Why I recommend posting a lot more pages at the beginning of your comic

[smokesalty]

Okay so I've noticed this thing with a lot of comics where they'll start their comic by only uploading one page at a time, and I'll continue reading and the major hook or event doesn't even get covered yet!

Now, I'm pretty patient with comics because I know how much work they take, but here's my own reasons why I really recommend posting a larger amount of pages in the first couple uploads of your comic. Of course, you don't have to listen to me, this is just a personal opinion.

For me, I uploaded 17 pages for my first upload because those 17 pages established the hook and overall mood of the story. Quite honestly, if I were to only upload my usual amount (3-4 pages a week) I don't think nearly as many people would have the patience to wait for the hook.

Context: I write a horror comic about a cult so I knew I needed to have my first episode establish the main character and the cult leader's relationship, the cult ceremony that comes into play later on as well as establish mystery around the leader.

I also did this because the most views you'll ever get is on the first episode so I thought may as well make it as engaging as possible. I did this for episodes 2 to 3 as well since my first chapter is more slow moving. Because I did this, people had more to think and talk about my comic, since I had a decent amount of content in my first couple episodes and established mystery. It helped with traction for my comic so that more people could find it as well.

Additionally, I post my comic on webtoon, and I knew I wanted to have the interesting stuff happen by episode 3 where readers get the pop up to subscribe.

So yeah, it's not a particularly complex reason but it was something I considered before I started uploading.

[ShidoDraws]

This is a reasonable and good tip. I wouldn't recommend people to post only one page at a time either especially in the beginning of the comic.

It's a little late for the people that had already uploaded their comic but I'll definitely try this out when I release a new series.

Don't know if this is appropriate but do you think it's okay with in the beginning the chapter is split into four episodes? You mentioned "... I wanted to have the interesting stuff happen by episode 3..." So I'm a little curious if it's relatively close enough or maybe a bit stretched out?

Edit: My series for context - https://tapas.io/series/NinaComic/info

[smokesalty]

I think having your main hook established in the first few episodes is good and splitting it into parts that all have their own way of building up to something can help hook in the audience each episode.

Having you first episode too long can happen as well, so it's kind of finding a happy medium where the audience is engaged and has enough to go off without overwhelming them with information.

It really depends on the story quite honestly, just do what works for you!

[NickRowler]

As someone who has been on here for a while, I would not really recommend this.

Mostly because people tend to get a larger spike in views when they upload. So if they can turn 17 pages into 17 days of uploading it actually helps a lot more than sticking them all in one and having that one upload go completely unnoticed. I think you might have got lucky with your series but there are a lot of people where that isn’t the case.

I would however recommend that someone shouldn’t push their series until there is enough to hook a reader.

[ShidoDraws]

Of course! I tend to do research about the thing I'm getting into before committing to it. What concerned me when doing my research on "how to properly attract audience for your comic" some people suggests posting weekly and consistent (which is what I went for) and others suggests people to post twice a week if better more. The second one concerned me when I saw that that idea is more commonly practiced than the weekly one. Because now nobody wins cause people are trying to post twice or more a week but the ones posting once a week doesn't get their fair share of placement on the recent category.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I do love looking out for more tips since I want to make my future projects more successful than my current project. After all, I am still a beginner comic artist.

[ShidoDraws]

I thought you were going to say "people will lose interest if you put a lot of content in the beginning" but you didn't say that which is concerning.

Maybe this is just me but I like to keep my stats speak about the story as much as I want the illustration to speak for the story. Almost every week I see people complaining about losing subscribers yet having over thousands of views.

From my experience as a reader (before I started making comics) I saw someone did the thing @smokesalty suggested, posting a bunch of pages in the first few chapters and then slowly went for posting one or two pages. I lost interest in the comic completely and went looking for a different comic to read. It's unhealthy for the people who subscribe to your story if you update 10 times a week either. But as smokesalty said, "finding a happy medium." And traditionally the professionals had found the medium to keep people's interest, posting fully chapters each week, sometimes monthly. But that's not realistic to the average person, so yeah, it's somewhat kind of a coin toss for us all.

Also, that person's story was kinda boring which is also why I didn't follow with their comic anymore.

[smokesalty]

I understand what you mean.

Uploading more on tapas can mean more people will find your story, However I'm moreso refering to establishing important things within the first couple days of upload. More people might see it, but turning my 17 pages into 17 pages of upload would mean people wouldn't reach the hook until the 17th upload and it may have turned people off reading.

Then again, I'd say this really depends on the story. Some stories can get away with shorter, more frequent uploads but I have a horror that requires specific things be established and foreshadowed early on. So my advice may not work well for some people and that's fine.

sticking them all in one and having that one upload go completely unnoticed

I do understand what you mean here though. I actually started off with barely any views on my upload, but through promoting I was able to get a lot more eyes on my comic. So, while uploading more can help you with the algorithm, having longer beginning uploads can be beneficial for drawing in readers.

It depends on what works for you and your comic.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I would however recommend that someone shouldn’t push their series until there is enough to hook a reader.

Yeah, this is my current approach; upload anyway but try not to push it until I've gotten to the good part. My thought process was 'well it can't hurt to have the thing visible as soon as it exists; in fact, since it exists, it's kind of a waste to hide it until I'm 'ready''

I do find it tempts me to talk about my comic more that I should though, now that it's posted. I've come to realise my posting choices affect my own mindset as well. Similarly, I used to post as soon as I finish a strip for the same reason mentioned above, but because I was excited about the strip I just drew, I'd obsess over whether someone saw the update and/or left a like/comment, which wasn't doing me any favours. Nowadays, I have a small 2-strip 'buffer'; not to maintain a regular posting schedule, but to emotionally distance myself from the strip I'm posting because it's not the strip I just finished, it's the strip at the front of my buffer that I finished a while ago :]

[RocketAxxonu]

This has tended to be my thinking too, while having more frequent recent posts and spreading things out can be a good way to get more eyes on a project, for comics I think it's important to have enough content early on to be established in order to hook people.

For my first post of my comic, I split the difference between these two ideas; I worked on the entire 36 pages (7 pages of prologue+the first chapter) all together and finished it completely, then posted everything in chunks of 4-ish to seven pages per week. Considering I was posting on deviantArt where my platform was small and in a fandom I hadn't posted in before, there wasn't too much of an audience then, but I was wanting to focus more on just making more content anyway, and I like to think it helped pick up a few readers.

I do feel like starting out a new series and starting out a page per week feels a bit too slow, and could lead to lost opportunity with readers who might see it early on. I'm a finicky reader, but when something does catch my eye one of the first things I look for is a sense of commitment, whether I see enough content to prove the creator has planned ahead and gotten work established on the project.

[BoomerZ]

My thought on this is upload enough of your comic to get the hook or reason for the reader to read it. If that is one long upload or 5 smaller. The audience needs the reason in that drop to decide if they want to follow you.

[system]

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