Is Tapas a good site to publish novels?

[Hsinat]

Just recently, I found out that Tapas a section for web-novels. So, I curiously uploaded the first 4 chapters on it. Just fact-checking, how are your experiences dear authors, if any of you have used it? If yes, is it better than WEBNOVELS SITE?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Their guidelines were not a good fit for me. For someone else they might be great - and they were cited as a good place in a book on publishing serial fiction I read about ten months ago.
They are probably the best place to publish webcomics but for novels? Depends on the type of content.

 

[Ai-chan]

Just recently, I found out that Tapas a section for web-novels. So, I curiously uploaded the first 4 chapters on it. Just fact-checking, how are your experiences dear authors, if any of you have used it? If yes, is it better than WEBNOVELS SITE?

Understand one thing. Tapas throws all its support on the original comics section. They don't spend any resource on the novel section.

Performance-wise, it's stable. You can make some money if readers sponsor your ink. You can post your stories there and people will read them. Sometimes they have contests, which is few and far between. But that's it. Don't expect any support or promotion from them for novels.

If you just want to make money, writing teen romance on wattpad is more likely to make you rich. You just need to be popular enough. But that goes the same for everywhere.

Can't say if Tapas is better than Webnovel. Tapas isn't exploitative if that matters to you, while Webnovel is ALL about author exploitation to the point of willingly breaking laws in the past. Webnovel throws every support they can if you sign up to be their exclusive authors, though.

 

[beast_regards]

Depending on the nature of your story and its format, it may not be worth the effort.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

It's okay for a fair bit of stories. Though comics do better. Supernatural, thriller, BL, and romance do really well on the site. The forums are mostly artists and authors looking for subscribers while the discord is mostly readers. I do really well there so I like it.

 

[Paul__Michaels]

It's okay for a fair bit of stories. Though comics do better. Supernatural, thriller, BL, and romance do really well on the site. The forums are mostly artists and authors looking for subscribers while the discord is mostly readers. I do really well there so I like it.

Yeah. The forums were hilarious to me with everyone begging for subscribers. Like, come on people. If you are that desperate then make bull crap accounts to get to your 40.
I have to put up my new cover so they stop blocking my work. They don't want anything that is AI covers. Which I don't blame them. Most new "authors" that use AI to create covers probably use AI to create their stories.

 

[Bartun]

I think it's ok. My only gripe is that their word limit per chapter, around 1.500-2.000 words I believe. My chapters are pretty long and I was forced to split them into 3 or 4 parts.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have to put up my new cover so they stop blocking my work. They don't want anything that is AI covers. Which I don't blame them. Most new "authors" that use AI to create covers probably use AI to create their stories.

That was one of the three or four reasons they were not a good fit for ME personally - most of my covers are at least partially AI generated (though the closest I get to using AI for writing is built in grammar/spelling checkers on Google and OpenOffice).

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Yeah. The forums were hilarious to me with everyone begging for subscribers. Like, come on people. If you are that desperate then make bull crap accounts to get to your 40.
I have to put up my new cover so they stop blocking my work. They don't want anything that is AI covers. Which I don't blame them. Most new "authors" that use AI to create covers probably use AI to create their stories.

I still beg for subscribers because even though most don't actually read it, some will and they are strangely my most active readers

 

[Hsinat]

Understand one thing. Tapas throws all its support on the original comics section. They don't spend any resource on the novel section.

Performance-wise, it's stable. You can make some money if readers sponsor your ink. You can post your stories there and people will read them. Sometimes they have contests, which is few and far between. But that's it. Don't expect any support or promotion from them for novels.

If you just want to make money, writing teen romance on wattpad is more likely to make you rich. You just need to be popular enough. But that goes the same for everywhere.

Can't say if Tapas is better than Webnovel. Tapas isn't exploitative if that matters to you, while Webnovel is ALL about author exploitation to the point of willingly breaking laws in the past. Webnovel throws every support they can if you sign up to be their exclusive authors, though.

My story is a mystery, thriller, survival, and apocalypse without any romance. I bet it won't get me as far as it should? As for the money, I am not that interested in monetizing first. I want to make my story's quality better firstly, later I can care about the monetization.

Yeah. The forums were hilarious to me with everyone begging for subscribers. Like, come on people. If you are that desperate then make bull crap accounts to get to your 40.
I have to put up my new cover so they stop blocking my work. They don't want anything that is AI covers. Which I don't blame them. Most new "authors" that use AI to create covers probably use AI to create their stories.

I have used my covers from Pinterest.... Is it allowed?

 

[Leti]

They are as good as Wattpad when the forums are still up.

 

[beast_regards]

The Tapas.io bypassed the most issues the sites like Scribble Hub or even Royal Road suffer...

By focusing on the web comics, they bypassed the issues with AI. The one of the biggest obstacles for AI is consistency, and web comics do need to be consistent with their style, and images, and characters being recognizable and AI could not do this.

Hence, no one goes to their site to complain about AI.

By focusing on original fiction visual media, they bypassed the complaints about fan-fiction.

By simply acting like the small publisher, instead like the social media, they bypassed the toxicity of certain site.

