What Am I Doing Wrong As A Content Creator?

First off, this is not true. It's important to understand that comics (and life) is not a meritocracy. Yes, putting forth the effort will give you a better advantage to achieving your goals, as well as whatever privileges one may possess-- but outside of that, nothing is guaranteed.

Second, and some folks have touched on this-- people don't owe you anything for your kindness. If your kind gestures are tinged with the expectation of reward, that not only sets you up for frustration, but it's unfair to the other person. Life is not about doing A in order to receive B-- it's just not that clear-cut. My advice is to be helpful and genuinely invested in other artists, and don't focus on what they can do for you. If you foster real relationships with people, they're more likely to help you out. But you don't get to decide the form that help comes in! Maybe they don't share your comic with their followers, but they offer advice on a drawing or show you some cool inspiring artwork. It's all still valuable stuff.

Also, don't just focus on people who have already made it big. Their circle of friends is likely made up of artists who've come up alongside them from their tiny beginnings. If you're going to focus on building friendships, build them with your peers. But again, first and foremost, be genuinely interested in them as people. Not what they can offer you.

As far as your comic's story and genre goes-- I don't know a ton about it, aside from that it's about a girl with Asperger's and her experiences. Which is great, it's important to have more stories from unique voices. But it sounds to me like a very personal story, which means it's naturally going to have a smaller following. Again, I've never read it so I can't attest to how it's written-- but if it's speaking from a very personal, biographical viewpoint, it could be difficult for outsiders to connect with the story. It might be worth considering how your story could be more accessible to readers-- how could a stranger pick up this comic and relate to it? Relatability is a key component in any story's success.

Lastly-- I would focus on improving the craftsmanship of the comic itself, particularly the artwork, but also the lettering and paneling. THIS is where you have the most control over your comic's success! Instead of jealously lamenting the popularity of other comic artists, take time to serious analyze why they're successful. It's easy to write-off comics as overrated, badly-written, whatever. It feels good to gripe, to remove the responsibility from your shoulders, but it isn't going to bring readers to your work. So become ruthlessly devoted to studying other comics, evaluating your work honestly, and making your comic the best it can be. Put yourself out there for critiques on your art and listen to what people say. You'll be amazed as how quickly you can improve once you set your mind to it and drop all notions of being "owed" things.

Actually, the opposite is true. The rise of social media now means that where before there were a few places to be seen, and only a few people BEING seen, you are now drowing in a chorus of literally everybody else. When you're in a group of 10, you don't have to shout very loudly to be heard. When you're in a group of millions, you're almost guarranteed to be drowned out.

Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. I'm sorry. Effort counts for a lot on a personal level, but it doesn't matter how loudly you shout, if the people hearing you don't really feel like listening. It sucks, but it's part of the process, I'm afraid.

Since you seem to have pushed networking pretty hard, and have the update schedule down, I'll focus on improvement of your comic:

1. Lifedrawing. Dig up any resources you can find on gesture drawing and lifedrawing in general. If there's a lifedrawing class close to you, attend it! If there isn't one, use photographs of people. If you can't find decent photographs, as family members to sit still for a bit while you draw them - or draw yourself, while looking in the mirror. Focus on big shapes and poses, don't worry about details right now. It doesn't matter if you're awesome at drawing fingernails if you can't draw a hand and arm that looks natural.
2. Look through your own work with a critical eye. Re-read your comic from the start. Compare the first page to the very latest page. Try to chart any differences between them. Really analyse what you're doing, and try to find flaws in it. Ask someone to read through it and nitpick it. And once you've found the flaws, identity not only WHAT they are, but WHY they happen, and work on fixing them. Is your art not communicating the feeling you want to get across? Then figure out WHY it's failing (is it too stiff? Are the facial expressions off? Are your action-sequences hard to follow? Do your dialogue scenes end up being just talking heads?), and consciously try to fix it. Likewise, is your writing not up to scratch? Find the flaws, figure out why they happen, work on improving, repeat.
3. Read OTHER people's comics with a critical eye. Find a comic you really love, that you think works REALLY well - and figure out why. Is it the panel layouts that are amazing? Is it the artwork? Is it the dialogue? How did this comic approach similar scenes to what you have in YOUR comic, and how did the creators solve it? Take your lessons and apply them to your own comic. If someone else has a solution to your problem, it's a good idea to learn from them.
4. Ask for critiques. Serious, in-depth critiques by people you know will be honest with you. And then take the advice they give you and apply it to your work. Make things. If it still isn't right, make more things. Keep pushing that boulder. Eventually, you're going to build the necessary strength to get it over the top.

