Should I make an "bonus material / extras" series?

[MissMagicGirl]

Hi!

I see that a lot of people makes a separate comic series for extra stuff relating to their main comic. Like for sketches, random fun stuff, holiday cards etc.

I have some stuff like that that I have been wanting to upload for my comic Magic Advisor.
Should I make a separate series for the extra stuff maybe called "Magic Advisor extras" or should I just post those kind of things in my main comic once in a while?

What do you guys do? What are the pros and cons?

[miseryhunting]

Honestly? No.
I never got why people do create them. I prefer following the creator on a separate outlet like Instagram/Twitter/Tumblr or additional sketches. This way, the creator has a chance to showcase even more, like WIPS, FAQs, fanart and so on...
A whole separate series seems like too much work and I rarely follow them.

[MissMagicGirl]

Yeah, maybe you do have a point.... I do enjoy following some separate bonus series tho. But you are right in that tumblr, instagram and so on is more practical for that kind of thing. Thanks for your thoughts. ^_^

[Potoh]

I wouldn't make an extra serie for sketches and stuff, but maybe for little side comics or mini-sodes, so my chapters won't get interrupted. And it also takes extra time to upload sketches to tapastic. I'd rather upload them quick via my instagram or facebook. And if I have a nice extra sketch I post it on my wall.

[miseryhunting]

I think I nice compromise is posting sketches as creator notifications? I always enjoy checking those when I know the artist does that. I hope this helps? =)

[heterodont]

I don't use my extras series to upload singular sketches but I do use it to upload things like reference sheets, gag drawings/comics I've done in the past relating to the series, and so on so forth. If it's just small, single doodles then it's better off to upload to other social media websites but I find that having an extras series is really convenient for me to have all the extra info that I couldnt or cant reasonably get to, pertaining to my comic, in one spot for my readers just in case they wanted to know more about the characters and/or story.

[WakaXO]

I'm not a fan of 'extras' comics which consist of sketches, random pictures, etc. I prefer stuff like that uploaded to a different site (ex twitter or tumblr) or added on to the main comic, like at the end of a chapter.

Also I agree with @junorunow posting mimi-comics or side stories in an extra series would be preferable. I would sub to something like that. 👍😆

[joannekwan]

I have an extras comic for Demon House, I upload mini comics and side conversations that were cut from the main series when I can.

[MissMagicGirl]

@junorunow @miseryhunting @heterodont @WakaXO @joannekwan
Thank you all so much for your thoughts. I do enjoy seeing peoples sketches but I think creator notifications is a good idea for posting is once in a while. A separate series feels a bit unnecessary for me since I would not post that often anyway. I would like to make some shorter gag episodes but I will think about if I need a separate series for it or not since I won't do it that often either . ^^
Thank you all so much for giving me different input and advice

[igneriss]

Personally, I prefer separate series for extras- not only as a creator, but also as a reader ( :

I creater extras for 6,75 to put world lore somewhere- it's way too long for tumblr or instagram, and I wanted readers to have easy access to it, without having to search for it at the end of the chapters. I also have mini comics there, and was holding event for ending of first volume there. Again, mini-comics are a bit too long for instagram (not so mini, huehue). Events and contests would probably be much easier to hold on tumblr or ig, but some of my active readers don't have an account there, and I didn't want to force them to create one in order to participate.

For the same reason, I prefer it to be in a separate series as reader. I check tapastic daily and it's already taking quite a lot of time, so I'd probably pass if I were to start using ig or tumblr again.

I used to use tumblr for work in progress and sketches, and it was pretty nice, but most people who saw it were not my readers- unless I linked it somewhere in the comment box with the next page CX
And, as a reader, I definitely prefer a separate series to wall posts, because at least I can comment without getting notifications about other people commenting for the next month : P

[MissMagicGirl]

@igneriss I completely missed your extras series! I subscribed!
I do love seeing extra stuff like that. I don't have a lot of bonus material yet so I thought maybe it was unnecessary to create one after all... But you are right in that creators notifications can get a bit "spam like" if one comments and then others do as well... I have some stuff to think over now. Thanks for your input

[igneriss]

Haha thank you, hope you enjoy it : D
What's nice with extras series is that you don't need to have a schedule for them- when you find something extras-worthy, you just upload it. So even if you don't have a lot of bonus material now, it doesn't really matter, it's not like you have to upload it weekly c:

[69Michi]

Honestly speaking, i don't like extra series. Most of the time I just ignore the extra series and only follow the main one anyway. I let my notification piled up and often ignore them because I was busy doing something else, so often I just go to the comic that I follow and check out any new updates. And extra series' update would be the last thing I ever think of checking out because unlike the main series, extra series with random doodle and sketch and bonus material has a very... inconsistent update schedule.

Oftenly, I have what I called an "Author's corner" at the end of my update to showcase any extra material or sketches and doodles I have. This way I make sure my readers won't miss those material at all. Some people expressed to me they don't like having to scroll through the extra to get to the next chapter when they binge read my series but- welp, I mean I'm updating my series expecting people to follow it as it goes update by update because I tend to interact with my readers A LOT through the author's corner, and most people like those so ;/

Also the thing about putting them on Twiiter or Instagram is that out of 100 people that subscribed to you, maybe 5 or 10 would bother to look up your social media and follow you on there. (in my case, out of 10k, probably 10 people followed me on my Twiiter, the platform I'm most active on) Same case for separate series, probably out of 100, maybe 30-40 would check out and follow that separate series. And I want /all/ my readers to see those extra. You know sometimes people on the internet can be a bit slow, you gotta keep thing simple for them... LMFAO

The only time I think it's appropriate to make an extra series is when you draw like an extra chapter for your comic, this way it won't disturb the flow of the main story currently!