Oct 2014
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Oct 2014
Jun 2016
ambermwhitney
Oct '14
4

I'm new around here (Hi!) and I'm a little confused about what an 'episode' is VS a page. I know multiple pages go inside an episode, but I'd like to update my comic say once a week. Having each page be its own 'episode' with a title and thumbnail on its own seems... Excessive! Is there a good way to divide this up?

  • Will any subscribers I get be notified if I just edit my current episode and add a page to it?
  • If I run my comic that way, is there a way I can time the updates within an episode? (upload the image saturday, have it post automatically on monday)

Thanks!

  • created

    Oct '14

  • last reply

    Jun '16
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Raven_C
Oct '14

I think many others have voiced their opinions on how pages/episodes should be handled and that's something Tapastic will just have to improve on as it goes. The way I've been doing it, I just upload maybe 2-3 pages per episode (sometimes it can't be helped to upload only one page per episode, but ultimately I don't like it).

To answer your q's. No, your subscribers won't be notified when you update a current episode (unfortunately). You can indeed time your episodes: there's an option "Publish Later" when you upload. But again, that goes for individual eps. You can't schedule an update within an episode that already exists.

Spitfire
Oct '14

I got a great advise to this. Make a pic that you post as a new episode every time you update a page to the comic. That way you can keep it neat and your subs will still know when you update smile Just remember to tell them that the update is a new page in previous episode smile (and then delete the page and upload it again when updating..)

That's how I work around the problem, but if you can the easiest way is just to make every page it's own episode.

PotooGryphonFriendly Neighborhood Gryphon Rider
Oct '14

Exactly as @raintowns said:
No, subscribers don't get notified if you edit an episode, however they do get notified if you add an episode. That's why it's just best to make a new episode with each update (whether it's 1 page or multiple pages in an episode) that way your subscribers know to check it out.

And yep, the "Publish Later" option is my best friend! I have all the pages of my issue 3 comic done, and I have all the pages schedule to release, one at a time, as a new episode every Saturday. That way I don't need to worry about visiting the site every week, I can just keep working on my comic.

How Tapastic names additions to a series as "episodes" was very confusing to me in the beginning too. When I think of episodes, i think of tv and videos, but I guess it makes sense if you think about it in a sense that a new episode can be a single page or multiple pages.

It's all trail and error. Experiment and see what works best for you and your comic.

zackjohnson82
Oct '14

Dang, I need to go rework my page. Here I was thinking the upload process was going to be super easy.

Thanks for the tips.

bpotts
Oct '14
1

From a strictly reading perspective? I prefer a single comic page per "episode". I think it reads better. If you want to upload multiple pages at once to hit a particular break point, there is no reason you can't still make each page its own episode.

My own comics, Sunday-Superheroes27 and Hellenistic Mysteries16 have both been being updated this way for nearly two years and it's worked very well and, while maybe not strictly the norm on Tapastic, is very normal for the vast majority of webcomics.

yuliusefferven
Oct '14

Hellenistic Mysteries link is broken. But yeah, I do worry but I haven't really seen any readers complaining about single page short episodes. Even though I worry they're too short sometimes with Pink and Blue6.

bpotts
Oct '14

Sorry, the correct link is actually misspelled :/ Correct link is http://tapastic.com/series/Helenistic-Mysteries7

Yeah, the one page at a time is pretty much the webcomic standard if you look around the web at the vast majority of comics. Sometimes creators might do a double long page to complete a scene, but that is the exception. Tapastic is one of the few places where I've found people stringing together long series of pages. It makes it hard to read, honestly.

MylCreates
Oct '14

Right now subbies don't get notified when you edit an episode.
It also depends on your pace. If you can update daily or whatever, I think separate episodes is the better bet. If it's a long series and you update a bit more slowly, you can try uploading in small bulk. For my comics I update 2 pages a week in separate episodes, but within those 2 pages there's always a topic or event going on so it makes sense if they were separated in an episode.

elle1234567
Oct '14

I'm really apprehensive about the way episodes display. I really designed my pages to "reveal" as it were. I also have two page spreads planned for later, so I'm not sure how I'll swing that here. It's easier on my stand-alone site.

UltHamBro
Oct '14

At the beginning, I thought that "episodes" would be similar to chapters in a regular comic, but I guess that giving each page its episode isn't that bad. The problem is finding titles for pages which were just meant to be part of a larger chapter.

bpotts
Oct '14

I usually give the first page of the chapter the chapter name. For the other pages, I just take an element of what happens on the page as a title, or a snippet of dialog. In the end, I'm not sure the title matters that much and it could just be part/page 5.

Aeonhue
Oct '14
UltHamBro

I name my episodes chapter 1.1 which would include the first page of chapter 1 . So chapter 3.9 would be page 9 of chapter 3. I just started and I'm doing 1 page per episode being that I have 2 webcomics.

L4213
Oct '14

i wish that an episode update would notify the reader. that way you can make your chapters into episodes and not a page an episode. the episode thing works great for strip-a-day artists, but not for story driven comics that go by chapters in my opinion.

Aeonhue
Oct '14

It seems like a lot of features on this site cater to strip-a-day or random artist than story creators.

UltHamBro
Oct '14
Aeonhue

That's what I've ended up doing, more or less. I've given a different "episode name" every 2 or 3 pages, mostly when it ends in a climax, even if it's one I hadn't planned beforehand.

1 year later
Dan_Lucifer
Jun '16

I was wondering the same ... and i think I'm gonna rebuild my comic structure....one page, one episode.
I tried to use the app too, and one page for episode is much better. :-/