Too many episodes?!

[ButterflyEmpress]

One thing I didn't think about when I started posting my comic was how long it was gonna be (episode wise). I know that it'd have over 20 chapters and each chapter averages about 15-20 pages. I break up the chapters in weekly doses with 1 to 3 pages per episode. Episode length depends on the flow of the current scene and how much I have in my buffer.

I have over 80 episodes between 6 chapters. At this rate by the time the story ends there'd probably be over 400. When I choose whether or not to invest in a web comic, I don't pay any mind the episode count because it's inaccurate to how long the story is. I've seen comics with a few long episodes and others with a bunch of short ones and some of those episodes are short ads or bonus content. But I've heard that some people will not bother if they see that the episode count is too high and I wonder if its the same issue with my comic. People who seem interested might go to check it out and be like "What 80 episodes?! I don't have time to read all that! Screw this!"

Also does Tapas have an episode limit? I haven't found any info on it anywhere. I'd hate to have to split my comic up. I'd rather everything to all be together.

[ninjashira]

I personally LOVE finding a comic with tons of episodes, because it means there's lots of story to read! I always get a little bummed out when I find a new comic and i get really into it and then I get all caught up and can't keep reading. I like to binge read my stories. So if I'm getting into a new story and I see that there's 300 more episodes, I get excited

[HGohwell]

80 episodes isn't a huge amount for a webcomic at all. If anything, that'd make you a pretty short webcomic. A lot of comics go into hundreds of episodes. I was going to suggest you search the binge section to see how many episodes some of the completed comics have, because that's what they said it was when they asked us to mark our works complete but nope, half of those have barely started (although there are some that are up at 400+ episodes, so have a look anyway). But anyway, even for a comic updating once a week, that's 50 episodes a year. Also, a lot of the comics with a shorter episode count have muuuuuch longer updates, closer to 10+ traditional pages or equivalent a week. They're not expected to be short. If you're that worried, you can always split it into arcs.

[Kelheor]

Some people will not bother. Some people read 990 chapters of One Piece though.
Some people will not bother reading romance too, doesn't mean you should stop drawing it Most people love to binge read, and if your average episode is not close to 100 panels, don't even think about this as a problem. Especially if you don't blow up your episodes just to make your comic longer without any need, which, considering you are an unpaid author, I doubt you do =)

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

When I find a webcomic with a ton of episodes it makes me really happy because I know I’ll get to enjoy lots of awesome content!

[BreakingChalk]

I usually don't start something that has a lot of chapters and few pages each (unless it is just beginning so I can keep with the flow from the very start).
I prefer whole epidodes of 15+ pages, but I do get why people prefer to make updates for 1-3 pages.
I think t would be good to make a survey on the topic

[joannekwan]

80 episodes is pretty short by webcomic standards! You're totally fine there.

And as far as I know, there is no limit to episodes. Kura's comic No Future has 2037 episodes and it's still going!

[ButterflyEmpress]

@ninjashira @HGohwell @joannekwan
Wow! I didn't think web comics got that long here, especially in the 1000s! That's crazy!
It's good to know that there's plenty of people who like the long episode lists.

[Rhonder]

For my reading preferences, I generally don't mind long series/lots of episodes.

BUT the caveat is that if I want to be sold and intrigued on the series concept pretty early on or I won't stick with it. A strong hook is important for stories anyways, but doubly so for something that's really long. If I'm still on the fence/not sure if i'll like a long series by episode like... 5 or 10, then I'm probably not gonna bother grinding to episode 500, y'know? Where as if the thing is only 5 or 10 episodes long right now and I'm still undecided I might stick with it to see where it goes. This is typical to my approach with most forms of media tho- I'm more likely to stick with a 1 season anime that I'm not 100% into because it's a relatively small investment rather than a 20 season anime that I'm so-so on. Same with game series, movies, etc.

[HGohwell]

If I'm still on the fence/not sure if i'll like a long series by episode like... 5 or 10, then I'm probably not gonna bother grinding to episode 500, y'know? Where as if the thing is only 5 or 10 episodes long right now and I'm still undecided I might stick with it to see where it goes.

I gotta agree with this sorta thing. While lots of episodes isn't a worry, if I'm gonna sit down for several hundred episodes it's gotta be a really strong hook. The longer it is, the higher the threshold for holding my attention. Or at very least have a lot of people saying "stick with the iffy beginning and it'll get better around episode 20" (had a few animes I've watched thanks to the sheer amount of people going the start is awful but stick with it or skip to episode X and then there's a big leap) but that does need to be quite a lot of people saying that. Like, if I'm gonna stay up til 4am reading this it'd better be gripping.

[cherrystark]

My novel is almost at the 100 episode mark, but I have 5 individual stories in the series. Comics are different episode wise. As a reader, I want enough episodes to keep me engaged in the story but not make me ask when it's going to end. I've read some stories that'll shift storylines or add more storylines in just to stretch stuff out. When I find stories like those, I'll stop reading if we get past the 40ish chapter range but if the story is good and keeps me engaged, the more chapters the merrier.

[NickRowler]

My main series is up to 250 pages and I have a 2nd comic that is 80 pages.

I have had some people complain about the length however I have also had people say my comic is easy to read so getting through the pages are not too over bearing.

I have also had shorter comics which people enjoyed but I don't know if people would enjoy if I added on to them or not. Do people like them because they are a quick read? Would adding more ruin them? I dunno what to do.

[Legendofgenii]

If I fall in love with something I never want it to end, so it wouldn't bother me.

[bear1]

I’m a daily comic strip creator and do my comic for almost four years. Currently I’m having 1000+ episodes on Webtoons (around 300+ on Tapas, since I scheduled them different here)
And I’m not even the longest comic. There are a couple other strips that have even more entries.
Granted, I’m a strip artist and my comic only somewhat follows a plot. But we do get new readers who see reading our comic as a challenge and often comments on the current episodes how long it took them to read them all (I think the record is around two days)
I’ve also heard from people that noped away from our project because of the high number of episodes. So the worry of overburdening new readers is a valid concern.
However, if your story is below 100 episodes you don’t need to fear, imo. There are a lot of comics with 50-200 entries and it looks like far more than it actually is and most readers realize that

As a reader, I don’t mind long stories/many entries. Finding time to binge is a different beast. But if the story is good, I gladly tackle a 1000 chapter project.
So have faith in your work and create a great project. If readers love the story they won’t mind the amount of chapters ^^

[M.ComicFan]

I've heard that some people will not bother if they see that the episode count is too high

Not gonna lie, I kinda have that mindset when finding new comics sometimes.