Uploads and Sites question? (New Webcomic advice)

[phroobin]

Hi, a friend and I are in the process of writing and illustrating a webcomic together (it's not quite ready yet) but I wanted to ask some advice about uploading and hosting sites to see what might be our best option.

I've noticed that typically the options are to host on sites like Tapas and Webtoons, or to host it on your own domain. Both have their advantages, but I've also seen that typically on Tapas/Webtoons comics update with longer updates spanning multiple pages whereas those uploaded on their own site is a page once/twice a week.

I think for us, we wanted to release our introduction chapter at once, and then do one page scheduled updates a few times a week, but that doesn't really seem to be an option on Tapas/Webtoons - or at least not that I've seen. Does anyone know of any comics on hosted sites like Tapas that do just upload a page at a time? Is that frowned upon? In your opinion, is it better to have your own website or use a site like this?

Any help is really appreciated!

[BlairFujin]

There are loads of those here (all 3 of mine for example), heck, the most popular (at the moment of writting this) free-to-read comic on taps updates one page at a time

Read EYES ON ME | Tapas Web Comics

(correction, most popular in romance, seriously tapas, stop defaulting browsing to this genre, weren't they supposed to be changed from time to time? but, yeah, you'll find quite a few non-premium popular series updating one page per upload)
And from what I've noticed, readers don't tend to have problems with that. Weebtoon and Mangatoon (especially the later) are more likely to complain about updates length

[darthmongoose]

Hey, welcome to the forums!

With platforms, I'd recommend uploading to both Tapas AND Webtoon, and you could even have a site as well. There's basically no downside to doing this, and if you did get some kind of exclusive contract in the future (probably not something that'd happen unless you'd been making the comic a while and built a really big audience), you could just take it down from the other places. Other places to upload single pages might be Comicfury, Dillyhub and The Duck, but it's worth being aware, they all have much smaller readerships than Tapas and Webtoon. That said, different genres favour different platforms, for example, Furry comics do better on Comicfury and LGBTQ+ content often does best on Tapas.

There are popular comics on Tapas that do single-page uploads (Charity Case is a good example), and it seems like it's not a deal-breaker on webtoon either. If you're doing two pages a week though, you may find your readers prefer weekly updates. Personally I update weekly as two pages in a stack with the panels spread out a bit so it's in-between pages and long-scroll.

[MartaTod]

I plan to update a page per week because it takes me a while to draw. I already have first 33 pages up on my website, but I started uploading here too recently. I wanted to speed up the updates here to catch up with the website; so I scheduled two updates per week with a single page.

In your experience, would it be better to change it to 2 pages per weekly update?

[darthmongoose]

In your experience, would it be better to change it to 2 pages per weekly update?

If you can manage one page a week, do one page a week. I do two because previously I did two updates a week on a monday and friday, but it proved easier for me to do two pages in a batch and update on the friday as a single update. That said, I'm pretty open in saying that if I worked full time, not part time, I wouldn't manage two pages a week!

Choose what works best for you in terms of making polished pages with weekly updates around your lifestyle. If that's one page a week, then do that.

[MartaTod]

Ah, I didn't explain it well. I have almost entire first chapter done, and I'm publishing pages scheduled twice a week. After reading your post, I'm not sure if posting single pages twice a week annoys the readers, and they prefer only one update per week but with both pages in it?

[darthmongoose]

Ah, I didn't explain it well. I have almost entire first chapter done, and I'm publishing pages scheduled twice a week. After reading your post, I'm not sure if posting single pages twice a week annoys the readers, and they prefer only one update per week but with both pages in it?

I actually... don't know? All I can say for sure is going from one page twice a week to two pages once a week didn't harm my comic's performance. Basing it on what makes for the most satisfying feeling updates might be best. I found that longer updates meant more happened in an update which lead to more engagement, but that's just how it worked for me.

[RocketAxxonu]

I tend to prefer to batch update on Tapas with an entire scene/chapter at a time, but I've seen others who upload single pages at a time, each as their own 'chapter,' and they seem to do fine. Now, if you did want to update single pages at a time but wanted them to be under a single chapter (so that the chapter list on the sidebar isn't huge), I think Tapas makes that possible too--I think all you would need to do is go into the chapter, and add a new page to it on whatever schedule you're going for, up to 40 pages. Then just make sure to hit the box that will alert readers as to the update each time. (I didn't realize this was how it worked until I saw a webcomic I was watching doing this; I don't think the notification is flagged in the bookmarks section as it does with a new chapter update, but it shows up under the bell notifications, I think, though I'll admit I haven't tested any of this out myself.)

[gabriellabalagna]

Hi there! Okay, I have a few things to share.

First, people might get quite disappointed if the first update is ~20 pages and then the rest are only a page long, as this feels a little misleading. I could be totally wrong about this though, as I've seen a lot of people do this.

Second, you can totally post single page comics on Webtoon/Tapas. Sadly though, page comics have a lower chance of getting features/popular on Webtoon/Tapas. You may be better off hosting on your own site and joining a comic collective like Hiveworks or Spideforest.

Third, no reason you can't experiment posting on multiple platforms though. However, I do have quite a few reasons artists should have their own website.

Hope all goes well for you and your friend!

[system]

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