The core issue of Tapastic

LordVincent 2017-05-05 14:33:26 UTC #36

All of this business talk makes it all sound very DOOM and makes it sound like anyone that isn't a premium content artist is going to get fucked over. I don't want to believe that's the case.

It scares me a little because I'm just now starting to approach making a living from my art that I could, just barely, live off of. Being transgender and having a normal job didn't work out all that well as a combo really for my mental health.

PotooGryphon 2017-05-05 14:53:16 UTC #37

You are a success story. You're reaching points most of us would like to reach. You're proof that through a TON of hard work non-premium artists can earn an income eventually.

It's too easy to give in to doom and gloom and decide what's the point. It's a challenge to notice limitations and come up with creative solutions around it.

starbeams 2017-05-06 01:22:49 UTC #38

People have pointed this out but there are a TON more readers than creators. My readers are mostly readers only, without their own series.

the core issue of Tapastic is getting those readers to tip, or perhaps expanding the amount of series available for keys only. Also artists trying to hustle can't get rewards out easily because of the discrepancy between the app and the desktop site, too.

I think they are working on these things though.

GoldenPlume 2017-05-06 04:20:59 UTC #39

Tapas is changing. The URL just did. Other changes are coming.

Thing is, staff hasn't changed. As far as we know only one new staffer was added to handle the premium books line, even though approximately 10,000 more series have been added and site traffic is up 66% in 12 months. A higher creator to staff ratio means that creators are going to see some changes. Last year we could expect when we sent an email to staff, it would get a reply. Now we've since stopped sending anything all together, other than to one staffer, and only business inquires.

Last year staff seemed to be more engaged with the community. Chang did some video streams that made it felt like we were connected to the top of the food chain. He gave an idea where things were going, a "State of the Union" as it were. It's been a while since the last transmission from HQ. The "What's On Tap" podcast dropped off as well. Yes, say what you want about the content and audio quality but it was at least some form of community between staff and creator. But it stopped. The last contest, The 30 Day Writing Challenge, pretty much fell off the face of the planet. It crossed the wire but there was no winner or any kind of resolution. Over on Twitter, Michael asked everyone for wallpapers, and eventually one got posted, but how many more were sent but just got forgotten? Disengagement seems to be on the increase.

Maybe everyone else feels that things are the same as they always have been but things definitely feel disconnected to us. Last year we felt like part of a larger team, now we feel very much on our own. It's taking us some time to process. We used to be highly passionate about Tapastic . . .

A community manager would help alleviate this, but as previously pointed out, Tapas probably can't justify the cost.

It makes us wonder, since premium creators are intrinsically worth more to Tapas than non-premium creators, are they going to enjoy a better experience on Tapas? If staff is increasingly more and more concerned about the bottom line it would make sense to focus on the premium creators, pushing high sub count but non-premium creators to second tier status, and low sub count non-premium creators to third tier status.

Once the open platform for ebooks on Tapas is added, its going to bring in a huge deluge of new author-only creators. If the number of writers for Tapas books causes an overall doubling of the creator number and a doubling of the reader number, how are 13 staffers going to keep up with that?

Michael teased that there's something big in the works at some point in the future that will grant a large amount of coins for tipping. What it is, no one but staff knows. Whatever makes tips easier to earn though is going to help creators earn more from their series. Right now watching a :45 ad for a penny is a major barrier to readers. Back when it paid 30-60 coins per view, readers were much more engaged in tipping because they felt like they were getting value for their time. Anything that impacts tips also impacts premium content creators who used to enjoy earnings from readers who bought keys using video ad coins.

Its harder to expand more series to keys because that involves direct staff time and supervision and staff time seems exceptionally limited these days.

Potoh 2017-05-06 06:01:22 UTC #40

Hey, I’m really glad to have someone taking the time and helping me putting things in a different perspective. What I wrote has been on my mind for a long time and I figured, I could either just keep it for myself and get more frustrated, or finally word it out and hope to get some new input to challenge my thoughts.

I’d like to thank you for taking the time to answer my long post. As a creator I can’t fully put myself in Tapas’ staff shoes and I’m glad to get some light on that. I admit, part of me is still stuck in this ideal world Tapas started out as – equal chances for everyone, nobody got obviously favoured, the staff approachable... Over the past years Tapas developed into a serious player on the webcomic market. Of course they need to grow. It's necessary for their survival and brings changes. May be rocky at times, and Tapas also needs to learn along the way what works and what doesn’t. I have full understanding for that.

