic. I have another release on the way but that one is already finished so I am not actively working on it anymore.
I don't have anything against paywalls, I don't mind them, I like giving artists money if I am able to because I know how much work art is. However, I don't think it's a model I will adopt for myself (though I'm fine with other people having it)
Because I grew up really poor I like being able to release my stories and comics for free, it's just how I am and how I will very likely always be. It was just not fun being the only left out in a conversation because I couldn't afford cable, the next harry potter book or the most recent issue of a comic. So I like having stuff available for free with people paying me when/if they can via patreon or paypal. The idea that people that can pay me can choose to which in turn will keep the story free for everyone was one I liked, and this model worked fine, but then the numbers changed.
It was no longer a majority of readers just not being able to afford entertainment, the majority became people DEMANDING free entertainment despite having money, people demanding that EVERYTHING be free because 95% of it being free wasn't enough free content, they should have the extra stuff that's not necessary for the enjoyment of the story but is created more as gifts for people investing money to keep the stories free for everyone. They should be able to read at the same time as people investing money (which for me, wasn't even a long wait, one comic you waited a day longer than paying people, the other comic you waited a week) because of this it has made the previous model not work as well as it once did before, and definitely made it one that was not stable enough for a living wage.
That said, the 'entitlement' crowd expands MUCH further than payment and paywalls and exist even in the paying group, and it's unfair to pin that on only people that can't pay. I have faced more demands and abuse from people that actually pay for my content than from people that read it for free.
"I pay, so I am better than and should be given higher priority."
"Why aren't you updating faster, I'm paying you."
"I don't like the way the story is going, change it or lose my support"
"If you keep drawing things I don't want instead of ONLY drawing things I want then you won't get money and I'll tell everyone else to stop paying you."
"How is it taking so long for you to draw this comic? What am I paying you for? You better not be playing videogames on my dime."
Are comments I used to get a lot from people that would pledge to patreon or paypal.
This is the crux of the issue and has been true forever. It won't change for the casual reader.
You have to build an audience of backers that are invested in YOU and your work. It's hard, but it works.
Over the past few years I have had a very small group of backers on Patreon. At it's height around 35 when I was still doing Marooned, now only around 17 since I am between projects. But over the course of that few years, they have provided me around $3,000 in support. That's a lot, friends. And I am just a small time player.
The truth is giving your stuff away for free forever doesn't get you much anymore unless you can get a portion of those readers to pony up something. Patreon, Kickstarter, whatever.
My problem with Tapas/WT seems to be that the amount of people actually willing to back artists seems very low. I think it's partially due to a young audience, and partially due to the fact that since there is so much free content, they feel it should all, always, be free. It's a double edged sword.
In the end you are selling YOU. Remember that.
This how I make most of my money. I would love to pick up that "small army of loyal readers" so that I could sustain fairly well and have a balance between sales from cons/online revenue.
@TomDellaringa Amen to that. I love making comics...I love making money. Sure I like drawing, but that doesnt mean I want to do it forever as a hobby; if I can make some money doing the very thing that I love to do(drawing & making comics) then I'm gonna try my damnedest to do so...
Like @vvbg mentioned, it important we shift the thinking of web comic readers.
I challenge the idea that comics have to be fundamentally free. The good ones take just as much work, time, and effort as a novel or movie
The Premium comics and Incubator comics have, generally, more quality stories and art than comics made as a hobby.
Yes there are high quality comics that get support via Patreon if there is enough popular support for it, but I'm not going to focus on those for the purpose of this topic.
I don't like the term Paywall. It's like saying I want to see this movie but there's a paywall of buying a ticket.
Ideally I see this "paywall" as buying an ebook. Once it's bought (incrementally or not) you're free to read it however much you like. This applies to an innumerable number of books, why can't it apply to comics?
And its high time we the creators start telling our readership that. We can share our process and how long each step along the way takes. We can show in a behind-the-scenes everything created that didn't make it into the story but had to be made for the sake of the story.When people understand what it takes to make a story, we begin to bond and empathize with one another.
The thing is, it's the story that we're selling and that's the thing of value in a webcomic. Those who create these stories in the web comic medium as a living are no less professional than best selling novelists or movie makers.
It's a new and growing industry and so we face the task of getting readers to understand that supporting quality stories not only helps the creators make more stories but Tapas itself. And the bigger Tapas gets, the more opportunities they can give for creators who don't want to sell the digital comic itself but some other methods of earning from their work.
