Web novels Vs Webcomics

[ayankidwai9]

Why do web novels don't get as much recognition as web comics?
I am going to take some pretty famous series as examples.

The first one "The beginning after the end." clearly the most popular webnovel but if you look at the level of growth its webcomic has got in the past year, you can see that people tend to like webcomics more. The way the author has narrated the story through Arthur in the web novel is amazing and I fell that the webcomic fails to capture that essence.

Same is the case with Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, even though in my opinion it is the best webnovel ever written and yet it did not get the recognition it deserved till it became a webcomic. The way the Author had described the antics of Kim Dokja are legendary and even though the web comic does not miss out on anything, it does miss out on the essence of the writers in the story.

In form of Content and in the form of providing unaltered story written by the author webnovel seem to be much superior. I feel that feeling the essense of the author in a story is an integral part of a book and webcomics take that way

[candiedcotton]

A large part of it is probably because people associate Tapas with comics rather than novels. I wouldn't be surprised if a large percent of users don't even know novels are a thing on Tapas. It's a shame, but much of that is the fault of the site itself. It heavily focuses on their originals they push out in droves rather than canvas, and the novels something you pretty much have to know already exist, or actively search for. They're not really promoted on the face of the website (aside from a tiny tab at the top, which most people probably don't even notice).

Edit: I also wouldn't agree that web novels are somehow superior. Different, sure, but I think it's a bit misguided to call them superior to comics. Especially in a community full of both comic and literary artists.

[Freemints30]

Its more the audience to read books are normally not on a web comic site (how tapas advertises itself after their whole novel team was let go a while ago). They are usually in libraries, in book stores, browsing kindle. Although yes they would read comics, the kinds of people browsing tapas are primary looking for comics. So the demographics are; people who read only comics, people who read both (but due to time may tend to read comics), and very few people exclusively read novels on tapas.

As much shit as wattpad gets they did bring in more exclusive traditional novel readers to their platform in the west than most other sites., (Wattpad still have a whole host of crippling flaws making not really that good). Most other sites aiming for the anime, manga crowd, who at the end of the day, would prefer to watch the anime /manga/manhwa adaptation than the actual novel.

The people who exclusively read novels are not normally on tapas and usual stay in book groups and sub reddits. So yeah. Web comics I feel are still a bit of a niche, so web novels even more so due to services available

[Tanako]

It all comes down to preference. and again, Tapas was originally created as a comic platform before they realized that there was a need for Novels as well.

I personally will read comics over webnovel. maybe it could be because I'm an artist and I enjoy telling stories with images compared to words. I also don't have patience when it comes to reading. I find reading laborious and even though you learn more reading, there is something about that just captures your interest.

[cherrystark]

I think you're dealing with two very distinct subcultures that don't always jive. I don't really like comics. While I can appreciate series like Calvin and Hobbes or Farside, I can't read comics. There's often too much information in a single panel for my brain to process. Books are one source of information so it's easier and faster for me to process.

However with general internet culture, a lot of people's first foray into storytelling is through anime. They learn how to draw based on their favorite anime and want to make their own. It's very cyclical in that aspect. But that's okay. If it makes them happy, more power to them. People also like things portrayed visually so web comics are a favorite. *I don't know much about comic culture but that's what I have observed.

As a writer, book culture has just as many loopholes to navigate. A lot of book culture frankly doesn't consider web fiction as real fiction. If people can't buy a physical copy of your book, you aren't a real writer. Traditional publishing is super hard to get into, so people moved online. Add the stereotypes of writing fan fiction or on Wattpad and the clock and dagger work people do to hide the fact they write smutty romances on pay as you go apps, it's really, really, really hard to get a web novel out there. Major production companies are slowly realizing that web fiction is where they'll get their next stories at though.

To me, comparing web comics to web novels, is like comparing apples to oranges. They're just different type of media.

[candiedcotton]

Not to mention, when I first came to Tapas I just assumed the 'Novels' tab meant graphic novels. I'm probably not the only one who'd make that assumption. I didn't even have a clue that normal novels existed here until I joined the forums and saw people talking about them.

I have a ton of kindle books, lol.

[Ladyofbirds]

Well, from the reader perspective, unlocking novels by episodes on Tapas can be expensive and quickly use up a lot of ink. For example, if someone wanted to permanently unlocked all the episodes available for “The beginning after the end” novel that would be over 90,000 ink. I have also found the kindle version of the novels here on Tapas tend to be cheaper and have an easier format to read.

[cyborgmermaid]

I have people constantly asking me to make my webnovel into a webcomic as if I could just magically pull art skills out of thin air. I do wish more could be done to boost novels recognition but with Tapas shutting down the original novels submissions and ending the novel-to-comic program, I think they're headed toward a webcomics only future.

[Katzalcoatl]

Simple answer: people prefer visual stimulation.

Novels get less views than comics just like comics get less views than videos.

Statistics talk for themselves. Platform with most users is youtube. It's not a comic platform nor a novels platform.

Another reason why The Beggining After the End lost views is because it is super long! Tapas recommends not separating your story in different books but that is a mistake. Views and likes stack throughtout chapters but having over 1k chapters discourages 2 things.

