What do you do when you have no following?

ksfabian

This may be question with a lot of nuance but here we go! I am working on making a story I wrote years ago into a comic/graphic novel. I am going to self publish. I was thinking of posting a weekly episode on my website for the comic to start gathering a following and then kickstart the first volume once it's complete (followed by subsequence volumes etc). My plan was to eventually get a patreon or something like that once I gained followers. My husband thinks that's a poor business plan and I should only have the first 10 episodes for free and the rest behind a paywall. But I worry that I won't have the support to do that since this is my first real project. What is the best course of action? What should my goals be?

NessIllustration

@ksfabian I think both of these models could work as long as you have a strategy to get traffic to your comic. How will people hear about it? You have less than 200 followers on Instagram, so just talking about it there isn't going to be enough. The best time to build a following for a new project is while you're working on the project, because you can show WIP to get people hyped. The time to think about your traffic strategy is now.

ksfabian

@NessIllustration Thank you so much for the advice! I will share the projects progress on my socails. Thank you!

willicreate

@ksfabian Have you considered joining an online comic platform like Tapas? There are complaints about their business model... However, I think after garnering a sizeable following on a comic platform for a few months, you can retire your account and ask fans to continue their support on your pateron.

Maybe don't publish your intended story at first; create a one-off storyline and see if people respond well to the characters and tone. It's a system that works well for publishers Shonen Jump.

ksfabian

@willicreate My big hesitation with sites like Tapas and webtoons are their IP terms of services stuff. I believe they control part of the IP. I've heard cartoonists being encouraged by IP lawyers to not use those sites due to those dodgey TOS.

willicreate

@ksfabian This is the language on Tapas' Content and Community Guidelines:

You will always keep full ownership of your work when posting on Tapas as an independent creator. Tapas will never claim ownership or rights over your intellectual property. To amplify creators' voices and bring attention to series or merchandise, Tapas may utilize assets from your series or Tapas Merch Shop for marketing and promotional purposes.

It doesn't read different from Adobe or Meta's legal info. You could also register your story synposis, script and drawings with your country's copyright office before publication. But I hear you. Having someone else cash in on your work would be terrible.

ksfabian

@willicreate Thank you so much for that insight! I had always heard that I should stay away from all those sights because of IP issues. I am so glad you shared that with me.

willicreate

@ksfabian I don't want to dismiss what you've heard. It's possible the creators' experience is different from what the organization claims to uphold. If you do choose the web comic route, certainly do investigate these issues.

I agree with Ness that both your plan and your husband's suggestion have merit. For my personal experience, I usually follow a free web comic and get excited when the author announces a book collecting all the pages into one volume. The payoff is far into the future, but they usually make some income with merch gifted exclusively to pateron supporters.

I've always thought Brian Lee O'Malley had a good (intentional?) strategy when he published the Scott Pilgrim series first as black and white pages, then years later re-released the books fully colored. He made so much money off of me...

ksfabian

@willicreate That's very true. I absolutely have free comics I follow that would be all over if and when the do the book thing and I read them on those comic apps (webtoon and tapas). Thanks so much