My post wasn’t meant to be an outcry about not getting enough traffic on my series. I probably should have saved some of the bulletins for a different post because all the banner talk shift the subject too much. Being staff picked for both of my series and having a steadily growing readership I don't have much to complain in that regard. My concerns are about the overall experience for creators of free content. I read your last post and it pretty much says it: Staff is losing touch.
I really believe that they should show more love to the creators of free content who brought in and carry a big deal of the total audience. In the end, they also bring in potential readers for premium content. I fear that those creators will look for other places for their future projects, because staff isn't listening to them anymore. I keep my hopes up that Tapas will find the time to come back to those who helped them grow and won’t forget about them eventually.
If they keep losing touch with the community and creators of free content because they can’t make any profit off from it, that’s just... sad. It's business, but it's sad. They present themselves as a buddy to everyone, then they need to be that buddy imo. And not just to premium content creators.

GoldenPlume 2017-05-06 07:36:01 UTC #41

Agreed. We've come to the conclusion that the only way our series is going to grow is by our own time and resources. We crunched the numbers and figured that the chances of getting a staff feature is around 6% per year so you really can't count on that happening. Last month we wrapped up a Project Wonderful campaign and are looking at a TopWebComics campaign and a Twitter follower campaign. We're running ads in Make Mine Indie through all of 2017. There are a lot of costs to marketing a new webcomic if you want to get the word out about it. Our series is exclusive to Tapas in order to focus all the views and subs to one spot vs. spreading it out over many mirrors.

Any readers that find their way to Tapas to read one series and end up subscribing are likely going to explore Tapas further. So creator time and resources spent marketing their series are inadvertently giving free marketing to Tapas. Some of these new readers are going to purchase Premium Content and/or engage in tipping. Both of these activities generates revenue for Tapas.

You'd think that Tapas would engage strongly with those who are actively working at bringing external readers to the site. . .

You'd also think that Tapas would give those creators better tracking tools on their dashboards. Right now its really hard to tell what ads are working and what are not. One of our ad campaigns appears to have brought in a lot of bots by the fact that less than 5% of the visits read more than one page, but there's no way to fully know, all we can do is guess. Also all this time spent crunching spreadsheets to try to figure out what works and what doesn't, and having to run only one campaign at a time to measure its effectiveness, uses up a lot of time that could be spent doing other things, such as creating content.

LordVincent 2017-05-06 22:38:58 UTC #42

I wouldn't call it disengagement, I would attribute it to staff being busy as all hell...?
Maybe they'll hire a communications manager when they have a higher budget. Maybe the point of promoting premium content and putting books on tapas is to bring in revenue that will keep tapas moving and hopefully also afford better things for tapas management.

starbeams 2017-05-07 00:48:15 UTC #43

Wow thanks for this reply! I did not know they only had 13 staffers... no wonder there isn't that much premium content yet...

GoldenPlume 2017-05-07 04:31:59 UTC #44

https://tapas.io/about

Also @60Six we believe does some for hire lettering for the premium content but they aren't officially staff.

60Six 2017-05-07 04:42:45 UTC #45

I believe I'm technically an intern (At least, that's what my invoice says). I do typesetting and reformatting of most of the premium series currently running. However, I know that the person I actually work directly under isn't actually on that page yet either, so I think it's fairly out of date.

UncleVlad 2017-05-08 19:18:51 UTC #46

I'm pretty new, so maybe i can add a different perspective to this conversation?
First, there aren't a ton of places dedicated to indie comics on the internet. I was on smackjeeves about ten years ago- When i was writing a Dracula parody- and the site looks a lot like it did then.
Aside from smackjeeves and Tapas, many people seem to host on blog/microblog sites, or on a purpose- built domain. While a microbloging site like Tumblr would work in a pinch, it could be potentially difficult for new readers to navigate your content.
For many of us, the other alternatives just wouldn't be worthwhile at all. At least on Tapas i know people are looking at my work, i can organize and update it easily, and i have the opportunity to earn income here on the site.
Is it perfect? Well, no. You've all noted the major differences and the disconnect between the desktop and app versions of Tapas.
But ease of use speaks a lot for its self. Even a total amateur like myself finds the site fairly easy to use- and they allow a fair range of content.
Like many of you, the biggest room for improvement right now would be communication via the app- so creators can directly communicate with readers better, and improvements on the algorithm to favor active series and active creators.

silencelibrarian 2017-05-08 21:35:14 UTC #47

agreed, I think the staff is just overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to manage,
there's only so much they can do in one day, so they have to prioritize what keeps their business afloat

I think sometimes indie creators who make their work out of labor of love, are a little out of touch with the nature of the business world, unfortunately tapastic is a company who needs to stay afloat in today's very competitive world of overflowing free content on the internet, so their strategy is geared to make some sort of profit
otherwise, whoever it is that put money to set up this site would be like "why the heck are we funneling this money for if there is no profit to be made from it???"

and as a reader, I never read on the website, app only, it's much more comfortable and convenient using app, you can sit anywhere and read it anytime, in comparison to desktop you have to sit in front of the computer to read something, is just so uncomfortable

LordVincent 2017-05-08 22:08:05 UTC #48

Even if you are an indie creator that makes something because they love it, you need to understand business because in order to have as much time as possible and the best tools to use on the thing you love so much, you have to get some kind of income from it or you can't put food on your table.