1.- Getting new readers.
2.- Having your current readers finish the story

Just look at the statistics in views of each chapter. By the end of the book views plumeted exponentially. In fact, the last volume which was separated from the main series got way more views and likes than the last chapters of the main story.

It is all about statistics. No one wants to invest time in a story that is too long and they won't be able to get into like One Piece. Ask anyone who hasn't watched One Piece if they plan to watch over 1k anime episodes and the most common answer will be no.

[powerplantanimations]

I like seeing the world from the author's point of view in pictures. Novels encourage the reader to come up with their own interpretations and I never liked that. That's just me though (someone who reads like.... four comic books a day).

[Flios]

I think this is not an issue, but a simple reality most people need to start accepting. Tapas is mostly a comic-oriented platform, and that will not change in the near future. In fact, Tapas is already moving to boost more comics than novels.

So my thoughts on this are as follows:
1) The Tapas fanbase is mostly made up of manhwa/webcomic supporters since the site itself was originally launched and branded as a platform for webcomics.
2) Why are most of the readers more focused on webcomics than webnovels? It's not just because of the branding and how Tapas presents itself. It's also because the age of the readers. If you try to decipher the average age of the readers here, you'll find out that most of them are young adults or even underage (the average is around 16-28 years old I'd say). The people of this age group, like me, are probably more into artistic and visual interpretations of stories instead of literary interpretations.

Also, I don't agree that webnovels are superior to webcomics. They are just two different types of media and both have their own strengths/weaknesses.

I opened a thread not long ago and it too discussed this matter. There's a lot of insights there around how novels and comics are treated here (just scroll down and you'll find the juicy stuff the start is centered around collaborations). It sounds like you are in need of some more info, so maybe you can take a look

Disclaimer: This is simply my own opinion and I don't expect everyone to agree with it. We can debate in the replies if you want though. So, I've lately noticed this general trend around the collaboration category(I'm not talking about all of the posts there, just some). Many people attempting to collaborate don't really know how to correctly form a deal that suits both them and the other person. Recently, I have taken the time to help out some new creators with being free AI art restriction…

[cherrystark]

Also, I don't agree that webnovels are superior to webcomics. They are just two different types of media and both have their own strengths/weaknesses.

Exactly! Neither is superior. They are just different mediums to tell stories. Web comic fans search out web comic sites. Web novel fans have their preferences.

[XiuLyn_12]

I don't read novels very often. Although I thought I would enjoy reading more as I got older, I still couldn't. It is because I am unable to imagine the world portrayed in a novel.
Most novel readers commented that they enjoyed imagining, but I think the majority couldn't.
So, it's probably why webcomics get more recognition. (I could be wrong, though, haha!)

[Katzalcoatl]

Ironically I used to be like that. I didn't like reading mangas, books, nor novels.
I only liked watching anime.

It got to the point that I watched over 1.5k anime (I lost count probably watched around 2k or so).
I practically caught up to all anime at the time and I was left with nothing to do.

That's when I moved to manga. I started enjoying manga read a couple hundred got bored since I got all caught up to all manga I was reading and new manga weren't grabbing my attention.

That's when I moved to novels and a few books.
Not all novels got updated and finding certain novels in english was hard. That's when I discovered manhwa and manhua.

I didn't like the style of most manhua but I loved medieval fantasy manhwa especially villainess and time reversal stories. Just like anime I pretty much caught up to all manhwa that catch my eye on a daily basis so I started reading translated korean novels but the variety of the genre I like isn't huge. I either already read the manhwa or I didn't like the ML. (Context I mainly read korean romance/fantady manhwa/novels).

After that I moved to searching for GL villlainess korean and japanese novels from indipendent authors. (Not a huge variety). Got tired of not getting a story about a villainess so decided to create my own manhwa. There was one problem.... I lack the ability to draw... instead of dedicatikg my time to start a skill that would take more years to master I decided to become a novelist and do my story.

And here I am... that's how I went from someone who hated reading for lack of images to someone who loved novels and ironically became a writer.

[diamondactor]

Web novels are better than comics, but how they are marketed I think is where the disconnect happens. Comics only do so well due to marketing, making the novels fall short. I get it comics are cool and amazing, but it's sad to see novels die before they have a chance or get overshadowed by their comic version.

Being frustrated by this platform because of the web comics always doing better than the novels and promoted more, I ended up switching platforms for my books. I've now got loyal following, with lore cards, and made an overall profit of 200+ dollars. It was a good switch for me, but might not be for everyone.

The platform I use now is Mythrill. Thing is you have to apply to be one of their authors. Not every story makes the cut, but those that do get marketing, editing, and artwork. The contract cut isn't bad and I keep rights to my stories. However, the stories are exclusive, so no posting them elsewhere and if they are somewhere else they have to be taken down.

[Hoku_1]

This is totally what happened to me. I ran out of things to watch what I like then one day I was like F*** it, I'll write it myself!

[Katzalcoatl]

Gotta do what you gotta do to entertein yourself.

[system]

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