Throwaway account because I’d like to remain anonymous. I’ve been a long time lurker here, just reading the posts and enjoying the discussions, but I wanted to weigh in on this topic just for today.
Before I start, I’d like to apologize if this comes across as braggy, arrogant or offensive. I’m far from eloquent, and I’m typing this out in a hurry, so I might not be wording my post in the best way. Also, this is my personal opinion (albeit one that I feel strongly enough about to want to make a post on) and not a 'fact', so I’m going to agree to disagree with anyone who might feel differently from me, right off the bat.
And lastly, the caveat to what I’m sharing is that this HAS to take place on popular webcomic platforms like Tapas and Webtoon, that come with a readily available pool of audience. Without these platforms available to us, none of what I’m about to say holds true for sure, and I'd very much agree that 'marketing is king' in many cases.
Regarding the topic - for non-featured Webtoons, I feel that marketing is far less important than the product itself. I'd say 20% or less, most of which will probably come from Webtoon/Tapas promotions on the front page, top picks section, wherever. To back this up, I'll share a bit about myself.
I’m a featured Webtoon artist, with a 6 digit pre-feature subscriber count. I also make a decent living based on my Patreon page alone, which was established long before I became a featured artist. All of this took me around 1-2 years to achieve.
How much marketing/advertising/promoting did I do for all that? Close to none.
When I started out on Webtoon, I had less than 100 social media followers. Within days of my first post on Webtoon, with no marketing or promotion done, my subscriber count hit 4-5000. Did any of my followers come from my social media accounts? Maybe a handful. The main reason for my growth though, I believe, is the quality of art. The second reason is that I lucked out, because I was able to create content (the story) for an audience that wanted what I already had to offer. But do I attribute any of this to marketing and advertising? Nope, none at all.
What I’m trying to say is this: Yes, marketing does help. Are you going to achieve some level of success with good marketing? Sure. If you're strong in marketing, definitely go for it. But sometimes, good marketing can only get you this far. More than that, I feel that your product HAS to be able to sell itself, even with little to no marketing done. Apart from some basic communication with my readers, my marketing and promotion skills are non-existent. The only thing I'm concerned with? Is that I'm producing the best quality work I possibly can, every single day, and more.
So if you’re an aspiring comic artist who wants to make a good living with your comic, and if this is something you are truly, deeply passionate about, please, please, please do everything you can to hone your skills, whether it be story writing, or art. Don’t settle for being ‘good enough’, because the market is already saturated with ‘good enough’ comics. If you want to achieve a higher level of success, you HAVE to be exceptional at what you’re doing. It requires hours and hours of hard work. It’s far from easy. But it can be done if you want it badly enough.
That’s pretty much what I wanted to say. I do believe there are others on my end of the 'spectrum' who've had the same experiences I've had, but have not weighed in on this for whatever reason. So this is me going out on a limb and sharing my own experience. Hopefully what I’ve said resonates with maybe somel of you guys. If not, it’s fine too, I just feel like out I had to voice my thoughts, I guess out of a certain sense of responsibility to the webcomic community.
Thanks for reading and best of luck!
