Webcomic Visibility (Why do comics get 0 interaction!?)

Im_moron 2022-10-16 00:33:39 UTC #41

Honestly, I can't help but say thank y'all for the feedback and advice that has been given me!

darthmongoose:

Because it needs to be said here: The people giving advice in this thread aren't just critics. We're creators who have had more success at doing the thing you're trying to do and struggling to find the success you want at. We're not doing critique to let buyers make an informed choice about what webcomic to read, we're more doing two things:1. Help you achieve your goal by giving you realistic, actionable advice so you can benefit from our experience, past mistakes and shared knowledge base.2. Dispel an annoyingly pervasive myth that success on Tapas is based primarily in luck (it's not. It's largely polished presentation that sells an entertaining sounding concept and having a series that makes a strong first impression) that insults the hard work we put in every week (and usually a lot of planning work beforehand. I spent months on Errant before a single page went up).

In pretty much every case where a work underperforms on Tapas, there's a reason, and people who will happily help you get to the bottom of it if you just ask... which OP has, and that's awesome.

I had a lot of words to say, but I think just one really cements my feelings about this statment.... based.

Worst communities used to be hard on me and not consider that I sometimes have a hard time communicating my feelings or opinion, or that I often misuse words. I can't really get mad at you if I don't initially understand what you say! At least this is why I ask for questions or elaborate because communication goes both ways. Better that then to assume things.

But yeah, If it's not clear, I will still take your advice on anatomy or at least apply anatomy when it's important (I mean, I plan on drawing ripped men in the future ), especially if it's to make certain scenes look professional!

SpookyLocker 2022-10-30 21:53:22 UTC #42

tapas has a problem of to many creators and not enough readers, webtoon has more readers so I highly suggest branching out in both

sams_cartoon_shack 2022-11-01 12:40:05 UTC #43

Webtoon also has the issue of oversaturation where you won't get any visibility by platform unless you're really lucky enough to have an editor stumble upon your series and choose it as a staff pick.

darthmongoose 2022-11-01 16:27:29 UTC #44

Yeah, it's not really true that Tapas has more of an issue with audience size compared to number of works than Webtoon. Webtoon has a bigger audience and also more works, but even less space devoted to features, so it can be harder to get seen on.

The main difference between Tapas and Webtoon is you can potentially "beat the system" on webtoon through techniques like saving up a bunch of updates to spam during a canvas event, or making a comic in a small genre like "superhero", so comics that aren't particularly polished or aren't in a trendy genre may well have a bigger readership on Webtoon, especially if they're built around something "high concept" or have a good "elevator pitch" premise. Successful webtoon creators often try cheesy tactics like launching a high concept comic and then dumping it if it's not blown up within the first couple of months and launching a new one.

Tapas meanwhile is a lot more curated and succeeding on Tapas means working within the system, so if you focus on polished presentation and try to make something at least somewhat appealing to the platform's core audience (mostly Women aged around 20), you have good odds of getting seen and boosted by the staff, even if the concept isn't as easy to sell in a few words. Slow and steady growth is more viable on Tapas, even if the numbers generally won't be as huge as a big webtoon (the pay at the top end can still be good though, especially if the work has an engaged audience on Patreon too).

So if we imagine it in print comic terms:

Attack on Titan would do better on Webtoon. The manga was rough looking but with a really punchy story concept and a big opening, and it could go in a genre like Horror or Action and stand out there.

Lumberjanes would do better on Tapas. It's a weird concept to sell, very character-focused and gets going slowly, but with a strong, consistent visual "brand", and the core audience is young women. It would probably go into LGBTQ+ and perform pretty well.

Im_moron 2022-11-01 21:45:07 UTC #45

Oh heck, this thread is alive again asdfg

I have posted on WT, my Girlfriend (and editor whose heavily familiar with WT) said that there's something up with the first chapter that drops view retention (prologue was redrawn on the release of WT and people really got a lot of interest there, but it dropped after). I've been working on a redraw of CH1 and I've taken feedback from people on this thread and my GF to make sure the reading experience is as good as possible, both to be very readable, have a more appealing artstyle that doesn't stray too far from the overall comic and make better setups for foreshadowing or redo things I felt could have been better.

I don't think I want to redraw the WHOLE comic, but I feel a better start would do wonders and set up a better expectation for readers to care more (especially since chapter 1 has terrible paneling too).

I'm also planning around expanding on Tumblr too but I'd have to get around to a method of reformating the pages (or reading more tumblr comics) to get it right.

But yeah, to not ramble on. I've tried expanding on WT but it's not a good long-term solution, because I have to up the standards for chapter 1, even if the readers really are more interactive on WT than on Tapas, they just don't find the clustered panels, and the artstyle very appealing. I could expand to a million other platforms, but it won't do much until I at least address some fundamental issues with my comic.

Im_moron 2022-11-01 21:56:18 UTC #46

I'll be completely honest here, having been on tapas for a very very long time, I think tapas is a little more oversaturated but that's me. Regardless, as Darth has stated before, and I agree with them it's really not luck, and it's a disservice to artists who did get staff picks to say it is.

Those artists on WT who got their series picked up are like, actually really good artists and writers, I mean I actually was the first readers for a couple of TAPAS comics before they hit staff picks and even before they get picked up by Webtoons (I'm the Glookies guy in the Four Leaf comments). They're either already well-established artists or they're just that good and work that hard.

abigaillmartin 2022-11-02 04:59:21 UTC #47

You make a fair fair point. I never considered all the fierce competition when releasing my comics. In my experience, just don’t be afraid to put yourself out there!

abigaillmartin 2022-11-02 05:01:44 UTC #48

Well then. I’m doomed on Webtoon. ‍

darthmongoose 2022-11-02 10:05:33 UTC #49

If it makes you feel better, I have like... less than a hundred subs on Webtoon and have barely managed to claw my way up to a rating of around 6 (I suspect I got rating bombed by a group of people early on) and it hasn't stopped me from getting over 2000 subs on Tapas, being invited to the Creator Bonus Program and running a successful Kickstarter to print my comic, as well as having earned hundreds of dollars so far in ad revenue and ink.

Not doing well on one platform doesn't mean you're totally screwed. Some people don't do well on Tapas or Webtoon but are killing it somewhere unexpected like twitter, some people have almost no online following but are really successful in print.

Keep working hard to polish and improve your comics, and keep trying new opportunities and avenues to find where your audience is!

system 2022-12-02 10:05:35 UTC #50

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