Pros and cons of Tapas for novelists (or in general)?

[spicy_sweets]

Just curious, since I'm new here. Really loving how the site's set up so far, but wanted broader opinions from readers and creators alike.

Oh P.S., I'm from wattpad and am fully aware of their constant constant glitches with drafts. One time my chapter of one book got replaced by a draft of another. I've learned to write on google docs now, but are there any problems like that here?

[SoFt]

I'll repurpose a segment of a post I just had to delete for this xP .

Tapas was initially created for comics, so the audience for them is larger. It appears to me that a decent webcomic will do better faster than a decent novel, and if the art is impressive or unique--and crafted with care either way--the ins and outs of the narrative needn't be so carefully considered. The visuals are the main draw, after all. If the story is solid, bonus!

This isn't unwarranted, mind; those likely to use Tapas are of the generation(s) that generally prefers seeing visuals to reading descriptions of things. As someone who tried and failed to art as part of his education, I do feel that making good art is harder than writing a story, and I envy the ability .

So that's the biggest con, I think: direct competition with a visual medium. I'd say another con is that anyone visiting your story is carried right to the most recent chapter if you don't link it in a specific manner, which obviously isn't ideal when you're getting people to look at it for the first time.

As for pros:

• In terms of posting content/saving drafts, I've not found it glitchy at all.
• It's easy to jump into.
• The community is supportive and fun to engage with.

I haven't been here that long myself, though, so take my perspectives with a grain o' salt. Hope they help ^_^ .

[Testaccount]

I've been on Tapas for six months now, and I actually came from Wattpad, too. Initially, I was planning on leaving this website behind, but I've made some friends here, and I have a good number of readers (to my surprise).

I may stick around for a little longer since my readership is growing pretty well.

Anyway, to answer your question, I haven't noticed any cons here with posting my chapters.

There are a few things to note below:
1. There is a 15K character limit, so that's around 2500 words a chapter. At first, it was annoying, but I just break up my chapters into parts now.
2. You cannot include images in your chapters unless you use Firefox.

Those are the only two things I've noticed with uploading my chapters. It also may take you a while to build a readership here, so keep that in mind.

[gateofselidor]

For me, as an artist and writer, the biggest benefit is that Tapas lets me put my prose and my comics on the same site, which is convenient, and provides an easy way to share the audience between the two.

The biggest drawback is that Tapas is geared towards a very quick reading experience, so the character limit per episode is much lower than dedicated writing sites. I had to break down my chapters (which are sometimes 5-6k words) into scenes, and that meant I had a lot of inconsistency in length between episodes, and sometimes they had to be split in less-than-ideal places.

In terms of audience, this is primarily a webcomic host, so that's what most people are here for, so it's harder to build an audience for novels. The average age is also going to skew lower than a dedicated writing site, so YA or content otherwise friendly towards teens and younger adults is more likely to get a strong response than something written with an older audience in mind.

[Rhombik]

I'm a comic creator but I'm guessing novels have a bigger time commitment even just for glancing over. They must get a lot less "impulse buyers" than comics.

I just can't put the time into checking out novels unfortunately. If I'm not working, I've got to be comic doing. If there's left over time, I want to sink it into reading comics and maybe occasionally seeing people.

[spicy_sweets]

Ahaha, the only experience I have with art is drawing nude models, so I can't imagine the time spent on making models express certain emotions. I can definitely see the difficulties there, but writing a story can be just as hard imo. You have to be able to make people have a clear image of your world and characters, with the onky tool being words. Both are equally tough for me, but also fun!

Ah, I noticed that when I advertised my short story. Does it matter if I switch the chapters' order? Nah, I guess not.

Competition's fun, and that'll make every reader more worthwhile because they take the time to dig into the small novel selection.

Thank you for your help!

[SoFt]

I went through a whole hellish suite of art courses that included drawing nude models, still life pieces, and whatever was in the environment; illustration on various physical mediums; and animation, all of which were...okay. I hated the first bit the most. Drawing is a valuable skill, but it should not be the most difficult course someone also dabbling in CompSci should have >_< .

-ahem- Beg pardon . My ultimate point was handled better by @VermiciousKnid. The amount of content in the average single novel entry takes a lot longer to go through than a single entry in a webcomic...So maybe...We should write shorter entries.

Perhaps the problem is not the medium, but the failure of myself and some others to play to the audience we're working with. Something to consider, I suppose.

[spicy_sweets]

Ah, that's cool. Is the lack of readership why you considered leaving?

2.5k, huh. That's fine; most of my chapters are about that much.
Images? Never really saw any use to posting images with the books, unless you mean ads?
Glad there aren't as many glitches when posting here! Can drafts be made?

Slow and steady is better than none at all for me (ㆁωㆁ*)
Thank you for your help!

[spicy_sweets]

Ah, must've been tough. Reminds me of when I took chem and bio simultaneously as a bio major before promptly changinging majors.
Oooh, okay. I got it. Thanks for pointing that out!