... and those are concrete things you can start doing right now. Improvement won't be instantaneous, but I promise you, a year from now, you WILL have made a difference.

A lot of people have already pretty much touched base on the main responses that can be made to this topic, but I just want to throw in my two cents.

So I'm 22--still fairly young as far as all things go, but I've been actively making creative projects since I was in kindergarten. It started with little stick figure comics stapled together on notebook paper, and then horrible MSPaint Neopets comics/fanart, and then Sonic sprite comics, then horrible anime visual novel games, RPG maker games, original music that I wrote with animated music videos, etc...

That's a lot of projects under my belt, isn't it? Guess how many of them ended up going buckwild viral with thousands of subscribers/downloads/fans/etc.? Absolutely none of them.

The thing I think you're failing to understand in the grand scheme of things is that the creators you keep comparing yourself to have very likely had the same track record as I have--having created many, many, MANY failed, ugly and unsuccessful projects. People do not just wake up overnight and suddenly have a viral hit with no work, time or effort.

Which begs the question for me here--is this your first major creative project? Is it your second, fifth, tenth?

You have to keep creating artwork for the sake of CREATING, not for the sake of hoping to become internet famous and recognized. I can almost guarantee that your current project will not become the viral crazy popular thing you're really wanting it to be, as brutal as that sounds, for multiple reasons--and that's OKAY.

That doesn't make you a failure, that doesn't mean that you're a bad content creator--that means that this project was a stepping stone to help you improve towards your next project, which in turn will help you in your next, until you get to where you wanna be artistically--and even then it will be a continuous loop of foreward improvement, because that's kind of just how being an artist works.

My current comic project is easily somewhere between my 15th-20th major creative project, and in all honestly, I'm expecting it to fall under the radars much like my other projects did--and that's ENTIRELY okay with me. Why? Because I genuinely enjoy making this comic, it's helping me improve artistically and in my storytelling, I'm grateful for the people I've met while drawing it and those who interact with it, and most of all because I'm having a blast doing it!

Try to find pleasure in the creation process and accept that this project is not going to be your big breakthrough project. People have already made comments about your art style which are completely valid and I think you should take some serious time trying to study and improve your art, but also after having read through your comic a bit, I think the writing can use some work too--and that's fine. There is nothing wrong with that. This is one of your younger projects, its all about improvement, it is NOT your magnum opus and it does not have to be your one big blowout work. There's still years and years ahead of you to make something even bigger than what you are now, so don't get stuck on one idea, ya know!

Now that the positive stuff is aside, I do have to say that I find the way you're wording some things really inappropriate. You keep saying that you do not view yourself as entitled, but saying that "popular artists" should at the very LEAST give you a shoutout and promo your comic because "you work hard" is... the literal definition of being entitled. I'm sure you're not intending to come across this way, but ALL of us are working hard, including the "popular artists" you're referring to.

I also saw you mentioned slitting your wrists over this topic--as somebody who also struggles with a few mental health issues, I have to warn you that I also feel it's inappropriate to throw that around like that, because it almost appears to be a guilt-tripping mechanism, which comes across as manipulative--again, I'm sure this is not your actual intention, but I just wanted to let you know before things got out of hand. If you do feel suicidal or like you need to self harm, please reach out to somebody in your life who can help calm you, or speak with your doctor--drawing comics should not make you feel that way and if they do, you may want to consider taking a break in general for the sake of your own mental health.

I wish you all the best and hope you can find a place where you feel like this doesn't have to be such a concern to you and can enjoy the process of creation!

i HAVE read LoaA and I will commend you on what everyone has before, about writing a story where the main character has Asperger's syndrome and it being believable and not just written stereotypes, but I, in good conscience, cannot recommend something that didn't fully grab me or appeal to me in any way beyond surface level. It's like what Michelle said, it'd be awkward for me, or anyone, to recommend something that they don't have much opinion on because it just disingenuous.

True, it doesn't hurt for content creators to reply, but again you can't expect others to return favors even if its as simple as a "thank you". You don't know how busy people are in real life and how they treat their online accounts. Some people don't want to bother with interacting with other people through their public accounts sometimes.

In my case I often forget to reply to people who send me compliments and stuff, not because I'm being malicious or taking my followers for granted. I'm friends with people who are popular compared to me and if I don't catch them at a good time, I don't get a reply for hours or even days if its a PM. I don't mind it one bit because I know how busy they are irl and no doubt how many messages they get per day. With how many messages/notifications these people get, it's always possible that your tweets just get lost. However, You did say you're over that aspect so it's pointless for me to keep talking about it.

