Webtoon Overwhelming Numbers

[Silver-Weiss]

Hi i want to comment something about webtoon and ask your opinion

Have you noticed that webtoon sometimes have on their Spotlight, Staffpick and rising stars some comics with 3 - 6 episodes published with more than 10k subscribers and 100k to 750k views?

Weird... no ?
These comics have between 5 days to 1 month of existence, how they get that overwhelming numbers in a short time? With my brother we have been drawing, writting and painting with sweat blood and tears for more than 1 year in webtoon and we have less than 30k of total views, less than 820 subscribers and 10 ppl who commented: What a good art or, Your story is so underrated (and 90 ppl that constantly give their like, I really thanks to them)...

I suppose many of you can understand what means 1 year (or more) of work trying to not copy some anime or manga, and a comic wich is 70-80% copied from an anime or manga arrives and get in less than 1 month that numbers... We are tired and we are feeling really bad with this (Meanwhile webtoon keep winning money with our work)... I even thinked if webtoon is one of those sites that manages bots to make things like this happen, in order to maintain what they like (or possibly make) in front.

I can't understand the criteria with which this site evaluate but, what I understand is I'm tired and I want to sleep well, start all my days with energy in the work, have an active social life and play monster hunter with friends without worries Again, I don't want to hate what I love to do.

What you think about this in webtoon ? Are you publishing there ? Do you have any recipe to overcome this ?
Share your opinion as i shared mine. (Im still trying to not cry )

Here is the link to Tapas (Uploading fixed 2020 versions)

[seru]

It would be helpful if you link your comic.

[Silver-Weiss]

You can read the 2020 versions Here in Tapas

[eristeine]

most of the time when new comics have high numbers its because they already have an audience somewhere else, so don't worry, it's prolly not you

moreover, and im afraid of coming off a little mean here, but the audience in wt skews young and has a demographic that skews towards a certain genre or story convention and honestly? they're allowed to, they'll like what they like even if someone else thinks lowly of their taste because they can get something out of it. and that's how we do it too. we'll like what we like even if other people don't and that's alright.

im sorry to say that there's no recipe for this one.

but i can say that you're not the only one. this is a pretty common issue, tbh, and it's the main reason why people say "when creating a comic, put creating for the audience second and put creating for yourself first." at the end of the day, you'll be the number one fan of your story, and you can't rely on outside validation (not entirely anyways) to keep going

btw; i sneaked a peek at ur comic, it looks great!

[seru]

I agree with @eristeine 's comment.

Webtoons demographics are early teens <18 and they tend to gravitate towards romance and BL.

Western style/action/sci-fi comic like yours are not WT's main target demographics, unfortunately.

If you're open to productive criticism, I can give you some insight on how to improve your comic.

[60Six]

In addition to the demographic thing that's already been pointed out, I'd also like to add that in such a vast sea of comics, things do just get overlooked.

My own comic sat on Canvas at around 3-5k subscribers for 2 years before they even realized it existed and started including it in collections. I kind of felt the same, wondering where this flood of subscribers everyone talked about was.

But that said, now is a better time than ever to get yourself seen. Follow and interact with Webtoon Canvas' social media. The canvas team on webtoon is very active and they interact with creators a lot. It even happens to be Canvas day, and I bet there will probably be some prompts for canvas creators to respond to them. Absolutely hop on those opportunities when you see them. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and really, there's a big possibility they just don't even know your comic exists yet.

[Silver-Weiss]

I´m always open to productive criticism (I have a great lack of this in webtoon ).

Originally the art style was and still is Concept art style but demands time and the expected results with the people aren't the best, we'll change it... The genre I noticed the romance (Magic) Tag can make miracles but, webtoon is supposed to be one of the biggest Webcomic platforms and allows a great variety, is strange how a big platform goes in circle in 1 genre... I'll try to find more ways to keep growing, i want to end my original series (Working on it like 7 years [That's love]) and start and end even more stories.

Now if it doesn't bother you, I want to read your opinion of how improve this story

[Silver-Weiss]

Yep ppl can choose what they like i know it, but one thing is what they like and what can get you in troubles as an author (Copyrights, don't forget it). My main question with the numbers was answered with your response, thank you I'll take your comment as a good reference!

pd: If someone dare to copy parts from stories with this powerfull seals called Copyrights... Hell awaits D:

[Silver-Weiss]

Thanks for your comment, it makes me feel a little bit... better, but actually im really tired cuz with phabikan we start the work with this project from 21:00 to 3:00hrs or more if is required... This is our free time, Our job starts at 9:00hrs and ends at 19:00 hrs.

