Weekly VS Monthly updates

[KreativeConfusion]

Right now I have been working on my comic on a week by week basis, but I feel like from a reader's perspective it's moving by too slowly. Not mention sometimes my pages are just simple transitions. I've been thinking of changing to a monthly format as I can focus a bit more on my comic and not worry on time or just keep with the weekly update.

I know a monthly series would be a bit more work as I would need more to show, but I feel story wise it would be better.

Has anyone done this kind of transition?

[joannekwan]

Hm, I don't think I can do monthly updates because if something's not due the next week I just find more reasons to procrastinate. xD
I suppose some people expect like 5 pages or more in a monthly update, but why make more work for yourself? Do what you want to do. For my updates, I always want to have a new piece of information; if a page you have is just a transition, why not just wait a week to add it to the next episode? Then you could possibly have updates every other week rather than every week.

[Mane]

This has been one my biggest problems with webcomics ( both when it comes to the ones I follow and the ones I create) I feel like the page by page update schedule makes the story progress so slowly . Not to mention that sometimes it feels wrong to break the scene that spans over several pages down like that, I feel it messes with the beat and flow of the moment. I too thought that maybe a monthly update of 20/30 pages would be best, but you risk to remain unnoticed because unless you already have a steady readership all those page will feel wasted. The weekly update puts you on the front page regularly and that helps with gaining more readers. Of course, the ideal schedule for me would be a weekly update of 20 pages , like they do in Shonen Jump and Shonen Weekly , but I don't think I could pull that off with 10 assistants

[Pandastrophic]

I don't think I could ever update monthly, it's just a really long wait and for webcomics I think readers are fine with short weekly updates, they're used to it. I don't think there will be much difference in the amount you upload too, weekly it'll be 4 pages and monthly it'll be 4 pages, unless you're planning to increase the amount of pages when it becomes monthly?

I'd say try updating every other week first and see how it goes? But if you feel monthly is for you then have a go at it.

[demthorshie]

I think a weekly comic is probably good enough in my opinion. I started off with 1 per week but am now putting out 2 a week since I have a bit more time than normal.

I think updating on a monthly basis would kill me. I couldn't go that long without updating. That and I feel like if you're going to update several pages once a month when you could release a page at a time gradually throughout the month? I don't know about anyone else, I love suspense but waiting an entire month to find out what happens is a bit extreme in my opinion xD!

I think you're doing fine updating weekly. If you can't do weekly any longer, than perhaps you can update just a few times a month.

[mariusthered]

talking as a reader i would not sub to a monthly comic its just too slow of a pace for me , your story wont move very far with just 12 pages a year!

[rairy]

updates once a month is quite long and painful for me unless you're able to give 1 complete chapter. Also your fan/readers might forget about your comic. I prefer weekly basis.

[KreativeConfusion]

I wouldn't do a page a month lol, I would probably transition to long form comics so maybe 6 pages a month? And math wise that means more story per year lol

[KreativeConfusion]

@joannekwan I'm the same way lol but I think I could kick myself into gear. If I focused a bit. A twice a month schedule seems like a good idea tho if I upload two three pages every time

@mane I'm not gonna lie I would be the same if I could. I miss the days of high school when I used to do a new page every day during my free time.

@panadastrophic I would increase the number of pages I release every month since I would have more time to handle my work flow. I think I'm going to try every other week and see how I feel.

[mariusthered]

ah! sorry i got the wrong idea.

[PotooGryphon]

I'd worry with an update schedule like that you'd risk readers forgetting about your series inbetween post. Once a week, I feel, is barely enough already to keep my comic fresh in the reader's memory. With a month between updates, even if it's a chunk of story per update, there's a risk of losing your place in the story, forgetting what's going on, who's that character?, why am I following this comic? That'd be my concern anyways.

I really liked being able to update 2x's a week. That felt like a really good schedule and the story stayed fresh. I couldn't keep up with that though so once a week is where I've settled.

[KreativeConfusion]

Yeah I can see why on that front too. I wish I made a big enough buffer to try that but with time and my own impatience I could never get that far ahead.

[Ringarune]

I was planning to do so, but to be honest, I decided against it because I though that monthly updates would be too long of a waiting time, and that my comic would be forgotten by a lot of people (that's just my own paranoid fear though). I instead decided to update once every 2 weeks so I don't only have to update a single page per week and I don't have to make a really long wait time, but you should just do what you feel most comfortable with!!!

[kkitty]

Weekly is much better. I update every other day with about three pages because I'm just...like that. Maybe it's because I don't have to pay bills or something. I can hardly stomach even thinking about weekly updates, much less monthly.

[elixiadragmire]

you have two types of readers, eager readers (shorter update times) or binge readers. by choosing only monthly updates you kinda only accommodate one type. at least thats my views, especially of western webcomic culture.