/cracks knuckles Okay so... a lot of this I'm going to try and be as constructive as I can, but as many people have said in their own posts, this may not be something you want to hear.

Yes, some of us, if not all of us, get aggravated from time to time when we see other creators doing well ALL THE TIME with what appears to be zero effort. I get it, I do. But we also don't know what time and effort and hard work went into them getting that far. There are some creators who have been making comics for years but didn't get their big break until they started making that one gag strip everyone's so familiar with.

Now, the main issue here that I feel really needs to be touched, because it comes up in my mind every time I see you post about difficulties making it as a comic creator. This is gonna be the one that's toughest to swallow because it does have to do with you as a creator and not so much the roll of the dice on whether or not you get lucky and net views (which is a lot of what making comics ends up being - a complete gamble for attention).

The art for Life of an Aspie.

No offense to the person that posted this reply, but this:

Isn't helpful. No, it wasn't what really was asked, but you do seem to be asking for help for you specifically, @Aspie_Gamer, and that's why it's being touched on. You asked "What am I doing wrong as a comic creator", not "what can people do wrong as comic creators".

There are times I wish I could read your comic, Aspie, because you clearly put a lot of work into it and care about it; you're very well-versed when you talk about comics here and you seem to know what you want to get out of making comics. But I can't read it right now - the way the art is, trying to read it is just too difficult at times, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that.

"There are famous comics with mediocre art!" is a once-in-a-while excuse that will only go so far. It works for Cyanide and Happiness because Cyanide and Happiness is a relatively dumb comic with dumb jokes, so the art is allowed to be done. XKCD's content is very simple but logical, so it doesn't need great art to hold it up because the artwork just works with the content. Homestuck's entire story revolves around dumb internet chatter and video games, so of course it's going to look like something that was birthed from Newgrounds and 4chan/reddit.

"There are famous comics with mediocre art!" is not an excuse to not improve, and for a comic like yours that is very emotionally-driven, you could really go far with it if you took the time to work on what needs to be worked on.

This goes for art style as well. You can't just slap the "IT'S MY STYLE" stamp onto it and say that it works. Style =/= artistic ability. If your art needs improvement in certain things, you can make those improvements without changing the style. Look at comics like Exercise in Futility or Matter of Life and Death which have both stayed within their styles but still made visual improvements along the way. Hell, even I've done this - I've refined my style a lot more and I've improved my anatomy and backgrounds, but I haven't let the style of Time Gate disappear - it's still recognizable as Time Gate and it still has its own thing, regardless of its flaws or improvements.

The two biggest factors in your art that I feel could benefit the most are:

1. Your character drawings. Life drawing, drawing from reference, and just observing how humans are constructed in real life will help you with this. Your proportions right now are very distorted and off, and though there are lots of cartoons and comics that get away with "stretching" their character's dimensions and pushing the limits of them, they still follow the general rules of anatomy and proportion.

2. Your background art. I know this one's tough for a lot of people (myself included; I've just started to see some improvement in my own work regarding this and it's still something I stress a shitload over) but even if it's just in the background, a setting and what's in it can make the difference between a good comic panel and a great one. Take into consideration where your characters are located, what's in the space around them, and how the background may interact with itself. It doesn't need to distract from the main character or what's going on in the foreground, but just having plain white backgrounds or backgrounds with little detail all the time does get boring (namely for the ones that need that background to help establish the scene - the only time you can get away with no background is for things like action scenes that don't require them to progress the scene, or heavy dialogue scenes, or whatever - you just gotta find what works for you and put in the time to construct the background art).

ALSO LITERALLY EVERYTHING @AnnaLandin pointed out is super important and I couldn't stress enough. There's just no "should" when it comes to this sort of thing. Don't confuse "should" for "want". You want to get more subs, you want more people to read your comic, you want to leave an impression on people ... but that doesn't mean anyone's obligated to, and in a digital world that's becoming more and more saturated with comics every single day, if you can't show that you have something that sets you apart from everyone else, then you're just another voice in the crowd, and no one's obligated to listen to you. Sometimes, doing this is within your control - working on your networking, your art, your writing, how you present your comic, where you present it, etc. . . . but sometimes it really isn't in your control and you just have to be patient and wait. Whether that leads to you continuing your comic because you love it or dropping it and working on something new (neither of which are "wrong" choices - it's taken some people 5-10-100 attempts to do a comic that people love. But you also want to focus on doing a comic you want to do, rather than what people will read, especially when you're just a freelancer and not contracted to make comics).

