What are your opinions on hiveworks?

[joannekwan]

GIRL YOU TRIGGERED MY TRAP CARD YOU BETTER GET READY FOR THE BUTTHURT CAUSE IT'S COMING

Is it coincidence I just watched this today? XD

Kaiba: OW MY BUTT!
Mokuba: Seto, you're butthurt again!

[starsyscomics]

This was a wild ride from start to finish. A+ would read again.

[avalonmao]

Your comic looks amazing! Good luck

[avalonmao]

This makes my soul sing
btw,is the last part supposed to be encouraging? xD

[winglesscomic]

My asspain about submission guidelines shouldn't stop anyone from wanting to submit their comic to Hiveworks, I was just going on a tirade about how much I fucking hate them. My general point was "if you're submitting, the guidelines make zero sense so don't expect much from them and also eat shit Hiveworks your collective makes my dick hurt."

[nikacomics]

I was just going on a tirade about how much I fucking hate them

Lol, so casually put.

From what I've observed, Hiveworks 1) tends to prefer comics that are in color and 2) gravitates toward comics whose creators have existing fanbases. If you think about how they make money (Google Ads), it makes sense: they really want comics that are going to get a lot of hits.

[demthorshie]

I don't know, Hiveworks always struck me as being somewhat elitists. It seems like it's really hard to get in to and in general, I tend to shy away from sites that seem like they're after more popular comics.

[AnnaLandin]

I have no personal experience with them, but I do have several friends who are part of their webcomic network - with Parallax, StarHammer and The Din, specifically - who seem to enjoy it. I've been considering applying, since they've got a pretty good reach/reputation among readers and all that, and my friends are overwhelmingly positive, but I haven't read their guidelines well enough to know how they feel about mirroring on other sites - I enjoy Tapastic a whole lot, and wouldn't want to abandon it.

@winglesscomic A+ ranting, my friend! XD And you hit on a pretty good point - last time I checked the Hiveworks guidelines, they said "no gore" so I thought "Well that's me out then - I skewer a guy on a sword in the first five pages" but when I clicked through the comics linked, and found a Hiveworks comic featuring some sheriff shooting a guy in the head, with accompanying blood-spray, and was entirely confused.

[Vikiro_Hop]

I actually like a lot of hiveworks stuff, but they are definitely a curated service and it's obviously guided by personal taste rather than any submission guidelines. Shit I know Last Halloween can't be that old and it's pretty fucking gorey.

[scythe]

It was everything I dreamed it would be.

[jacintawibowo]

I actually was replied to about mirroring content in terms of Hiveworks when they opened up with questions. They don't allow having your comic mirrored on Tapastic if it's accepted. They want an "exclusive" experience with their comics, so the comics have to have their own sites (which they can provide). That's personally for me the only major downside to submitting to Hiveworks, losing this great community =(

[gateofselidor]

I like quite a few comics that are part of Hiveworks, but as far as I can tell, their actual criteria seem to be more about popularity, and whether you're friends with the right people (or whether those people are fans of your comic). Which is fair enough, but it does make their written guidelines a bit disingenuous.

[AnnaLandin]

I actually was replied to about mirroring content in terms of Hiveworks when they opened up with questions. They don't allow having your comic mirrored on Tapastic if it's accepted. They want an "exclusive" experience with their comics, so the comics have to have their own sites (which they can provide). That's personally for me the only major downside to submitting to Hiveworks, losing this great community =(

I suspected as much. Well, considering the great community here, and the fact that the Ad Rev-program gets me a bit of money every month, I think I'm gonna keep my Tapastic-mirror. I've got a main site for Grassblades too, but I can just promote that without Hiveworks.

[kambreapratt]

I could type a novel on why I feel how I feel. Instead I will just say that there is a reason we will never go there (not from lack of invite) We have strong personal reasons and we know too much about stuff. I'm not going to go there publicly, it isn't worth my time, but I can't urge people enough to stay away. The people over there wouldn't be surprised if they read this either.

note THere are a lot good individual creators that we know and like a lot over there. I am mostly referring to one person.

[PotooGryphon]

:shrug: I have a lot of friends that are apart of hiveworks and have only heard good things from them. It seems like a collective that really helps get your comic seen. But I have no personal experience. I follow Jojo, the CEO of Hiveworks, on Twitter and he posts a lot of good and interesting advice on marketing and advertising, super nice, and has been very easy to approach with question and tips.

If you're interested in collectives, Spider Forest is another alternative that seems to be building momentum and allows mirroring on Tapastic.

[Kneon]

I'll echo what @kambreapratt has said --

There are some good individual creators on Hiveworks.

But to be blunt, I think of them as the "Webcomic Mafia."

Without going into too much detail -- if you're not with them, you're against them.

We predate Hiveworks by a year or so, and watched the group gain momentum from three or four comics to whatever it's at now. The attitude of their founder really runs contrary to the tightknit, friendly webcomics scene we started out in. Not something we're interested in being a part of.

Most collectives can't offer you anything you can't do on your own. It's just a group of individual comics sharing an ad network and links. The comics that pulled big numbers before Hiveworks still pull big numbers on Hiveworks, and will continue to pull big numbers after they leave the group. It will still be up to the individual creator to build their own personal platform to ensure their comic's longterm viability.

That being said, I agree that SpiderForest might be a good alternative. We know a lot of the creators over there, and they're pretty solid.

[Alli]

I might be a little biased since I'm part of Hiveworks (I'm an affiliate) but my experience has been pretty good. I like a good handful of the comics on there but even I wonder how some of the others got their spots. I can only assume that they're generating more ad revenue than one would think. There's certainly no harm in submitting, and even if they don't pick you up you can still buy ad space through them to get to readers hungry for more comics.

[Kamikaze]

My salt cannot be measured in any kitchen measuring utility,

My husband and I are DYING at this.

[yvettegustafsson]

Lovely good rant!! How to argue on the Internet

[JungleJulia]

Haha you guys XD
So - if anyone is still interested after all the cautionary tales, Hiveworks just opened submissions!

I think it might be worth a try and am considering pitching a new comic. Of course I'm not leaving Tapastic or anything, but it might be nice to put some of my eggs in different baskets and stuff. Woah, this sounds like I'm planning an alien invasion, but anyway lol