Your definition of Small and Big Creators

[frgmnt]

Also, there's many people who will lurk but not interact so we are all being seen even more than we think. (Which is why people need to be careful what they share with the net when it comes to personal life stuff.)

That's also something to consider! I wouldn't say it's likely... if I personally wasn't a quiet lurker like that for many years.
There are many reasons why people might not interact with content they like - they don't have an account on a specific platform, they're very shy/socially anxious, there's language barrier etc. Of course it always feels better to get a like or comment than an anonymous view, but many people who aren't content creators don't really think of it in these terms.

[MeltingCORE]

Exactly! I've seen people get a bit pushy when it comes to comments/likes and only feel satiated when they get a certain amount. (This can go into a whole other thing of how social media can reprogram your brain to need more "likes" to feel happy but anyways-) ...I think what you said is important to remember; especially the shy/anxious and not-having-an-account. I have some friends who I only really talk to through Discord who are amazing artists but won't even really share their art because they have anxiety. There's so many factors on why a certain pieces or stories may/may not get interaction.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

@frgmnt @MeltingCORE
Yeah this is exactly why I try to focus on Views rather than Subs or Comments. There's a huge disparity between these numbers. When I put my comic into terms of views, I consider it more successful.

even though 7k isn't really that big a number xD

[Legendofgenii]

Yes, you should be excited. Congratulations!

I think the ‘big creators’ to me (on Tapas) are the comics and novels with thousands of views and subs.

A lot of creators I sub to here I’d class as small - but that’s no reflection on the quality of their artwork or story, I think it’s just tricky to get noticed.

[domisotto]

There was a conversation about it some time ago, and basically, I would say below 1K subs is small for comics, below 500 is small for novels.

[mbindhammer]

I would describe myself as a rather small creator. I only have a few subscribers, I draw 12 to 14 hours a day, and I draw in a race with death because a lot in my comic is true. Sometimes you despair here when you fall into bed dead tired in the evening and wake up in the morning, and nobody noticed the few pages you drew the days before.

[WillowTree]

I had a similar question a little bit back and there were some pretty good answers in here too!

Hello! I was wondering what's considered a low, medium, and large amount of subscribers. I mean I would say probably anything below 1000 is a low amount of subscribers, right? Then at what point do you cross from a medium amount to a large amount? would 4000 still be considered medium? 10000? I assume everyone has different ideas of what is low medium or high, but is there kind of a common idea of how many equals which division?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

My threshold for a 'big' creator is basically this: can you make a post and feel guaranteed to receive commentary feedback (as in, beyond just a like)? And not just from friends or the same 4-5 dedicated followers, but from any one of a pool of at least 20 different fans?

If you can answer yes, I'd consider you to be 'big', simple as that.

It's a much tougher threshold to cross than just having certain numbers of subs or views or whatever...and because of that, it scales to different sites. Like, 50 subs on Webtoons is equivalent to 5 subs on Tapas? 10 Twitter followers is equivalent to 30 Tumblr followers? Great; doesn't matter. This rule stands. ^^

I think it's truly reflective of engagement-- of not just having a fanbase that likes you, but having a fanbase that feels connected to you and wants to do things for you; even if it's something as simple as letting you know your work made them 'lol'.
When you get to that point, that's when you can actually consider doing what you do for a living.

[Caro]

I feel like its all just so completely relative its hardly worth thinking about. I wouldn’t know what is big on Tapas since I don’t have a comic up on here YET (SOON!!) but on other platforms and social media I used to think that “big” was very different to how I view “big” now. I remember hitting over 2k followers on IG and thinking “holy sh*t this is more people than the population of the town I live in,” and now it looks like a completely different number to me.

It doesn’t really matter though even at my current number I still hit rough patches with my career. And then seeing my friends with hundreds of thousands and into over a million followers makes me feel itty bitty compared to them.

But I also know folks who consistently hit the NYT bestseller lists who don’t even have public-facing social media at all! So I try not to get too bogged down with numbers these days because ultimately my personal goals are a little more offline. Since the very beginning I’ve always been very happy just making stuff and hoping someone out there reads my junk and gets some enjoyment out of it and I think that’s the most reliable metric of success.

SO do you make something that at least one person (even if that one person is YOU) looks forward to week after week? THEN THAT’S PRETTY BIG!!!

[Rhonder]

I think any milestone is worth celebrating, so big congrats on passing 100

However as someone who ended my first series at just over 100 subs, I don't really consider that number "big" in Tapas terms tbh . I think if I had a comic approach like 500 or 1k subs then I would start to feel "big", at least in terms of community comics. Not the biggest, mind, but significantly more popular than a lot of the free to read series >;D

That said I don't really expect to get there any time soon. I would be blown away and incredibly happy if my new upcoming series broke like 150 or 200

[skicoak]

I am 5'10 and near 400 pounds of old man muscle and sedentary lifestyle fat...

How dare anyone call me a small creator!??!

How dare they!

[Kiweevil]

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[Kiweevil]

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[Team.UWU]

id say there are 4 teirs of popularity
1. me, i have less then 100, which is a good start

Marina Mafia: Blood Money | Tapas

2.then you have 500 down thats beginner
3. 1000 down, is well known
4. 1000+ is popular

[Mallory]

IMO big = makes a living (or a significant portion of their living) off of their creations and would be known, professionally, as a content creator. Small is everyone else. Sub counts and all that jazz is honestly irrelevant, it's all about what you spend your paid time doing.

[rajillustration]

"Big" and "Small" is hella subjective. For me it's not about the numbers, it's about the influence of the story you wrote. So for me you aren't a "big" creator until you're being sold and your work is being merchandised through a big publisher. But for webcomics--I kinda see most webcomic creators as small creators. It's a small IP, independently owned. You're your own thing. So the influence is significantly smaller than the stuff coming out of like Disney, youknow? So the only webcomic creators where I'm like "yo this guy is big" is like...stuff that got hella licensed out and made different medias with their properties. There's not that many people who've done that.

As for how many readers they have--platforms and websites and trends are so here today gone tomorrow that it's not really something that should separate one creator from the next. We're all kind of in this bucket of fish together, and even the people who seem huge and unaproachable are just people.

[milejdyvan]

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I feel like we are all small creators here on Tapas if you want to look at the big picture, regardless of sub count. When I think of big creators in any kind of industry a few thousand subscribers is just not going to cut it, (though for us, just imagining that many people subscribing is unreal). We're amateurs here and I believe that that's how we should view it to stay grounded.

[carloswebcomic]

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I feel like we are all small creators here on Tapas if you want to look at the big picture, regardless of sub count. When I think of big creators in any kind of industry a few thousand subscribers is just not going to cut it, (though for us, just imagining that many people subscribing is unreal). We're amateurs here and I believe that that's how we should view it to stay grounded.

This.
Yep.
This, right here, a hundred times.

[ble]

When I think of big creators in any kind of industry a few thousand subscribers is just not going to cut it

Right.

I think even the concept of webcomics, they are not big in the mainstream eyes, (especially in the west, compared to Japan or Korea) at least not on the same huge level as books, movies, traditional painting, or videogames.

Maybe because everyone can make a webcomic and put it online (while the other things need to be approved and edited by a studio, publisher, or a company....and well they have huge teams that do the marketing for those products), so the entry-bar is really low and seen as cheap.

[Comic.Kikikora]

Big creator = have large reader base that is willing to follow you across platforms, when you start a new work people will go crazy, people recognize you as a creator and explore your work, able to consistently make an income ....

Small creator = anyone else doing it like a hobbist (e.g. myself)