Writers /Novel Q&A?

[nostalgicroxas]

A few questions that I think several Novelist here on Tapas might benefit from the answers to these. I'm not certain of the answers myself, so I am curious too.

1. How do you as a writer/novel on Tapas insert that you want to do a Q&A into an update? Do you put it in the main body of the text / insert an image akin to what comic users can do?

2. Once you have gotten your questions for the round, how do give the answers? Do you post a later update where the answers are in the body of the text, or in the description? Do you include image doodles and such?

3. As a reader of novels, do you readers like these sudden inserts into your binge reads? Suddenly coming across the author asking for questions for the Q&A, and then the later update that holds the answers?

[Wocalich]

I haven't done one of these yet, so I can't answer definitively but
1. I wouldn't put it in the main body of text. The description is for things like this, I think.
2. Again, in the description.
3. I don't like when something breaks the immersiveness, unless I'm looking for it. It doesn't make sense for me to say this, considering I shared an illustration of one of my characters as present in the main body of one of the updates, but if I could put it in the description, I would have.

[Crusoe]

1) I would keep the qna update into a separate body of the text, so either a description or authors note in bold at the end.
2) I would post a separate episode with the answers. I think I would keep most of them just text, but maybe I would include some doodles as well since I've got the skills anyway.
3) I don't mind them, but I will probably skip them and read them once I've finished catching up. If the asking for isn't in the main body of the text I don't think it'll bother people and as I said, if it's in a separate episode, it's easy to skip if readers are not interested.

[kmlangleyauthor]

I’ve actually done this, so I’m mainly going to answer based on my personal experience.

1. I did my Q&A as a special (100 subs thank you, essentially) and mentioned it several times in my author note leading up the the post/s.

2. I posted character drawings as well as the questions and answers in the main body - that was the entire post. I did label them differently than my normal episodes so it would be fairly obvious that it wasn’t a normal chapter. (As a random note, most people didn’t have super specific questions so I ended up creating my own set of questions that I thought readers might be interested in.)

3. As a reader, I honestly don’t mind. As long as it’s not every other update, at least. I like it when an author/creator is interactive with the readers and Q&As can be a really fun way to do that. If I am SO into a binge read that I am annoyed by a Q&A popping up, I’ll skip it and come back to it later.

If you’re interested in a visual, here are the links to the two Q&A episodes I did (one for each of my MCs)

Jake Q&A episode

Damien Q&A episode

[Penni]

1) What I have done for my Q&A is announced that I'm planning to do one. Usually I will make that announcement in a separate episode just in case someone doesn't read the author's note section. Then ask those to either comment or PM me their questions.

2)Then, I usually give everyone about a week or two to respond and then I will post the answers in a separate episode. I will either screenshot the question or just list the question in the standard body of text in an episode. Images can be added to novel formats via Firefox (more about that below). I don't include doodles since I'm not much of a artists, but I have included art before. That's something you could do though!

Here's how it works. 1.) Copy your illustration from Photoshop or whatever program you have it on. 2.) Go to Firefox Browser (for some reason, other browsers don't work with this) and get ready to write or post something. The same way you'd upload anything. 3.) Go to your browser's edit option, usually at the top of the screen and physically click "paste." Again, for reasons unknown, CTRL+V doesn't work. However once you do that...BOOM! You get an illustration just like the one below. …

Fox Trap has it's Q&A at the end of the story, so you can check that out for a visual of what I did for that

https://tapas.io/episode/1522365

3) I've never had anyone complain about the placement of a Q&A, though I typically try to keep them at the end of the story. Readers can skip the Q&A if they want and continue with the main story. But I have randomly inserted art or a side story and no one has voiced objections to me.

[nostalgicroxas]

I'm curious if I should ask people (on this forum) to read certain chapters to generate questions for me if my so far generally non-communicative readers don't have any questions But I genuinelly am interested to answer questions they have, versus questions I think they might have, or what I think might be "Frequently Asked Questions"....

[Penni]

I'm sure trying to generate questions out of people is the best way to go. It may not pan out the way you plan.

You can always set up a poll to see if there is interest in a Q&A and if there isn't then you don't have to do it

[cherrystark]

As a reader, I am not a fan of writer inserts. For me, they aren't helpful because often, the inserts aren't even related to the topic of the story. If you did a Q&A related to your story and added at the end of a completed story, for example, I'd read it. If an author does an insert to essentially be their journal entry and talks about their school, life, etc, I skip over those as quickly as I can.

I like what Tapas does with the creator comment field at the bottom of the page. It's simple and doesn't detract from the creator's work. There is a great comic about a trash mermaid on this site. The artist uses the comment field at the bottom to advertize their ocean conservancy efforts. (The topics are related)

[nostalgicroxas]

If an author does an insert to essentially be their journal entry and talks about their school, life, etc, I skip over those as quickly as I can.

That is definitely not my intention at all I agree, those are... sometimes interesting to read, but not in the main body where the story should be.
I'd limit my Q&A strictly to stuff related to the story.

[shapeshiftingmel]

1.
I've done a Q&A before and when I simply wrote something on my wall, asking my readers if they would like one. Then, I waited for enough questions to reach me via PM. You can also use the description, though.

2.
I posted a later update where the answers were in the body of the text.

1. I don't mind at all. I actually quite enjoy reading through Q&As as it is interesting to see what the mind behind the story was thinking when creating their work.