Tips on doing a Q&A?

Merle 2019-08-23 13:39:56 UTC #7

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 2019-08-23 13:40:40 UTC #8

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 2019-08-23 13:43:03 UTC #9

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 2019-08-23 13:43:44 UTC #10

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

Birbmagadon 2019-08-23 13:44:12 UTC #11

Ayye, thank you I shall do my best!

Kittosaurus 2019-08-23 17:00:33 UTC #12

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

Second Round

Merle 2019-08-23 17:03:52 UTC #13

xD that gave me flashbacks!!

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

Birbmagadon 2019-08-23 18:02:19 UTC #14

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 2019-08-23 18:03:13 UTC #15

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

Thanks again for the feedback tho

Kittosaurus 2019-08-23 18:05:25 UTC #16

Haha thank you!!!

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 2019-08-23 18:08:30 UTC #17

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 2019-08-23 20:53:55 UTC #18

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

Carossmo 2019-08-23 21:16:19 UTC #19

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!

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 2019-08-23 22:04:35 UTC #20

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

kaetana 2019-08-24 00:44:50 UTC #21

I've been doing a QnA this month while I work on my next chapter. The impression I get from my experience is that you can probably count on somewhere betwen 25-50% of your regular commenters to ask a question for it. So I'd imagine with 1K subs you'd get plenty of questions.

I had around 70 subs I think when I first announced it, I put it in an image at the end of the updates (since I don't think mobile users see wall posts, and not everyone reads the author notes haha). I didn't get a ton of questions but I got some really good ones that were interesting and fun to illustrate, so I'd call it a success! I've got one more going up next week, but here's the three I've done so far if you were wanting to look at examples.

Good luck with your QnA!

ZombieOwl 2019-08-24 04:15:04 UTC #22

I think that as long as you have active readers that like to interact with you, you will have a successful Q&A. I had only ~350 when I did my first one, and I announced it about 1 month in advance, which gave me plenty of time to prepare, and have my readers see the announcement and ask questions

I find it useful to have a single episode that asks people to ask the questions for Q&A in the comments. It's very organized that way, and people could upvote questions other people have asked to prioritize

good luck!

Birbmagadon 2019-08-24 13:21:33 UTC #23

I think I am going to follow this idea, but "in reverse". Starting with a Q&A announcement, and if I gather no question, I'll go ahead and post an episode with all the things you said. I like the Q&A because readers can ask about what interest them.

Thank you so so much though, I like the idea of a big episode filled with small gifts. I shall keep that in mind.

Side note, I cannot open the link you provided. :o It leads to an error page.

Birbmagadon 2019-08-24 13:23:07 UTC #24

I love your Q&A with the characters replying directly, so nice Thank you for the example.

And yes, I hope so, but it's my first time doing such a thing on tapas, so I wanted to gather some opinions before diving head first into it!

Thank you so much for the feedback! Helps a lot!

Birbmagadon 2019-08-24 13:29:25 UTC #25

@Rodimus13 Woah, 50 subs only? That's interesting to think you still got replies, and pretty encouraging!

@kaetana Putting it at the end of every update sounds like a good thing to do, indeed! I'm gonna do that, since it seems to attract attention a lot more than posting on walls or such. And 25% of commenters sounds reasonable, yes. Counting on that ^^;
Thank you for the examples too, those are lovely Q&As

@ZombieOwl That "single episode" idea is so neat, I didn't think about it. It's indeed easier considering a lot of people consult tapas on mobile only. I'm gonna do that, thank you so much!

Thank you all for the feedback, it's so very appreciated!

Rosso 2019-08-24 13:40:59 UTC #26

no problem!
and that's the second time linking to a WT episode gives me errors 8 (
it's episode 22, if you wanna have some ideas

ETA: btw this is a reupload. The original started with a little "Thank you" for reaching a milestone on WT : >