Why isint my webcomic getting any traction even though I've been updating it for a year?

@darthmongoose Kate Holden
Tue, 03 Jan 2023 07:18:31 +0000

@darthmongoose wrote:

This is a well-drawn comic, and a lot of the things here that will put readers off picking it up aren't the comic itself so much as how you're presenting it.

The thing to always keep in mind about readers of modern webcomics is they're spoiled for choice, and you have mere seconds to convince them to read as they scroll through on their phone. You have to make it as easy as possible to understand what your comic's deal is.

So I feel kinda bad for bringing it up, because your cover is beautifully drawn, and your banner is also beautifully drawn, but they're not doing their job right now. The cover is a lovely illustration, but viewed at Tapas size (like the size of a postage stamp even on my PC screen, and most readers are on mobile), the dappled light effect, which is beautifully rendered, is making it really hard to make out what the cover depicts, because instead of bright chararacters on a dark background (or vice versa) that pops out, we have dark characters on a dark background with scattered patches of brightness that don't highlight anything in particular, and then the title is also low contrast and too similar in value to the background, so it's hard to see it.
Your cover is a lovely illustration, but it's not effective at telling a potential reader what the comic is or what it's called. A clearer cover designed to be very readable at the size the cover is displayed would likely help you get more readers.
Then there's the banner. The banner is a great illo, it's really cute....buuuut right now it's so different in style and vibe, and even has a totally different font from the cover, it doesn't reinforce reader expectation or set up a consistent "brand" with the one the cover does. If you can have your banner match your cover in style, vibe and general colour scheme, it really helps give a professional first impression and establish the tone the reader can expect. I'd recommend redoing the cover (I'm sorry! You should use the current cover for other promo stuff though and sell it as a print, it's really pretty!) and then using that as a basis for a new banner that matches the look/vibe (maybe just use part of the cover for the banner, that's what I did, it doesn't need tons of effort, just consistency). Make sure the cover and banner also match the look of the internal art. They can be a bit neater or more polished, but remember; your cover and banner are setting up expectations and it's disappointing if you set something up that the comic doesn't pay off.

I don't often suggest people go back and redo early episodes... but I'm making an exception here, because they don't need redrawing at all; the drawing is great and I can't stress that enough... but the text and formatting aren't doing it justice. If you have your original art, please consider re-formatting those old pages to have bigger panels, neater text and not to have black text on dark green speech bubbles; that's a pain to read, especially for neurodiverse people like me with light sensitivity who keep their brightness turned way down. Tapas has the option to edit uploaded pages. You could simply replace the images in those early episodes with ones that are easier to read, and it would give so much of a better first impression.

Just as a general mindset for building an audience on Tapas, I'd like to close with the following advice: You are a good artist, but people aren't going to read your comic even though it's hard to read just because your art is good. Your readers are your guests, and you need to be as welcoming to them as possible, never taking their time and attention for granted. Your comic should be as comfortably readable as possible, even for people reading on a phone, or people whose vision might not be the best. Your cover and banner and blurb should establish as clearly as possible what to expect from your comic. You're creating good stuff, you just need to present it in a way where it's easier to see how good it is and make it a comfortable reading experience.