What's your comic/novel target audience?

[Kura]

Whoever wants to read it, I don't focus on trying to make something for a specific audience anymore.

The last time I went through the trouble of making a genre specific book for 9-15 years boys. I got a bunch of 35-40+ guys reading it and complaining about how it would be better if I added sex scenes, or complaining about the way they talked sounded weird sometimes because the characters are not cussing at points were you would think a character should cuss. Among other really weird complaints that were basically related to the things I would do to make it kid friendly.

[shazzbaa]

"Target Demographic" is a thing I have a hard time nailing down outside of that! Kinda the most accurate description in terms of "who is this comic for?" is still "people who are into the same kinds of things I'm into!"

My readership does seem to tend to skew a lil younger, towards teens and highschoolers, which was actually a bit of a surprise! I started noticing that my books did better at anime cons than at comic cons or indie cons and my best guess was the age group I saw buying them -- there are a lot more teenagers at an anime con than an indie comics convention.
Thinking about it, though, it makes sense. While Runewriters is a fantasy story, it still pulls from a lot of my highschool experiences, so it makes sense that highschool kids might recognise something resonant there, even if they don't know why.

There are definitely a bunch of adults who read the story, so I don't think there's a maximum age range. Plus, I've been putting comics out on the internet for 10 years now so I'm starting to run into the very strange feeling of adults reading my comic who've been following my work since they were kids. @u@
When parents ask me what age group the books are for, I just describe it as being "pg-13 for a bit of a language and a bit of blood" and let them work out if that's gonna be okay for their kid or not; different children have different limits. A big part of the reason I decided to use occasional swears in my comic was to imply the age group it's appropriate for, before anything gets too intense -- if your kid is too young for swears, they're probably too young for Runewriters.

In a way, I see Runewriters as sort of being for my past self, not "written for teenagers" so much as just being a kind of story that I wanted when I was a teenager.

[mariusthered]

So i would say, i do my comics for a "younger audience" from 15 y.o to a max. of 30 y.o

so im to old to read it then! (pout)

my comics has a lot of NSFW and mature humor mixed with some very silly stuff, that i find funny so the target is older teens and up. not point in giving a max age because older people do enjoy things from all sorts of areas we don't hit 40 and loose our ability to laugh.

[yagisa]

This images summarizes my feelings towards all of my works. Any story I plot is usually born out of a desire to see things I want to see or develop scenarios in a way that I want 'em to. At the end of the day, my comics specific audience is me! I pander to myself.

[Klaustasya]

Well, i only "Think" that would be my esteemed audience xD
I like A LOT super-sassy-humor and naughty characters, and if there's nsfw too then bring it on!
So i think that i could actually reach many different ages peoples to be honest....(if the story is good)

[BTS]

I hope my audiences are 18+ years old.

But I highly doubt that.

My genre is bl but I was planning to make it horror when I first started. =0

[silverraven0]

I'm gonna say that it depends, but the lowest age I want is 16+ for my story and comic with a more heavier subject as those with that age could already understanding some of the dark subject and would be able to judge and comprehend my stories with a more open minded thinking. But when its needed, I would always use the M tag and warning when it reached the more touchy subject and triggering content, and that one mostly targeted for the 18+ audience.

As for some that have the more lighter subject, 14+, since at some point, I put some darker theme on it.

[fleohr]

Hmm I think my webcomic "Who Are You?" is for all ages
I didn't want to make something too mature for my first long story webcomic, but the one I'm working on for the LW contest is +13 years old (I didn't upload it anywhere yet)

[spicy_sweets]

Uhhh
PL's at most pg-13
TC's definitely 15+
GN's uh... 16+? I'm not entirely sure how to gage what age range should read what, tho. I just got by if they're interested the genres or concepts, then they'll hopefully read my shit xD

[indigodrawing]

I'm pretty much stuck at the moment with my project due to lack of inspiration but I guess if anybody asked I'd say my demographic was

a) me
b) Anybody who happens to enjoy the crap I made

It's just meant to be a hobby as far as I'm concerned, so as song as I'm enjoying making it I'm good. If other people end up finding something to enjoy in it too then so much the better but if not then fair enough.

[ar-ninetysix]

What genre do you write/draw about?

