Watch out for "Captivated Readers" who are actually just commission hunting

[stella]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a frustrating experience I just had as a relatively new author on Tapas. when I saw my first two comments today, I was over the moon.

Both "readers" used very similar language, saying they were "captivated" by my story and even mentioned they "had things in mind for the future" of the series. As an author, that's exactly what you want to hear!

However, I quickly realized they weren't actually interested in the plot. The moment I mentioned that I already have an artist for my work, both comments were deleted within minutes. It seems they were just artists looking for work and using fake "praise" to get my attention.

It’s honestly really discouraging to think you’ve finally found your first fans, only to realize it was a sales tactic. I wanted to put this out there as a warning to other new creators: if a comment seems vague or "too good to be true," be careful with your expectations.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you stay motivated when the engagement turns out to be fake?

[BoomerZ]

Get this on Tapas and webtoon discord all the time. Always a random friend request. Always starts "are you a writer, artist, or both?" They kinda have a script they follow. "I'm an artist that helps bring people's vision to life." Cold calling solo creators is strange.

[ShidoDraws]

I usually just report their comments to the platform.

I do want to include that I do not think all of these are only sales tactic. They can also be used to collect sensitive information about you, once they get your payment info they can try to hack into your bank account either through Venmo, PayPal, Cashapp, especially Cashapp. I'd definitely suggest avoiding them for all kinds of reasons.

[jwabeasley]

I'm sorry to hear that! I haven't had that happen to me here - probably because I already do my own comic art - but I have seen lots of scammy behavior in the commission community, from Instagram especially.

I try to find intrinsic joy in the act of creation, and try (not always successfully) to ignore performance statistics. You'll find your fans, somewhere!

Stay safe!

[NOOR_ASAKZ05]

This is truly awful. My advice to you is not to let your motivation be tied to anything else, but rather to yourself and your love for your work. Don't let these people affect your self-confidence.

[caedestyles]

How do you stay motivated when the engagement turns out to be fake?

Some practical tips that have really helped me:

• Learn how these platforms work and let yourself be bummed out for a bit. Any site running at least in part on user-generated content really wants you to know how well or how poorly you're doing in terms of numbers. It sucks. As does getting a spam comment. The awareness that it happens everywhere, to everyone, helps.

• Work ahead before you post. I didn't start scheduling my episodes until a month after I finished and published the entire book I wrote. Now everything that happens on Tapas is either a nice bonus or not something I need to take that seriously because the work that I'm so emotionally attached to has already been done. Way back when I made comics, I'd often post episodes basically as soon as I finished them, and every negative, spammy, or non-existent comment hit me so much harder for it. Be kind to yourself; getting your hopes up means you really care about your work, and that's something to be proud of.

• Be the change you wanna see, make (more) friends among your peers. The more you get out there and engage with other people's work, the more genuine things will come to you as well. Don't do it solely for the purpose of getting something back, don't do it if you find yourself thinking "I'd be disappointed if this creator didn't return the favour". Having friends who "get it" is also an absolute game changer; it's cathartic to be able to say "lol another spam comment" and get a supportive response from someone who's been there. I find that after a quick vent like that, I come out much stronger and determined than before.

[TheOGB]

That sucks. I generally turn the comments on my episodes off, but I'll look out for stuff like that if i ever change my mind. I don't generally read novels on tapas, but I'll check yours out! It looks interesting as heck lol
I do get it, it's really hard to stay motivated when the story you've put blood, sweat and tears into gets very little engagement, but what I have found helpful is thinking of all the people who might read it in the future, years on from now! Hope this helps

[Inspector_Spinda]

They’re probably scammer bots

[racheldenucci]

I know something that bugs me almost as much as the scam comments, is the ones that use complimenting my story to ask me to read theirs. At least with "I want to do art of your story for a price", I can brush it off as potentially someone invading the community to get business if not an outright scam.
Fellow creators using my comment section to beg for views gets all complicated. Because, like, I understand the struggle of feeling like no one is looking at your stuff. On the other hand, boosting my stats in hopes it'll cause me to check out what you've done feels manipulative and will backfire, causing me to want to avoid it. But back to the other prospective, a lot of the creators doing that sort of thing are desperate and probably don't know better so I feel a little guilty "punishing" them for going about it wrong. But that doesn't make it okay, especially when I got excited about getting a genuine comment just to find it was someone promoting their own things where they shouldn't....
It's got the same feel as when people try to do sub4subs (though they tend to spin it as not being sub4sub when they ask now)... An expectation that you'll do something in support of their story because they did something to support yours