I'm kind of curious since this seems like something that might change a bit depending on the series and the audience reading it.
May '16
Jul '18
There are 136 replies with an estimated read time of 24 minutes.
Update your comic. This one might seem strange, but I think it applies to all comics. We lose the most subscribers when we update, because it puts it in front of all of our readers, and there's often a few who have gotten bored, and updating gives them the perfect chance to stop reading.
In terms of mass loss of subscribers, probably creator drama, and drastic changes to the art/story. I bet reboots don't help either.
Promise something one after another but unable to fulfill any of them.
Have 38920320931 series on going at the same time, none completed. (The moment you announce you are working on another new series is the moment your subscribers will walk away from you)
Went on sudden hiatus without any warning and then come back just to throw excuse left and right. You can spare 5 minutes to tell people that you are going on a hiatus : " ( people will understand.
Also, promising to update on X day but announce that it will be delayed back to Y days. (Done this nth time and you can do the simple math)
I've been stuck in an unpleasant loop of gaining and losing subs over the past couple months. Every sub I gain, I seem to lose one too, and each update I post, I know there isn't going to be much of a positive change in the sub count :/ It's just getting really discouraging and hard to work with. I'm really hoping I'll get out of the rut soon, but until then I've just gotta keep working away.
Have 38920320931 series on going at the same time, none completed. (The moment you announce you are working on another new series is the moment your subscribers will walk away from you)
There's a creator whose work I used to enjoy until I realized that they were just continuously posting new series while never finishing their first ones. That schtick got annoying real fast lol Put everything you can into one or two series, don't spread yourself thin over many, because that shows a lack of commitment to a project and readers can spot that sorta thing pretty quick.
Deleting the comic :'D
best comment lol
There's a creator whose work I used to enjoy until I realized that they were just continuously posting new series while never finishing their first ones. That schtick got annoying real fast lol Put everything you can into one or two series, don't spread yourself thin over many, because that shows a lack of commitment to a project and readers can spot that sorta thing pretty quick.
Aiyo I understand your feeling! It takes all my focus and effort just to keep 1 series rolling and be right on update time, I don't get how people can juggle so many series at the same time :/ also mostly the reason I would walk away from these creators is because I sub'ed to series A, but now they have series B, C, D and E going on, when will my series A get updated? Did they forget about it? The chance they will drop it also increase tremendously and I don't want to fall into a hole that will never get filled ; _ ;
*Posting your comic right after you create it. You might think you're brilliant in the moment but it's always better to come back to it with fresh eyes and tweak anything that needs work. (usually, the writing.)
*Not having an update schedule
*weak updates that aren't funny or good
*art that is rushed and doesn't look like the well done strips you've done before.
*Bad writing... the art attracts you but the writing sells you on the comic.
If a story meanders and seems to have shifted in tone, I'm more likely to lose interest and the possibility of my unsubbing rises extremely high. Been thinking about unsubbing to a couple series right now because of this.
Man, I've got the same problem with Two Faced60. The worst thing about it is, wasting time figuring out why people un-subscribe. There is lots of reasons, I understand people discover it's not for them because it's a long form comic.
I try so hard to make the pages look great. (for example the last update) and I lost more subscribers than gained them. To deal with it I've started to ask my fans questions each update to engage them a bit more, but that still doesn't help. ._.
If the creator is a total jerk :u especially if their crappy personality comes through in the comic. Also having several updates in a row with no story development.
So true! This is what I was thinking when I first read the title of the thread. The fastest way to lose subscribers is by updating xD!
Oooh, and bad controversy, like drama. Also if the story isn't going anywhere and the characters become uninteresting I guess.
Well there you go, dude. Another subscriber gained for you. I've read a bit of your series so far, and it looks interesting, so I'll continue reading when I have some more time. It's good to see another successful black and white comic. Since I just started my own black and white comic, I've been trying to learn all I can by reading similar people's work. Looking forward to it.
P.S. Also, is there time travel involved in it? My favourite stories are time travel ones.