Well, my main projects are a battle shonen and a sci-fi slice of life. Smaller projects are a mix of genres for a collab effort and a silent zombie apocalypse comic (so, sci-fi again, really.)

which is your audience's age group?

I tend not think too much about it, really. I make it for myself more than anyone else, HOWEVER I know that there's people who have the same interests and tastes as me. Maybe they fall into the teenage demographic, maybe they fall into young adults.. In any case, I try to make it as accessible for all ages as I can without deviating too much from what I want to write.

[lartianmartian1]

Okay, well, I'm 30. But I will be 31 in less than 2 months so that's my cutoff for your comics I guess, lol.

Seriously though, setting a "max." age demographic is very limiting in my opinion. Min. is definitely necessary of course, depending on the story's subject matter and content. But I still pay to see animated "family films" in theaters, etc., and I don't drag any kids along with me (which would be super weird if I did seeing as I don't have any). And also because many of those movies are just that good, as you are aware I'm sure.

I guess my point is that, I just want to make something I would want to read, at my current age or even younger. Or older!? I'm honestly hoping my comic can appeal to older folks (with maybe a min. age of 13-14, depending on how "mature" I plan to get), because I ain't getting any younger myself. And because over 30-year-olds exist on the Internet (but you know that lol)! Maybe there aren't too many on Tapas just yet, but it couldn't hurt to try and reel more in. And that would certainly speak to a greater universality at play here, ya know? And if a bunch of us here plan on making this our lifelong career, then... why wouldn't we?

[MadamBubble]

My target audience was supposed to be just about anyone who likes a good story, but it turns out my main demographic is actually women between the ages 18 and 24 according to some analytics.

I never thought my work would appeal to a lot of women.

[Klaustasya]

Okay maybe i should edit the post so that people don't misunderstand xD
my group age audience up there is roughly esteemed! I don't have any freaking idea who could possibly read and like my comic haha! And it'd doesn't mean that over 30 poeple are banned from reading it either lol it's still a public thing i mean.
Would you be interested in reading a teen-drama romance/urban fantasy comic about a bunch of teenagers messing around with drama? xD if yes then welcome number #1 fan! lmao if you don't then my guess could be right: My type of comics are won't be considered enoyable for an older audience, but still i don't know, and i will only tell for sure when the comic wll be out ^^

[mariusthered]

can you post a link to your comic so we can take a look?

[J.Z.Castillo]

I don't like writing for children, like, at all, so I hope my audience doesn't bring that demographic in because then I'll just up the sex and violence to drive them away lmao. I am mainly writing for the 18+ demographic, hopefully the 20-35 age range to be more precise. Originally my characters were going to be in high school 15-16 years old at the beginning of the story, I had to age up the characters in my comic just for that reason, so I could write adult themes in and just do whatever I wanted since you can't harm children or things like that in a story without getting serious backlash. Also... I have NO idea how to write children since I don't like them in real life, I am not an uncle, and I just tend to gravitate away from them any chance I get, which isn't good since I have a few child characters here and there so I'm spending my entire time listening to "How to Write Children" videos on YouTube haha.

So, yeah, the main audience is myself, I write and do things I wanna see and hopefully that brings in my target demographic of 20-35 year olds

[Klaustasya]

it's not out yet, unfortunately.

[lartianmartian1]

Lol, sorry, I was just being silly. And half of my tapas reading list stars teens and 20-somethings, so... YESS? I just don't want you to limit yourself/sell yourself short is all. No story could possibly appeal to EVERYONE, and age demographics started out as like a TV thing anyway, I think? The Internet has few such boundaries (which can be both very good and very bad obvs ). I am also half talking to myself when I type this nonsense too so nothing personal. You started another very engaging thread, thank you! xD

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I try to write for all ages 10 and up, because that's the time in my life when I most enjoyed reading books and comics. I want to make things that me-from-the-past would have loved to find in the library~.

That is, I do serious stories that are low on sexual content and profanity but with enough realism that their fight scenes include blood. I don't really do gore, though.

[Zaboem]

Oh boy, my current project is a sci-fi / dark comedy set in the world of a lesser-known roleplaying game. Have you played a game of Breachworld? Well, your life is incomplete, not mine. I have a razor thin target audience, the gamers who already know the game. I am really trying to draw more attention to a worthy game than to exploit ready audience.