Now im trying to get some answers and feedback, that's why I'm investing more time on this forums (Thanks to your comment now I know that webtoon canvas have a social media, Thank you! )

[eristeine]

best of luck, fellow creator :3

[unknown_user]

There is more than one possible reason for comics to "get popular overnight". People already told about the comics, which already had audience before uploading on webtoon. But we also can see comics, which just hit right into main auditory's expectations both in art and in story type (+ of course, are made professionally) and gain popularity though this instead of thought bringing existing auditory from elsewhere.
Moreover; since site administration understands that the comics gets to the point and thus is planned to bring users and money, they may give it better advertisement, than usual, which makes it popular even more quickly, then if it would happen naturally.
I observed this phenomenon on Tapas, too.
For example, this one:

Path to You | Tapas

have already gained more than 50k subs despite of being Tapas original.
(Well, actually, I found earlier leaked free version, so maybe it's not the "pure" example...)

[Kelheor]

I actually followed a romance webtoon like this. It appeared in Special on Webtoons immediately after publishing (which is not a rare thing btw, I saw a lot of examples like that), got a whopping amount of subs (and it doesn't feel like they had these fans from somewhere else, like Ava's demon for example) and then got to Originals like in 4 updates
I was happy for the author and I should say that the story and art were really nice! ... but it left me aching in my heart a bit
There are too many criteria you never know you have to consider to become this popular. I believe it's a combination of good story, good art, likeability, relevance to the promotional company right here right now, etc.,etc...

[Zugaikotsu]

I think I know who they are! lool! And Yes, I got very surprised, too! But tbh, today, given how much WT traffic increased, those 10k subs is like a low numbers, depending on the factors involved (good art, narrative, engaging story, overal quality and demographics)

[ButterflyEmpress]

This issue is what concerns me about their upcoming short story contest. One of the winning criteria is reader engagement. So small creators have no chance at all.

[Darkstrong]

Well, it depends really. I talked some with the author of I am Grim Reaper (a featured comic now). She didn't have any reader base and just skyrocketed in popularity within two short months. She got featured after just four months of her first ever release. Shows that is you hit that spot just right, you'll get popular really fast.

[ButterflyEmpress]

Yeah that's true. I probably have to improve on my writing

[sarrowsmith10]

Well, I don't have any real advice since my comics aren't super popular, but I subscribed and commented on your tapas link at the very least.

[Daerandir]

I checked out yours. I like it. Nice mix of suspense and the ordinary.

[Rosso]

i checked yours real quick (schemed through it, didn't read much) and wow, it's so pretty and polished!
i see you don't mind a bit of constructive criticism, so in addition to what everyone said about how WT works (in their mysterious ways~) i have few things to note:

1. TOO much text compared to panels! Like, way too much! And a paragraph of exposition at ep4 that is quite hard to read on mobile. A lot of text is put into a single speech balloon. Try to keep it no more than 4 lines per balloon as best as you can. Break it up to a bunch of smaller balloons so it's easier to read (and easy on the eye). Always remember that WT's core audience is teenagers with a very short attention span :">
2. A confusing mix between greyscale, monochromes, and colorful panels.
3. Most important: four updates in and there is not a single clean shot of how the protagonist looks like : ( In fact, i noticed the majority of the panels either focus on objects, scenes, zoom in on other body parts, or have faces shrouded in shadows or hidden behind helmets/masks. People are more attracted to "faces" especially when we're talking about WT's core audience, which is teenagers and YA.

PS: i just looked up your work on WT and i see it's updated the same way.
Do note that Webtoon will prompt readers to subscribe once they open episode 3 of a webcomic. It is extremely important to establish your hook or ~cool stuff~ by episode 2 cuz once you lose a reader, they're gone for good lol (as in, they won't be prompted to sub again even if they check it another time)

hope any of this helps. and hang in there!

[ETA] I would like to add one more thing!
Your genre / subject matter (military and war) are unfortunately a hard sell in general. Bloodless Wars is an Originals on WT too and is a very well made, but their numbers are nowhere near even the average of other Original series. (77K subs which ain't bad buuut when you look at their peers... not so impressive )

Bloodless Wars

but WT likes work that brings in and sustains a different kind of audience, even if the numbers aren't that big. At least that what i've noticed.
So just, don't worry about it : > it happens u.u;;

[Likri]

I had this concern, but I think they'll be measuring the view/comment/like ratio within the comic itself for this criteria and not in comparison with others? Since, yeah, the winners would be obvious by a landslide,