When do you post a comic?

[Lindsette]

I am new here, and I want to post my comic some time in the future. I am about 2 chapters in (all they need are color) and the whole thing is written out and story boarded. It made me wonder; How far along you guys get before posting a comic? And do you get anxious that you won't be able to meet set update times?

[niinasalmelin]

I have 5 month buffer (thanks to my anxiety to actually post the first pages, so they piled up while I gathered some courage :'D). I post every monday and wednesday. I haven't had to worry of pages running out, but I'm still trying to find best exact time to post the pages.

2 chapters sounds pretty good start -buffer. Meeting update dates if of course ideal, but don't get too caught up on it. Just keep making pages at steady pace and you'll be fine Worst case scenario you miss update date and.. that's it. Webcomics aren't usually paid job after all.

[keii4ii]

How many updates/pages in your chapters? Mine only have like 5-8 each, so for me, 2 chapters of a buffer isn't a lot. Assuming 15-20 pages per chapter, 2 chapters sound like a good size. How quickly you can color could be a factor, too, though.

I'm far more anxious about the story not making sense than missing update days, so I only have a tiny, tiny buffer. I don't want to make 100 pages in advance only to find out none of it even makes sense... If something doesn't work, I want to know ASAP so I can address it, you know?

[Lindsette]

It varies from chapter to chapter, its a collection of short stories and each story is about 10 -11 pages. Its only got 6 chapters, so I don't worry about getting lost in it (I've also finished the writing bit and edited the script 5,000 times). I guess I'm just nervous. And I haven't settled on a cover yet lol. I was going to wait until I finished drawing all the pages, but I realize now that's ridiculous.

[Gaspode12]

My buffer alas is pretty much non existent! When I started I had roughly a months worth of updates as a buffer, but they quickly dissappeared! In some ways I'm not too worried about as, mine being a gag style comic, sometimes it's nice to be able to make a comic about recent news events or things that happened to me and then post it that same week. Of course it does make it a bit tight sometimes to the go done on time!

[colonel_ressentiment]

I actually started posting mine once I had 4 pages, because those 4 set up the initial conflict and I figured it was enough for people to jump into. Caveat is my comic depends on people having knowledge of another series, so the amount of setup pages is abnormally short - your mileage may differ, but I think "how many pages do I need to get someone invested in the story I'm telling?" is a good guideline to use for deciding when to start posting.

I also have no buffer at all and draw everything the night before I have to post it (procrastination ho). This does result in an occasional hiatus, but since they're usually due to foreseen events like moving and holidays, I alert my subscribers well ahead of time, and no one's had issues with it yet.

[Herofeeder]

i did a 30 comics in 30 days race against my self.....it did a lot of good i improved massively .though i dont reccomend it bcs its really stressfull.the 30th comic took me 9 hours to think of the joke and then i started drawing it

[Zetsubonii]

My current research right now suggests that the best times are during the weekend from Saturday 9AM-12AM and Sunday 9AM-6PM. Weekdays tend to be in the evening around 5PM-6PM. Then again, this is just to get the most exposure on the Fresh Page, thus there is no guarantee that people even go there as a recent survey I made shows that not many people go there in the first place to check out new content. The best strategy so far, I've seen, is to post your comics at those times while advertising your works here on the forums right after between 9AM-10PM where the most traffic occurs. Participate mostly on the introduction forums as well as the review forums to get the most exposure. Read, sub and comment on others' work (not a mandatory to sub, but it's a good way to show support if you genuinely like the content), especially if they're up and coming as well. There is a likely chance that they'll check you out and subscribe to you as well. It's better to have more pages to generate more views as well as to keep the reader engaged with a frequent and consistent publishing schedule. I found that once a week doesn't help much so maybe try twice a week.

Anyways, that is all I've gotten so far :U Check out Jim's Days if you like mysteries :U

[elisaaaaamay]

Since I'm trying to return to an old Slice of Life comic I've been trying to update it during the weekends, keeping track of interesting things that happen during the week. I like to keep a backlog of comics set for specific dates just in case I get an art block (which I do very often)

[Evan]

I have an incredibly inefficient way and make 2 comics every 2 weeks for my comic Penciled, where I create a buffer for 2 weeks that decreases until I make more comics. I don't recommend it, but it does work.

[shazzbaa]

When I started my comic, I had 5 pages fully drawn as a buffer. I just had a rough outline of the next chapter and a rougher outline of the rest of the story.

That buffer didn't last too long, so after that I was pretty much finishing pages right before they went up. Working that way has advantages and disadvantages, but it did mean that a few times I had to skip a week when I wasn't able to finish the page, and put up some kind of filler thing instead.

When I came back after a long hiatus for family stuff, I had about 20 pages of buffer, because I wasn't sure I'd be able to work on the comic consistently, and I had done thumbnail sketches of the entirety of Chapter 4 (around 50 pages). That buffer of pages lasted about a year, so probably when I hit the end of this chapter I'll pause the comic for a few weeks to get a small buffer again.

And do you get anxious that you won't be able to meet set update times?

It's definitely like.... a source of nerves, I guess, but I try not to let myself fret about it too much. If you miss a week, it's not the end of the world, as long as you communicate with your readers. Taking time off feels terrifying, like you're going to lose all your readers if you stop updating, but actually people are pretty cool with breaks as long as they know when you're planning to come back.

[cleo_san]

tbh, I published ~150 pages in German of my comic Remember so I can basically chill right now =) I'll have buffer for another 6-8 months but I'll start drawing the next pages now, cause I know me: I'll panic and then won't draw at all until it's too late! =P

But if you're going with 2 chapters buffer it should be alright =)

[TheRabbit]

They way I operate with my comic is that I post one page every week. So, I gave myself a 30 page buffer, which is somewhat of a half year worth of buffer time.

[cleo_san]

Yeah, I think I'll go down to 1 page/month when my buffer is down to ~30 pages, too =) good play, though

[TheRabbit]

If I could complete more than one pages per week, then I would also upload more. But I don't want my buffer to drain up too quickly.

[69Michi]

I have 0 buffer when I started my comic because I used to update roughly 7 pages every 2 days. And then I extended my update schedule up to a week, and by now I'm updating bi-weekly (every 2 weeks) But still it's extremely hard for me to build up buffer because each update I have varies from 20-30 pages and sometimes over 40 pages. But I would say it depends on how you are as a person. You could be someone that better of preparing a larger buffer before diving in, or you can be like me who feeds off recognition and support from readers to refresh my motivation to actively catch up on update time with non-existing buffer.

[Vanesalisa]

Saturdays but for Holidays any other day

[SirGutsalot]

Everyday like an overworked idiot! :'D

[punkarsenic]

i jumped right in, head first, no buffer - twice. its a bad idea. i think if you have at least 2 months worth of updates ready before you start, youll be good on set updates times.