Tips on doing a Q&A?

[Birbmagadon]

Hello there!

I'll be reaching 1k subs soon and I wanted to celebrate. Here is the comic if you want to check it out:

Birbs and Dragons | Tapas

Is 1k enough to organize a Q&A or will it be a miserable flop? I don't want to be left with 2 questions and a lack of interest if you see what I mean ^^;

I know July-August is the quiet part of the year (with vacations and all) so I was planning on starting gathering questions by the end of September or so. I think posting on my profile's wall should be enough, but perhaps you guys know other (and better?) ways of reaching out to followers?

On top of that, the whole Q&A would get illustrated and posted as a "special episode" (with 1 panel per answered question, depending on how it works out).

What do you guys think? Has anyone here ever done something similar and could provide some tips?

Thanks a lot in advance, happy arting!

[im_not_pixie]

As far as my experience goes, you can do a Q&A with very few people. I conducted my last Q&A at around 400 subscribers and got around 20 questions (although a few people asked the same thing so it was more like 15). Granted, I cross-post my comic between Tapas and Webtoon (which is where I got my 400 number from, I think I had around 35 here at the time). Maybe Webtoon readers are more inclined to interact or maybe not, I don't really know.

Illustrating the whole Q&A might be really tough if you answer EVERY question, as I assume you'll get quite a lot at 1K, but maybe you can cherry-pick which ones you draw. Point is, I doubt you need to worry about flopping.

[Birbmagadon]

Woah okay I wasn't expecting that

How did you gather the questions? Through webtoon AND tapas, just tapas, just webtoon, somewhere else?

I'll see how it goes, but since my style is pretty simple (aka. no epic poses or backgrounds or shading and effects) I could illustrate quite a lot of them. Worst case, I can illustrate every other question and reply to the rest of them through text only, as you suggested.

Thanks a lot of the reply, really helps a lot

[Kelheor]

Well, no one is hurrying you, so you can announce you want to make a Q&A and just wait for enough questions for a few month. Don't forget to repeat about it under every update!
We also took some questions from previous pages, the ones that were left without answers, like the joke about panties and questions about kids who are unaffected by everything - they were not questions specially asked for Q&A. I only made a few small illustrations with authors in chibi style, put some panels from the comic and that's it, you can look at it here.
(The questions are from Webtoons and Tapas together, by the way)

Hexameron :: Q&A episode! | Tapas

[Birbmagadon]

Oh, that's indeed the sort of thing I had in mind!

How long did it take to gather the questions? And, where on tapas did you post? Through updates and profile's wall only, or through other ways too?

Thanks a whole lot for the reply

[Kelheor]

We only post an update once every 2 weeks, so we announced it on April 18 and posted it on May 16. There weren't many question flowing too, so we decided not to wait for long (but we also wanted to make a follow up update quicker, so we had different motivation than you too). I really recommend to make a big announcement, because many people don't read author's comments
So there were even more questions afters we made a "thank you for 6k subs" episode, when the fact about Q&A was posted again on the pages of episode, not in the comment. We have much less subs on Tapas (like, 40 times less), so they were mostly questions from Webtoon and as I recall, 1 old unanswered from Tapas, but I think it will be okay of you make an announcement in the episode and on your profile too, just in case =)

[Merle]

For my first Q&A, I only got a single Question, which went along the lines of "draw the main character in a banana costume".

I was a bit dumbfounded at first, but then made a joke out of it - 2 years later (ans 2 more Q&As), it´s become a big running gag between me and my readers, and I now get more Questions that I can answer.

Don´t be afraid the first thing might be a "flop". Whatever comes out of it, take it as an opportunity to learn - and maybe you can make it funny, too

[Birbmagadon]

That makes sense, I guess posting it a bit everywhere on your content (without spamming, obviously) is safer. Like, make the announcement on the profile and put a reminder at the end of every new update until the Q&A is ready.

My only worry is that I'm not on webtoon so it's all on tapas' subs' shoulders right now ^^; But we'll see.

Thanks a lot of the tips

[Birbmagadon]

How many subs when you made your first Q&A?

And yes, I know dealing with flops isn't all bad but reaching a milestone only to flop on it is a bit lame, haha ^^; Thanks for this comment though, because now I know how to react in case of a flop

Also, wanted to ask... can you draw the MC in a banana costume plz? (okay, I see myself out.)

[Kelheor]

You have a lot of subs on Tapas, and Tapas readers are probably more engaging, so I think you will be okay

[Birbmagadon]

Ayye, thank you I shall do my best!

[Kittosaurus]

1k is more than enough to do a Q & A, I think I only had a couple hundred when I did my first one... and I think about 300 or 400 when I did my second one. I am actually hosting a third one now!

You can also branch out and ask on your social media accounts if you are worried about not getting enough questions. But I'm sure your readers will surprise you! You can also ask your family and friends to ask questions , if you aren't getting enough and branch out to the forum as well!

Read lots of other Q&As so you get an idea of what works and what doesn't!

For example here are the two I've done for my comic so far:

First Round

The Librarian Arachnid Slayer :: Q & A Part One | Tapas

The Librarian Arachnid Slayer :: Q & A Part Two | Tapas

Second Round

The Librarian Arachnid Slayer :: Q & A - Part Three (Creator Questions) | Tapas

The Librarian Arachnid Slayer :: Q & A - Part Four (Cast Questions) | Tapas

[Merle]

xD that gave me flashbacks!!

I celebrated 500 subs on Webtoons that day haha 500 banana loving people.

[Birbmagadon]

Holy hell, those are some badass Q&As, thank you for linking them! Love the format! (Also, how did you survive the spider invasion, that's insane >.>)

Sadly, I'm not that active on other social media so for now I'll simply limit it to tapas, but keeping that in mind if the flop comes to show. And yes, friends and family are always an option, I actually didn't think of that!

Thank you so much! It's so very helpful, especially when some examples are provided. Good luck on the next Q&A :3

[Birbmagadon]

500 banana loving people xD Poor followers, they were doomed with a nickname from Hell haha

Thanks again for the feedback tho

[Kittosaurus]

Haha thank you!!!

(Also, how did you survive the spider invasion, that's insane >.>)

Sometimes I wonder how I did... lol. Strength comes out of necessity - now that I have a boyfriend that can kill the spiders for me I reverted back to my fearful ways

No problem! Good luck with yours as well!!!

[Birbmagadon]

It makes sense. But geez, still impressive as hell. On the up side, that's more opportunities to become spiderman or to get inspired into arting

Ayye

[Rosso]

congrats on the 1K in advance!

i said this before and i'll say it again:
if you worry you might not get any questions, you can simply announce you're making a "special" episode in celebration of this milestone. Prepare some fun little extras to put in it (extra illustrations, fanart, comment feature, character sheets, omake...etc) and tell your readers this is their chance to ask any questions or have any requests! (brace yourself for the onslaught of genderbend requests)

I made it a bit fun for the readers where they gotta @ a character and ask them directly instead of just a generic comment directed at me. Worked quite well : D

Bloodrain Valravn - Extras - [ Fanart, Comments, Q&A... ]

[Carossmo]

Ahh I remember making my first Q&A~ I was afraid at first too. I'm sure you'll have a lot of engagement knowing you got almost 1k subs!

LnR :: Q&A with LnR | Tapas

After this, more people started questions and that felt so nice~ so I'd be making a 2nd Q&A once I guess season 2 starts, or after the first 5 episodes.

[Rodimus13]

We did a q and a with only 50 subs. It went well! We had the characters answer the questions and read from a script like actors