So I just hit the big 250. What now?

[paracosmosfiction]

I've been posting my series on Tapas since November of last year. During which time I've learned a lot about what it really means to put yourself out there as a writer and have your work passively judged by potential supporters. It's stressful, it's exhilarating, it's uplifting, and it's discouraging. This whole process has been one giant rollercoaster.

But I did it. I hit the two-hundred and fifty subscriber milestone at last. My only question is...what the heck do I do now?

Seriously, I've spent so long doggedly just trying to get to this point that now that I'm here, I don't really have a game plan. What comes next after this? Do you promote more? Do you just keep doing what you've been doing? I want to start building up supporters and generating revenue, but at the same time, I don't want to go about it the wrong way. I feel like I just jumped into the deep end here and now I'm trying to learn how to swim.

Any help or advise you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Manyana]

I don't have any advice (I haven't even achieved the second milestone) but I want to congratulate you soooo CONGRATULATIONS.

[paracosmosfiction]

Thank you so much! I'm super thrilled, but at the same time a little overwhelmed.

[Legendofgenii]

Congratulations!

Just keep going. Have a little celebration at 300, then 350 etc.

[darthmongoose]

Firstly, congratulations and great job!

For some people, hitting 250 is kind of the end goal. It means you have finally defeated that progress bar! Woo! But in many ways hitting 250 is actually like hitting max level in World of Warcraft; it's not the end of the game, it's just the point at which you've unlocked all the features, and for many people the "real game" isn't the levelling experience at all, but the content that comes after.

You can get ink donations now, and you have a large enough sub count to demonstrate your work's appeal to readers, which means you're more likely to get features, and also more likely to succeed if you decide to try pitching. How much you try to push your growth with promotion is up to you and depends what you're trying to achieve. For some people their goal is so amass subs and pitch to try to go premium, while others are just happy to create for a small, dedicated audience. There's no rush to decide, so just see what feels right.

[paracosmosfiction]

Thank you so much for your reply! I definitely need to give it some thought, but applying for premium definitely does appeal to me. Though I am still a relatively new author and I don't exactly know what all goes into that process. I've read over the process and what all I would need to submit, but beyond that I know very little about the Tapas premium program.

[writercynknapp]

Some of us could stand a few more subscribers, if you are inclined.

The next step is get classified a tapas premium story, so you can 'lock' chapters for ink.

Congrats.

[Tanako]

What now? absolutely nothing lol. you just keep growing. I recently hit 2.2K so I'm looking forward to 3K
and Congrats!

[Kaydreamer]

I've just had a similar situation occur over on WEBTOON; I'd set myself a goal of gaining 1000 subs by the end of 2021. Pretty ambitious, but up until a week ago I had a shade under 400, so I was on track to achieve that goal, or at least come close.

Then, my comic was put on the front page. I blew past that target within two days, and now I'm pretty close to doubling it. It's fantastic, I couldn't be happier, but I'm also wondering what on Earth my next goal should be! I have a very small social media presence, so I can't expect that level of growth to continue off my own promotion efforts.

(I also had something similar happen on Tapas, which took me from about 50 subs to around 180 subs in a week, so both sites have been pretty generous to me.)

My approach to this is to just... set reasonable targets for continued growth, on the presumption that I don't get promoted again this year. So, 2.2k for WEBTOON, and maybe 300 for Tapas.

But, more importantly than that, is to simply keep creating the story that people subbed to enjoy! Which is something I intend to keep doing for the next five years, at least. Just keep creating, and sharing your work with your audience.