Aww, thank you , this made my day xD <3
And yes, there is time travel in it. So much time travel. There is no time travel in the story yet but once it gets to that point where it's explicitly about time travel, hoo boy the time travel gets pretty crazy, especially when you throw it on top of the relationships (romantic and non-romantic) between the characters and other conflicts present now and later on in the story. Hope you enjoy the ride with us 
Yeees. I've seen some creators basically be Hitler by using their fanbase as their little army and dishing out their fans on other creators who may have pissed them off or something. It doesn't happen here (thank god), but I've seen it in places like DA and jesus christ, how to lose all your values in 10 seconds starring immature children.
Have fights with whoever you want to, but bringing your fans into your problems is like being a parent and dragging your kids into your problems. Just don't do it.
I feel like this has played a part in my losing subs lately? Because Time Gate is such a long story, and because of the update schedule and the fact that we're only on Chapter 18, which is not far for a story that's built like a manga, we're starting to get into the actual darker themes of the story, whereas when it started it was just shitfighting between Mitsuhiro and Uzuki (which the shippers love reading lol) - now we're finding out that there are darker forces at play that go a lot deeper than their relationship, and Uzuki isn't necessarily the "hero" of the story by any definition of the word. I'm worried that when Books 2/3 come around, people are gonna be like "nope lol" u o u I don't know if the growing of the story will be a positive one or not for the readers. For me, I'm excited as hell, but it's tough to gauge what the readers will enjoy.
it's because they can't juggle so many series at one time
most people like to think they can but if they're repeatedly starting new stories for whatever reason, then the chances of them continuing their original works are very slim unless the new series turn out to be a flip.
that's why i unfollow them lol I've got a lot of series to read from many creators, I don't have time for that kind of indecisive shit lol (it's like a 25 year old woman playing hard to get as if they were a 15 year old girl, we've got things to do and places to be, if you don't want to go out, then stop leading me on like you do lol) And again, it just shows a lack of commitment and care for their projects - if they don't care enough about their work to at least try and finish it, why should I care?
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I'm pretty sure I'm losing a lot of my subs right now because back during Christmas, I was a part of the Tapastic Xmas Collab. Most people who subbed to Time Gate was undoubtedly so they could be notified of my episode going up after it being announced by the previous creator who did the episode before mine. So now those people are getting notifications about Time Gate when they didn't have any intention of reading it in the first place and are unsubbing so they can stop getting the notifications for a series they won't read.
Which is depressing, because I'd like to make readers of them yet and I hate seeing my numbers go down, but it's definitely a lot better to have subs that meant to subscribe for the story and not just for some one-time event. I'm hoping we'll start to see a rise with the start of Volume 3, and the fact that we recently compiled all our earlier one-page-an-episode episodes into bigger batch episodes, resembling more of what we post nowadays (seeing one page per episode with the episode count being in the 200's+ was undoubtedly intimidating to new readers, especially those who aren't binge readers).
Urgh, I have the same problem. Right now I can only manage a page per week for my comic, and I feel like some people might get impatient with parts of the story. I make sure there's a new development in each update, but every page can't always be "OMG CRAZY REVEAL! SURPRISE!" because pacing n stuff. :u So it's mostly during those build-up pages I'm afraid of people dropping off.
I was kinda more touching on the fact that the story shifts so much as the series progresses. Without spoiling, book 1 (Reaper) serves as a "prequel" story of sorts, establishing some of the main characters and the world they live in, the main conflict, etc. It also covers a lot of Uzuki and Mitsuhiro's relationship while they're trying to find out how to stop themselves from dying (as their lifespans are marked on Mitsuhiro's body). The big conflict that encompasses a large part of the story isn't even resolved until Book 3. But by book 2, we introduce time travel, space and matter manipulation, demon possession, government corruption, dark demon overlords, etc. and in comparison to the first book, I feel like I'll be whiplashing my readers a lot xD"""
The main conflict changes again after book 3 as well, with the antagonist changing and the world being at the hands of an even worse baddie than in books 1-3. It's all still relevant though, I'm not just throwing enemies in to keep the plot going lol It's trying to keep my readers actually reading through it without going "welp this story has done a 180" and it not being what they originally loved about the first book to begin with - that's the challenge.
I get where you're coming from too though. I've thankfully been able to do almost 1 chapter a week, now that I'm done of school, but back when I was in school and working at Starbucks at the same time, I was only able to do one page update a day, save for weekends, and it was just so aggravating that it took us 4+ months to get to chapter 4 >:I whereas now I did 4 chapters in like, the past month and a half lol But baby steps I guess :U