I don't think the model is bad on Tapas, considering how cheap the comics as a whole end up being. And if you make it clear as to what it is (premium/paid comic) then there are no surprises.
What's needed is a fundamental shift in how we treat creators of quality content. And the only way we can do that is through educating the readership that, yeah, if you want quality stories you have to treat the comic like you would other beloved entertainment.
There will always be those who will never want to pay, and that's fine. It's not in my locus of control.
I happily support the stories that I enjoy and $5-$20 really take you far. My Incubator Comic won't be published for a while but I have no qualms with the modest pricing because I know the story works, and those that enjoy it will have even fewer qualms about supporting that content. It not only helps me but the entire Tapas team and future creators. Don't we want this site to thrive?
On advertising/marketing: that's just placing the comic where people can see it.
All you have to do is go out and share it everywhere you can, as regularly as you can, and in an interesting manner. That last one is important. It answered the question of "why should I click on this link to your webcomic?"
Present the premise of the story concisely and if the story is good it will hook people in. It all comes back to first and foremost having a quality story to tell.
Movies and novels have no problem selling if they're good right? Web comics can be the same.
I recently got interested in some of the Premium novels and to unlock all the chapters, it costs maybe around 5-6USD? Considering taxes, Tapas's cut, a cut to the bank, the creator makes maybe 2USD at best (ballpark figure, if anyone can confirm the cut the creator makes, please tell us ^^) Considering how most Yenpress novels cost more than that due to higher overheads, I think Tapas's revenue model is pretty solid. I'd say the only drawback of Tapas is that they don't have the same capacity as Yenpress or J-Novel Club and can't have novels coming out at machine gun rapid fire.
Although I think a big issue with Tapas's model is that both on Tapas and on Webtoons, there are comics and (in case of Tapas) also novels available for free. It's tougher to justify a paywall if there's so much stuff available for free on the same platform. Maybe a better strategy would be to move faster in licensing high performance non-premium content, or to invest into licensing more Korean and Chinese and Japanese webcomics/webnovels.
My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World seems to be really doing well. I hope Tapas brings out more novels like that.
Because webtoons has it for free:/
I have never come across a webtoon that wasn’t free:/
Once someone does it for free, everyone wants it for free:/
People like free:/
I think Tapas should keep the paywall (wait for free options is very nice) but they should market more of the free stuff to get more readers:/
I personally don’t like buying webcomics unless it’s a physical copy. Otherwise if my account crashes or something or I forget my password then I lose that webcomic forever. That’s just my reasoning for it.
I understand the worry of losing your password, but because it's a digital product hosted on Tapas servers (and hopefully it's creator's hard drive), you'll never truly "lose it forever."
If you enjoy the story enough there are ways to reset your password or send an email to the Tapas team should something catastrophic happen to your account. They are nothing if not fair and there are plenty of records documenting any purchases you make.
Now...
The only reason Webtoons has it for free is because they're a sponsored by a massive company and have had deep pockets from the get-go. Their goal is to corner the market in the west. Tapas doesn't have that silver spoon, they're a start-up based in the U.S..
My hesitation with Line's model is that they could change their TOS at any time and put up paywalls once they've reached a saturation point and need to find a way to make an income that doesn't come from the sponsorship of Naver (their parent company, based in Korea). By that point their audience might be so large that they'll be able to get away with that. What I mean to say is, I don't think they can keep growing and stay free forever.
Tapas is still a start-up with a relatively small team. So in a way they're just like us creators who are trying their best to create a community that has a drive to create good webcomics.
They have always been open and transparent with what their mission is and how they operate. I believe their goal of a spirit of collaboration with creators is what will make Tapas out-last the 'competition'.
Please give this article (https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2018/03/08/digital-story-platform-tapas-builds-big-audience-with-bite-size-content/#64ac85ec461210) (an interview with the head of Tapas) a read for insight.
I know people like free, but in the end that is a point of view that hurts creators who do this for a living.
At the core, one doesn't (and shouldn't) make webcomics for the popularity of readership, they make it to touch the audience, to connect to people, and to present how they think about the world and humanity through their story.
If they learn to craft the story well and share it where people can find it, the large readership will naturally follow, paid or not.
Not many realize this and even less appreciate it.