What would happen if you woke up and your comic/novel exploded in growht overnight?

[EncryptedWriting]

I have had dreams of waking up and checking my novel and seeing it had a ridiculous growth spurt of views, likes, and comments (not ink cause this was my pre-tapas time). I had something actually like this happen on Reddit where I woke up and had 80k + upvotes and over 1k rewards on my post, and I was speechless. How does someone even react? I mean I went ahead and thanked everyone and was, as you can guess, thrilled. But I figure this is different.

I would probably freak out first thing and wonder what in the world was going on. Then I would start crying without a doubt. I don't know, it is just a dream of mine, and I am sure it is a dream of y'alls too.

How would you react if you woke up and your comic or novel had basically exploded overnight?

[jkb4753]

I wake up when my alarm goes off. This is followed by a phone call. It's my mom! "Hi this is your mom, just telling you that I'm sorry for all the mean things I ever said to you."
I hang up. Wow! How cathartic. Oh wait, another phone call? It's, the mean teacher from high school? "Hi yes this is the mean teacher just wanted to say sorry for being mean I made a terrible mistake."
Another call comes in, and I take it! It's the meanest girl from high school? She wants to date me? Amazing! Wow! My whole life has turned around. I go outside, its sunny. I don't have a honda anymore. Now I have a bmw corvette. my shoes are rollerskates and I can fly.

[Kaydreamer]

I'd be SO overwhelmed and excited! If it was a teaching day I'd have to contain it until I got home - I may not even notice it until I get home, I don't typically check Tapas or WEBTOON in the morning on teaching days - but if it was a comic drawing day, I'd set aside some time to read through and respond to all the new comments, as well as come over here and flip out a little bit in a forum thread.

I'd also try to find out what was driving the growth; if it was a feature on Tapas or WEBTOON, or if a larger webcomic artist had recommended my series, or if the CANVAS team had retweeted one of my promo posts on Twitter. I'd want to thank the relevant people who did that for me.

After that, I'd check back periodically across the day, to catch new comments and watch the numbers grow, (because it is kinda magical while it lasts), but most of my time would be just continuing to work on my comic. I can't let myself grow complacent because I had a growth spurt!

If I hit 1000, I'd also announce a Q&A. I want to do one, but I feel it's the kind of thing one does at either a major milestone for growth, or at the end of a chapter.

[skyfarron]

I'll take your Honda, I lost mine when I defaulted on my loan.

I'd keep going! Maybe put some shirts and posters up for sale to give the hype wave somewhere to flow. It wouldn't change a story if I was in the middle of it, but it might affect the next one.

[rajillustration]

Eh this has happened to me, I got extreeeeemely lucky to get promoted and I got over 1.5K views instead of my normal 10 views. I'll be honest, going from minimal attention to a ton of attention: it was great?

People say they'd be worried if something they made got a lot of attention. But honestly, no, it's actually pretty great. It was like you get to be a little king for a day. And then the day after you're back to normal just like it was before.

I did not cry though, I'm not a crier. I did check in on my stats a lot although I was trying not to get too psyched up about it because, I didn't want to get too attached for when the high would eventually be gone and I'd be back to my normal stats. So my reaction was like...happiness denial?

[xstarx07]

Idk, I'm personally not used to much attention xD
I mean, sure I'd feel honored the first second, then maybe decide to go at the same pace as before because it makes me the most comfortable going in my own pace instead of pleasing algorithms and such, because I'd rather rely on quality than quantity. But the sudden growth would also be extremely scary, since there's this massive influx of people that suddenly all got their eyes on you and expect you to be perfect in a way, which is pressuring on its own.

I'm just fine with people enjoying my storytelling as I go on with this sort of self-indulgence (even though I'm not far into my project at the current moment, but it's the number 1 thing I've been working for years, since I always kinda did content with my OCs or other characters related to my project (since it's a big crossover thing) and shared tidbits and lore ideas here and there).

Like, you know, I want people to just vibe when they find me :3

[summermcallen]

I would probably cry at that moment XD

[Legendofgenii]

Initially over the moon, then anxiety would whack me and I’d start worrying about everything (updates etc.) probably.

