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Heidifisk
Nov '24

Honestly, I used to think a novel was MUCH harder to promote. But after actually getting sales on amazon for awhile, and seeing some tractions novels here get I'm not so sure.

There are much more areas where you can post a novel for example, along with more forums and reddits for people to read it.

Webcomics are far harder to find places to post (Unless you make your own website or area to do so) and even if you do, you got to find the right spot to do so!

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kyupol
Nov '24

I think novels are harder to promote because of lack of imagery and we live in the visual, short attention span era.

Ideally I'd be making animation if it doesn't take too much effort to animate, get voice actors and actresses, etc. VIDEOS are what sells.

A Vlog that takes less effort to articulate and organize your thoughts gets more popular than a written blog where you spend more time and effort articulating and organizing your points.

With that said, next step below video is comics. Phone scroll format is obviously better because it's closer to video format than traditional paneling. Traditional paneling is easier to draw because you can shortcut panels (little to no background) without making it look lazy vs the phone scrolling format where you have to pretend it's playing on the TV screen.

But that's not to completely diss novels. Novels can cover way more plot and character depth than a comic in a shorter amount of time. Much better especially if you have an epic story that has a lot of world building. But novels tend to be more limited when it comes to epic fight scenes. Much harder to visualize if it's not a mage fight.

Novels I noticed, tend to appeal to a longer attention span crowd that tends to be more interactive in commenting vs comics.

jwabeasley
Nov '24
Kermittyfrog

Probably webnovels are harder. There's no cool images to show, and the competition is fierce! I can't keep up with all you webnovelists! There's way too much to read and its much harder to get hooked.

I definitely see a lot more sub-hungry webnovelists than comic artists on this forum. The extra effort needed to draw comics consistently remains an impassable barrier of entry for many potential comic makers.

jwabeasley
Nov '24
kyupol

Phone scroll format is obviously better because it's closer to video format than traditional paneling. Traditional paneling is easier to draw because you can shortcut panels (little to no background) without making it look lazy vs the phone scrolling format where you have to pretend it's playing on the TV screen.

Interesting that you said that. I usually dislike reading endless scroll comics - mostly for low density of content, and my thumb getting tired. I feel like scrolling comics are way more likely to skip on their backgrounds, too.

However, the scrolling format seems to appeal to others! I've just not met them in person, I suppose.

XiuLyn_12
Nov '24

I believe both communities share common struggles. Even across genres, the challenges are similar. While romance is typically popular, the sheer volume of romance stories available is insane!

I partially agree with this. I've been experimenting with publishing my work on various websites, but most of them received hardly any views! I've noticed that people who publish their writing (on AO3) often get immediate views and comments. While I still believe that promoting both types of work is challenging, it seems that the novel community might be a bit more welcoming than the comics community.

Heidifisk
Nov '24

That amount of downvotes you get when posting a comic anywhere is jarring XD.

And even finding a proper community to do so can be troublesome.

bulgariansumoRegular
Nov '24
1

Webcomic's harder to make, easier to promote.
Novel's easier to make, harder to promote.

Around when I first joined here, I did a little research on how engagement on comics compared to novels and if I recall correctly, I think I found that comics get roughly 10x engagement across every genre. It makes sense, especially given that Tapas started out as comics only.

I put pictures in my novel because I want to, but I can't deny that it makes it way easier for me to promote. Still, I've seen webcomic creators here complain about numbers that make my eyes pop. :rofl:

Yeah, same here.

megumibex
Nov '24

I think novels are harder, but I've never tried to make a comic. And I'm both feel equally like a herculean task when you first start out.

But if people see art they think looks cool, they will click a link. Convincing someone a wall of text that isn't fanfiction is worth reading is like pulling teeth. Voracious readers are the exception.