Should I give a try to webtoons?

jimena 2021-02-26 19:36:02 UTC #1

Hello! I really need you help! When I started to publish my series here in Tapas I decided that I wouldn't do it on webtoons, because I didn't want to divide attention and readers, also webtoons is intimidating haha.
But now 4 years later at the middle of my series (16 chapters out of 30~32) I'm really considering to start using webtoons...
My series is not in webtoon format, I read somewhere here in the forum that it's a good idea to start at the middle because readers there are very demanding, and that way you can upload many pages at once.
But I'm feeling very insecure wahhh
You think is a good idea?
Isn't webtoons very intimidating to you too? haha

joannekwan 2021-02-26 19:52:12 UTC #2

If you do decide to post on Webtoons keep some things in mind.

Just because of their bigger audience, it doesn't always necessarily mean you'll get more subscribers. I've been posting my series Demon House for a little over a year there, 3 times a week at about 2 pages each update, and am just now approaching 1,000 subs.
Their rating system. Ah, the rating system. I haven't yet experienced any rating bombs, but they seem to be a common thing on the site. It can just take one asshole to completely tank your rating and make your series appear less-appealing to anyone browsing.
The comments. While there are a lot of great readers with lovely comments on WT, there is also a large swath of less-than-great ones. From my observations of people's accounts of their experiences, the audience there skews younger, so you'll find more uninhibited comments or even straight-up ignorant or toxic comments. And unfortunately, you can't delete them like you can here.
Webtoons has reaaaalllllyyy strict nudity policies (that seem to have a double standard where they don't come down on more popular/successful series for the same infractions as smaller series). I think they are strict on violence as well, or are supposed to be. For people's experiences with this, including my own, check out this thread

I think it's always a good idea to cast a wide net since you never know where you'll find your core audience, but these are just a few things to consider when it comes to webtoons specifically.

KillianRain 2021-02-26 20:07:03 UTC #3

I guess there isn't much I can't add to what @joannekwan just put it so truthfully.

You can go for it and reach for another audience rather than one. Still, you might want to think twice if you can handle the freedom Webtoons give to their readers. You may be selected by their editors and appear on the front page for a week or so, and that could bring quite a lot of trolls to your work.

Although Webtoons seems to have a lot of good people just waiting to check a new series, some of the readers can complain about anything concerning your work and detriment your score for any nonsense. It's not like they're evil or anything. Some are just kids messing around and trying to have some fun.

My opinion:

If you can handle some criticism and oscillating numbers, give it a try.
Opportunities come when you try new things out.

jimena 2021-02-26 20:11:32 UTC #4

mmmm yes I always see this kind of weird rules and toxic readers they have there , I'm so happy here on Tapas XD
my interest is to get a larger audience but the price might be too big DD:
Thank you so much for this information! I need to consider all of this.

jimena 2021-02-26 20:14:42 UTC #5

That's so true!!
I'm a softie so critism and trolls can affect me XD but I've been learning to be more confident.
mmm I gotta think about this more...

Kelheor 2021-02-26 20:17:13 UTC #6

All the previously stated facts are true, but really, just do it. You have a lot of subs on Tapas, don't be intimidated by WT yeah, the readers are on the younger side and some can be not that wise with their commenting, but the those commentators who can put you in a bad mood are still a real minority. People are not "very demanding", true, some can write how your updates are not that long, but again, if it's not a troll of any sort, you won't get many of that, maybe not at all.
All and all, 100% recommend

joannekwan 2021-02-26 20:17:35 UTC #7

You can do like I do on WT and not look at the comment section at all. xD

cookieroach 2021-02-26 22:53:51 UTC #8

I think you should do it! For some reason, I had something against webtoons and didn’t want to use it at first, and only focus on tapas. But then I started to use it, and gained subscribers a lot easier than on here.

I feel like there’s a larger risk that some people will leave critical comments and downvote your comic on webtoons. But is there anything to loose really?

(Webtoons is shit when it comes to nudity though, as other posters has already mentioned.)

crowstories 2021-02-26 23:19:15 UTC #9

I only just started posting to webtoon, so I don't have much to add, except that I found this tool that makes it much easier to resize your episodes for webtoon.

https://knicknic.github.io/croppy/

Kaydreamer 2021-02-27 09:43:16 UTC #10

I post on WEBTOON as well as Tapas, and I haven't experienced anything really negative there. I've had one rating-bomb, which sucked - but I created a WEBTOON rating thread here on the forums where we're all rating each other positively, which has undone that damage and helped out a number of other creators in the community.

There are a couple of things I will mention about WEBTOON, so you know the pros and cons.

The audience there is much bigger than here. In addition, it seems more common for new readers to actually see your comic pop up on the 'genre-newest' lists when you post, so some growth can come rather organically. That never seems to happen here on Tapas.
They promote diverse genres a little better than Tapas. If your comic is a sci-fi or something, it stands a better chance of hitting the likes of Rising Stars than... well, whatever promotion it is that Tapas actually does.
The audience there has a vast preference for scrolling comics. You will want to re-work yours into that format. (Use Croppy for splitting episodes, it's such a huge time-saver.) I think a big part of that preference is because the audience skews younger, and their only personal device may be a phone.
As mentioned above - the audience there skews younger. This is fine, mostly - they can get super fannish about your work, as teens tend to do! That's always fun. But also, teens can be jerks. A lack life of experience and/or an understanding of how busy adult lives can be means some of them can get prickly about short episodes, or missed weeks. That said, the majority of people on WEBTOON are perfectly lovely and very supportive! It's just a few rotten apples.
They're stricter about nudity and gore, but if your comic doesn't have that, it's a non-issue.
It does have a rating system, and that does suck. Encourage your supporters to leave positive ratings, so when the inevitable troll comes along and slaps you with a 1-star, it won't be as big of a problem.
They link directly through to your Patreon at the bottom of each episode you post.

So far, I really like WEBTOON. My comic has twice the subs there, and now that I've switched to a vertical format I'm feeling pretty good about its chances. I haven't had any negative comments at all, and the rating snafu was a Reddit issue as much as it was a WEBTOON one. I recommend posting on both platforms.

Bokyongyo 2021-02-27 13:39:10 UTC #11

Honestly I recommend just at least mirroring updates.

I started uploading on Tapas first and then after a few updates began mirroring them on Webtoon and while yeah, Tapas has the majority of my views and audience right now I can see my Webtoon audience slowly growing. So now I will continue mirror just because I know I have a audience there despite it being smaller than Tapas at the current moment

It won’t never hurt just by uploading, and I also use the croppy tool that cuts pages into Webtoon sizes easily so it’s literally one extra step to make the eps Webtoon compatible, so why not you know?