[ChristodeBoyet]

Pros? I have two. The community is welcoming, which I love. The layout of the app and website click just right with me.

Cons? I have one. The 15k character limit has been a bother for me. I've had to shorten a chapter just to fit.

A piece of advice for novelists. Don't use overly advanced words. Why? As i'm slowly becoming aware of. It appears most of the readers on Tapas are either middle schoolers or high schoolers. You don't want your readers to have a dictionary by their side while reading. Unless you're hoping for an older audience, then go for it. Just know that college students and people that work have less free time.

[375]

So I guess the pros for me are that this community is a really good one. I havent been a part of an online community in years since my own got shut down in 2011. I've made a lot of friends and tapas continues to grow constantly so I find a lot of great work to follow. Another pro would be that you can experiment your writing while you're here and get some good feedback. Its almost like starting your writer platform.

The downfall would actually be the format for posting novels. This isnt wattpad or Figment so there's no aligning your words or a tab to indent paragraphs which saddens me greatly ;w;

[Testaccount]

There are other reasons why I considered leaving, but the lack of readership was part of it. Honestly, I've been on many different writing websites now, it' hard to care anymore. I've noticed most of these start-up writing websites are all run the same way, so it doesn't matter anymore.

Well, personally, I like to put images in my stories because I make graphics. For example, I made a holiday card for my readers that had artwork of my character on it. I also made a "Thank you for tipping" me graphic with another character on it.

If you look at the "premium" stories, all the covers I believe are done by artists from Tapas. Some premium novels are even being turned into comics now, so I wouldn't rule out posting images in your stories. The artwork I've posted has only furthered my readers' excitement of the story. Like another user said, this website initially started for comics (a visual medium), so I feel even novel readers like seeing the artwork of the characters.

Unlike Wattpad, you can't make drafts here. However, you can schedule chapters months out, so you can use the schedule feature for drafts, but remember the chapter will post if you forget about it.

Yes...it will be a slow and steady race to build up your readership, but my problem is I'm not patient enough lol

[SoFt]

While I am making some effort to build my readership hear, I also post for another purpose: to aggregate the fruit of my mind within a convenient platform so that I have the option of showing it to others searching for a writer. That way, if any creative position I'm seeking desires samples, I have these ready at hand.

More readers just makes those samples all the more effective, but as long as they're there, those who view them know that I can write, that I do write, and that I can keep consistent and meet a deadline. There's something to be said for all those factors, yeah?

[Testaccount]

Of course, there is, but for me, I suppose it's different. I aim to publish one day, so posting my work online for free, in its first draft form kind of hurts me.

One of the only reasons I'm posting my work online is to build up a platform since agents want to see that. Once I create a decent platform, I don't plan to publish any of my long-form works online anymore.

One writer friend I had on Wattpad was super popular (her story had over 4.5M reads), and her story concept got stolen by another popular writer. As you know, you can't copyright an idea, so there wasn't anything she could do about. Personally, I don't want my ideas to be taken before I even get a chance to do anything with them, so I plan to cut back posting online in the future.

I may post short stories and novellas online, but that's it. In the end, it all depends on your goals and what you want.

[SoFt]

I agree with and empathize with your sentiments here. I think you might feel better if perhaps you produced works for online publication that you didn't necessarily need to get published. In my case, while I'd love to publish Sanguine, it isn't my Magnus Opus. Neither is my Mythologia series, nor my Cannibals series, nor my series on the Nascent Gods. I hold back those works that I find deepest and most demanding and share those which I find fun and easier to crank out.

So yes, I aim to publish, but I also like writing for fun and engaging with a community of writers and readers. If someone steals something I post up here, I'll be displeased, but I can at least enjoy two factors: 1) my favorite works are not here, and 2) I made something that someone thought was worth stealing.

[spicy_sweets]

Does tapas count as published if you earn income through ads and tips?

[Testaccount]

From what I understand, anything you post online first is considered published. I heard agents are ok with stories being posted on Wattpad, but I don't know about Tapas.

Since tips and ads aren't really paying for the story content, I'm not sure. If your work is "premium" where readers are charged for chapters, then I know that counts for sure.

The only writer I know who is premium on this website doesn't plan to try for publishing, so being premium works for her, but hmm, this may be something I should check into you.

[ChristodeBoyet]

If it happens here. Be aware that you can report it to the Tapas staff and they'll work with you. If you believe it needs to be taken down, I think they will do it for you. Essentially you're self-publishing your work, so you actually do have the rights to it.

[Testaccount]

Thanks for understanding =)

That's exactly what I plan to do - I plan to keep my serious works offline and keep them to myself. As for a community, yeah, it's fun interacting with other writers and readers.

I'm not a fan of the drama, though. On Wattpad, the threads were just battlegrounds, and if you didn't agree with everyone, you were instantly attacked and shunned.

I do love interacting with my readers here =) I get so much fulfillment in knowing that my story makes people happy and excited.

[Testaccount]

Thanks! I hope I never have to deal with plagiarism here, but I already know a few people who have been "inspired" by my story, so we'll see what happens.