I believe Tapas is a company originally built out of love and genuine care for the webcomic business, and now it's just trying to find more methods to keep this project they love alive. If they lose income, that means staff members will gradually have to be kicked out to find jobs elsewhere. If staff drops out, the site gradually dies.

It has been mentioned but it's worth mentioning again: Ad revenue IS NOT ENOUGH. It's dropping faster than a goat trying to fly, and so will the income the site gains if they don't explore other opportunities of making an income.

It's a matter of not putting all your eggs in one basket, and as much as I love tapas, that goes for us creators too. If you aren't finding enough success on Tapas due to algorithms, then I'm sorry but you have a choice to make. Either you remain a hobbyist and do whatever the hell you want with it, or if you want to approach a professional route you need to explore as many other opportunities as you need in order to find what works for you. Don't rely entirely on Tapas if you're not a premium creator because Tapas does not rely entirely on you. There are more sites out there.

As of right now there are two ways to go about it that are more commonly successful than others. (Assuming you already make good content at a good rate)
1. Become a contracted creator of some sort, whether it be on webtoons or tapas
2. Be a free creator and have multiple mirrors of your comic on as many sites as it takes to widen your net.

You're not illoyal or some coldhearted person who's only out for the money just because you're looking for ways to make the money that you need. You're just a passionate person doing what it takes to keep what you love alive another year, and I would argue that this is what tapas is currently doing too.

silencelibrarian 2017-05-08 22:16:10 UTC #49

I totally agree with you,
you seems to have alot of reasonable valid argument among alot of the forum posts I see

LindseyLeeMiller 2017-05-12 15:26:19 UTC #50

I really loved all your responses on this thread, it gave me alot of perspective as someone whose relatively new here and has been looking into alot of stuff to understand its viability or lack there of.

On this point though I can say its not very likely that premium creators get much of an insight into the goings and happenings of Tapas more then anyone else. I've seen alot of the webcomics on the Tapas platform on their original Korean platforms as well (same as Line Webtoon too). I currently live in South Korea and have a couple friends working on webtoons on different platforms such as Lezhin, Daum, and Naver. And while obviously I can't account for every instance or individual author the general feel from what I've seen and my friends is that they don't really have much say either. While Tapas has had the best english translations I've seen so far out of Lezhin(coins) and Line Webtoons(free) I have to say that my general impression is that when a comic gets taken from korean into english platforms theres even less communication (even for the translation of premium content from other languages on Tapas I wish there was more link up to the author's other works and possibly more about them, maybe even an interview - it could really add to the community). Whenever a premium content creator gets sent from korean to english it usually seems like a (set it and forget it [or lose it depending on the authors involvement and their contract], distribution deal) since the website involved usually covers the cost and operation of translation.

60Six 2017-05-12 17:17:02 UTC #51

Just popping in to add the little bit I know. With the exception of the few artists that started off as free content on here (Like Samantha Davies), the artists and writers of the premium contents are pretty un-involved with the series being uploaded. It's actually myself and one other staff member who have been uploading all of the recent premium content. I always thought it was kind of funny reading the comments and seeing everyone addressing the author, or telling the author to please update sooner, when the author has nothing to do with that. :'D
However, and I've actually asked this myself, some of the authors DO actually read the comments, even if they don't respond. I know one of the creators of Finding Molly (one of the non-Korean) premium series) has actually responded to a couple of comments too.

silencelibrarian 2017-05-12 22:25:22 UTC #52

I'd love to see an interview with the korean creator, I think that would be interesting

Kayke 2017-05-14 15:00:52 UTC #60

I'm going to invoke the first rule of the forums:

Which in this case means no more Jeff-ing. Please stay on topic and respect each other.

Hannes 2017-06-19 08:16:50 UTC #65

Declining ad revenue has been cited more than once in the thread. Does anybody actually know why this is happening? Is is a general crowding in of many businesses/creators competing for an (ad-) audience that is ever less solvent? So all in all, is the general internet economy dumping, or is it Tapas specifically?

Could it be just the traffic dip from the recent rebranding? Maybe it's just friction. I only get minmal amounts of ad revenue, doubled by tips recently. Also I don't do popular stuff like romance (in whichever gender combination), so I don't think I have a representative sample to make my own judgement.

This whole thread is really enlightening. I didn't even know Wattpads existed before, but it seems to be HUGE.

LordVincent 2017-06-19 08:48:12 UTC #66

Ad revenue (or rather, CPM) dropping is a problem that reaches across pretty much the entire internet.