[sorible]

That happened to me and I can confirm that I handled it badly. Going from 4,000 MPV to about 91,000 in barely 1 month was too much to handle and I became burnt out trying to keep up with all of the sudden demands. Now, I just try to pace myself even though I know I'm losing subs and views. I have a lot less views as people tend to lose interest quickly, but I try not to get discouraged.
When it first happened, I thought it was a mistake, but I saw that my comic even got promoted on the main page. I'm still not sure why it happened

[Caro]

This has happened to me a few times and it always takes me by surprise. I get excited for a minute then i get a little overwhelmed and afraid and have to turn off the internet for a few days.

I think most recently n notably for me was a couple months ago my twitter (that i hardly use) went from 3k followers to 20k in the span of a few days because of a strip I started posting semi-regularly. I ended up getting a handful of really good job offers from it too and 1 of my favorite comics publishers reached out to me about it. So naturally I freaked out And briefly retired from twitter.

[jkb4753]

well if you blew up overnight you wouldn't need my honda. you would have your own bmw corvette.

[purrlpankras]

This actually happened to me in real life few years ago when I was on chapter 10 on my comic, I was in class at university, and I just happened to check Tapas, and I remember there was a smily face where the notifications are, so i clicked it and I suddenly got 1k subs. I was very confused where all these people came from. I don't know for sure to this day, but I think it was in new and noteworthy for awhile? or one of the Tapas staff members shared it. I'll never know But I was very greatful :3

[FafasMcMelt]

I'd move into the next step in my plan for world domination

[Yulek]

uhhh based on my experience with my one viral tweet (which was a comic actually. just a really short 3 page one that's also up on my tapas if you wanna take a look)

.... I would be happy, then overwhelmed and then hide under my covers until the sun goes away and not be able to create anything for several months out of fear to disappoint.

uhhhhh... yea. no I need that steady growth or I will cry.

this was the fist thing I made after two months of internal screaming of having my inbox blow up.

I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging. because even tho this was cool in the moment, it really fucked up my twitter with mostly dead and passive followers, completely blocked me for two months and then some.. and people also started to judge it very differently the bigger it became? like... they expected more it should have been better, deeper, more meaningful, better executed to "justify the popularity"

and I think this would happen on here as well, and I don't know if I could handle it.

I CAN handle critique and even hate to a degree... but if it came out of nothing and I didn't have time to grow into it.. I'm not sure how well I would do

[LittleBlueberryCake]

To be honest I probably wouldn't believe it. I would think that it is some bug or system failure or something along those lines. Since, until now, I have walked a pretty straight line in life I never had anything extremely good or extremely bad happening to me so something like that wouldn't be part of my world view at all.
If it really would happen and I would have triple checked every day for a week to make sure it wasn't just a system bug or something else I would probably go back to continue writing the next chapter as if nothing happened since by then I would have already told myself that now after something so big and positive happened something negative needs to follow and I would be to stress about the other shoe to drop to even enjoy it.
If on the off chance that no other shoe dropped for another two or three weeks I might actually finally believe that it happened but honestly I don't know its just something that has little to no chance of happening to me so I would doubt it till the end. And once I finally believe it I would secretly celebrate by myself and not tell anyone because if they haven't seen it by then what's the point in telling them?

[Stargazer31]

I would be over the moon! I'd probably release some merch on Sharkrobot or something, and I'd do some art giveaways to readers. I'd prolly start a YouTube channel too, to keep interest.

[R.n.P]

Go to the psychiatrist to confirm whether or not I'm having a psychotic episode

[Iridium]

I'd be OVER THE MOON! I don't know what I'd do, but I'd keep working, trying to engage and interact more with fanbase and prepare all the physical merchandise I always wanted to do xD

I'd also rush here and thank every single soul who subbed to my story and kept it alive xD

And, of course, keep working. After all, my comic is almost all written down in script, so I already have an ending to it, and I intent to do it in the most fitting, respectful and deserving way to honour my comic!

[Hambonous]

If my comic blew up over night I would be happy, however realistically I think it's gonna be a slow burn but I'm okay with that. I'd rather have an audience that is actively engaged with my work than thousands of views and likes all at once.

[jensrichard77]

Then.. then I will think ... hmmm??? I actually hanve no idea of how I would react.
Let me get back to you when it happens, then I can tell you all about it.