Slow Novels, Worth Posting Side Projects?

[Swamp]

So I work very slowly on a comic, and I've been thinking of posting a bit of a novel I've been working pretty hard on. But since my comic uses up a lot of my time, it would be pretty slow as well.

So novelists, how much of a crime is a slow novel? If it's a background project, is it best not to post at all?

[unknown_user]

I posted a short novel -"background project" in parallel to my comics, rarely and irregularly. Since it was short, I've already ended it. Not many people have read it, but nobody really complained about rare uploadings either.
¯_(ツ)_/¯

[amberberry]

My novel has a pretty irregular and slow update schedule even though it's my only writing project (university takes a lot of my time though). I still get a pretty consistent and decent sized audience for the updates, or at least I consider it pretty decent: around 20 views with my sub count of 54.

So I'd say go for it. No harm in uploading it, in my opinion. And especially if you let your readers know that the updates will most likely be on the slower side, I doubt they'd mind it. If people like your story, they'll come back to read it no matter how slowly it updates.

[Croik]

If people don't like it, they won't read. You're not out anything. But if you do post, there might be people who like it, so you have everything to gain (unless you were saving it for publishing or something).

Del and I like larger updates so our comic schedule is unusual - we post a bunch over three weeks then take a few weeks off. In between I post chapters of the novel tie in. This means that both versions go for a few weeks without updates, even if something is posted to the account every week. Doesn't align so well with Tapas' algorithm but every time we poll our readers about it, they tell us 2 to 1 not to change anything, so it sure seems like people don't mind waiting for the things they enjoy.

[Maps]

I had half of my novel written when I began posting it on Tapas. I sort of just posted a lot of chapters right away, but I really wish I had just posted one chapter a week. This is a method you can possibly do. It sounds like you have some stuff written, so why don’t you begin posting a chapter of your novel once a week with a timer (so that people will know to expect it will be a weekly ordeal). That way, you can continue to work on your comic while your novel is posting, and then you can work on your novel during your free time.
The only issue would be if you catch up to what you have already written, and then you have no more chapters to put out. Then you’d have to probably focus on both your comic and your novel at the same time. That is currently the boat I’m in.
I started with my novel and then began my comics. I have been posting my novel chapters less frequently since I’m currently writing it as I go now and working on one of my comics. I do wish I had paced out my chapters at the start, allowing me time to focus on my continued writing and comics without feeling like I’m rushing myself or my writing to get my chapters out weekly.
I hope this makes sense lol.

[lil-sea-salt]

kind of divide the novel up into parts and have it tiered in 400-800 word bursts so readers have something to chew on every week, but otherwise you should be good. i have a couple of those and the audiences are understanding that i'm juggling a couple of projects and they get excited for updates because they are tiered for a couple of months of content (1-2 posts per week).

even if you don't have a finished novel, you can easily sit and write 3000-5000 words in some freetime and that can last a month or more. tapas favors smaller more frequent uploads.