Overall, work on your artwork, please. I'm not saying it to be rude, I'm begging you because I know your comic has the potential to do better, but you're holding it back by thinking it's an issue of what other people owe you simply because you wanted it bad enough. Wanting isn't enough. You mentioned at one point that comic making is only 20% hard work - no. Getting famous with your comics, maybe, but making the comics alone requires your 10000% attention and effort and work, and simply sitting there going "well I want it and this is how it should be going because I want it!" isn't going to get you, or anyone, anywhere they want to be. And whether or not things work out for everybody, even if they do try harder or network to more people, whatever they do, is sometimes just completely up to chance and under no one's control. We like to believe in the story of the underdog rising up to achieve everything, we like to read those stories where someone gets what they want because they yearned for it hard enough and made it their life - but in real life, a lot of the time that's just not how it works. I know it can seem like that's how it works when we look at popular creators who are raking in views every single day, but for every popular artist, you've got 100 more who are in your exact same situation and going, "Why haven't I gotten this yet? I wanted it hard enough!" There's just no "enough" in this kind of situation.

It sucks. It's savage. But that's just how it is. That doesn't mean you should give up. That doesn't mean you should feel inadequate. But it does mean that you, as a creator (this is aimed at anyone who may feel this way, not just OP), may need to reorganize your priorities and take a look at your game plan and ask yourself "Is this enough for me?" And then you can choose where to go from there and figure out how you can either improve, move forward, or work towards what you want another way.

You owe yourself and your work more than that. Stop waiting on other people to give back what you think you deserve. It's not going to happen.

Ok, that's cool of you to say; I'll give you the benefit of the doubt! Just keep in mind, for the future at least, that saying "well it's not so much to ask, to link to my comic, or reply to my tweets, or read my comic" becomes a really big request when you imagine it applying to not just you. "Surely you could spare fifteen minutes, so why are you acting like it's a big imposition?" sounds fine and reasonable -- but "Surely you can spare 15 minutes for every follower of yours that interacts with you positively and has a comic!" is actually a huge imposition! That's a part of why something that seems small is actually either a big request, or a special favour, because even middling creators like me can't possibly do that for everyone.

Just keep in mind that sometimes requests that seem reasonable really are a lot to ask, even if you can't see it. ;u;

An advantage you have with this is that, unlike storytelling problems which are a lot more intangible and require the context of reading everything, art issues are a lot easier to put your finger on. You can take a page that you felt proud of but think could be improved, and then bring it to the forums and just say, "I want to improve my art, here's one of my better pages, here's the basics of what I was trying to convey, what could I do better? Don't hold back!" and I guarantee you people will come forward with ideas and advice!
I think in asking for critique, putting your entire comic down in front of people and saying "lemme know what you think!" will limit the results you can get to the people who have time to read through the whole thing -- if you know what you want to focus on, then taking Specifically That Thing (A specific page, a specific pose, a specific element of the art), and asking for help with that specifically will make it easier for others to give you feedback, and you might get more useful critique that way!

Dude, I just wanna say this is honestly really inspiring to see your turnaround and this desire to want to step it up so much. You received a lot of criticism these past 20 hours and you're handling it far better than most folks I know would have (hell, not even sure I coulda handled it were it me instead of you). I'll keep an eye out for those threads, because I'm always willing to lend a hand to those genuinely wanting to improve. I won't be able to help as far as manga studio goes since I've never even looked at it, but I can def help elsewhere (namely color and composition).

Seriously, keep it up. It'll be difficult, but every artist who is serious about their craft goes through it, and I'm genuinely interested in seeing what direction you go. You can do it, man.

Bouncing off of this post really quick, I have studied the analytical stuff behind good writing a lot specifically because it's what I wanna do in my career (storyboarding.)

The best book I've read that's really straightforward and easy to follow is "Save the Cat" by Blake Snyder. Absolutely would be not only in your best interest to read @Aspie_Gamer, but anyone who's trying to become a better storyteller in general.

Blake Snyder's main point in that book is that literally every successful story is "the same as (insert story here),, but a little different." Almost all successful stories are EXTREMELY formulaic and rely on tropes, archetypes and pacing hits that are as old as time it's self. Once you understand these tropes, archetypes and other writing tools, you can put them together in ways that you feel are interesting, reverse tropes, include aesthetic elements that are new, etc.

It's all formulaic. Study the formula, see how the formula is applied in successful media and try to see how you can shape your own story with what you learn.

Good luck again!

Have you considered just doing standard writing? Write a light novel perhaps? If art isn't the way, then just find an artist to do the art for you as you do the writing instead.

In my case, I got 8k views on my manga with only one upload within 2 weeks. that's probably not good enough but i've seen other staff picks with less views however they had more likes. oh well ¯_(ツ)_/¯