....I posted a few chapters there, and was pretty much ignored, so deleted the story and went.

At that point, I didn't quite understand their unique system where the authors beg for followers for the system to recognize the story, but I don't think it would change as much, especially if they are otherwise restrictive, and I don't know if there even were people who would like my story even if I didn't have to struggle with whole follower thing.

It's different community.

I have used my covers from Pinterest.... Is it allowed?

Most likely, yes.

They probably use the "AI" to find "AI"

You probably confused it by editing it.

 

[Keene]

I've been offered a non-exclusive contract by Tapas to bring over Amelia Thornheart under their pay-to-unlock-faster scheme.

I was wondering what kind of experience those here who are under contract with Tapas have had?

 

[beast_regards]

I've been offered a non-exclusive contract by Tapas to bring over Amelia Thornheart under their pay-to-unlock-faster scheme.

I was wondering what kind of experience those here who are under contract with Tapas have had?

I doubt anyone here does. (though I could be mistaken)

Tapas is a small publisher. They probably offer those only to the professional works, which (assuming the offer is genuine) they think highly of your work.

 

[SaintEvieOfTheLillies]

Hi! I joined this site just so I could comment.

No. Emphatically, no.

I have several published novels on TAPAS, beginning with the first in 2021, and I am currently removing them all.

In the beginning, they did as much for novelists as they did for comic creators. My reading and interest stats skyrocketed for weeks after each new chapter and each new released novel.

About 2 years ago, they started shifting their promotional effort to the comics and taking their attention away from the novelists. They used to have "Meet The Creator" events, which everyone could join. This started slacking for the novelists until enough of us complained.

They held a "Novelist-only" promotional for sharing blurbs in the form of memes. We had to do a lot of work to meet the requirements. After all was said and done and our submissions were turned in, we were informed the event was cancelled ... but not really. Instead, the event that was supposed to be ours became a Comic-only event to feature and promote comic creators using the same format. None of our submissions were ever published. If we complained in the forum or their Discord server, we were banned.

Next up was the "Top Rated Novels" feature. On the front page, there used to be several sections to look at the Top Trending, Top Popular, Top Free, and Top New novels with sub-categories for all genres. Last year, they removed it. This was the only way novelists could promote themselves since TAPAS was no longer doing it. Now, there is no way for us to self-promote.

The reason I found this forum is because I am currently looking for a new home for my novels.

It's kind of funny because in the TAPAS Forums (which they are trying to do away with in favor of Discord, where they promote comics), there are numerous threads asking where else to publish instead of TAPAS. I think it speaks a lot when TAPAS writers are asking where to go to get away from TAPAS.

If I can give credit for something, I will say I appreciate their ban on AI. I would like to, also, give a shout out to their efforts to block copying content, but it doesn't really work. There have been threads by people who found their work on RoyalRoad and another site (can't remember the name) that was stolen from TAPAS. To be fair to TAPAS, I don't think there is any way to prevent this, but they shouldn't give their creators false hope by claiming they can.

I wish you the best, and if anyone can suggest something else for OP, me, and other TAPAS ex-pats, it would be much appreciated! ?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have several published novels on TAPAS, beginning with the first in 2021, and I am currently removing them all.

In the beginning, they did as much for novelists as they did for comic creators. My reading and interest stats skyrocketed for weeks after each new chapter and each new released novel.

About 2 years ago, they started shifting their promotional effort to the comics and taking their attention away from the novelists. They used to have "Meet The Creator" events, which everyone could join. This started slacking for the novelists until enough of us complained.

According to a free e-book I downloaded last year about serial fiction publishing, you hit them during the "sweet spot" - they started out as comics-only, then started reluctantly accepting fiction, and only started taking fiction seriously in late 2020 (book was published in 2021 but I didn't find out about it until last year). Sounds like they've gone back to their old ways.

If I can give credit for something, I will say I appreciate their ban on AI. I would like to, also, give a shout out to their efforts to block copying content, but it doesn't really work. There have been threads by people who found their work on RoyalRoad and another site (can't remember the name) that was stolen from TAPAS. To be fair to TAPAS, I don't think there is any way to prevent this, but they shouldn't give their creators false hope by claiming they can.

I had a work on Royal Road "stolen" by https://audio-book-ai.com/
Not sure if they're still around or not (they were too virus-laden for me to see what it sounded like).

 

[SaintEvieOfTheLillies]

According to a free e-book I downloaded last year about serial fiction publishing, you hit them during the "sweet spot" - they started out as comics-only, then started reluctantly accepting fiction, and only started taking fiction seriously in late 2020 (book was published in 2021 but I didn't find out about it until last year). Sounds like they've gone back to their old ways.

I had a work on Royal Road "stolen" by https://audio-book-ai.com/
Not sure if they're still around or not (they were too virus-laden for me to see what it sounded like).

I think I heard they were bought out by a company 2 years ago that specializes in manga and anime. I don't know. I hadn't heard anything about them until my daughter found them and encouraged me to put my stuff online. The dates you listed seem about right.

I'm sorry to hear about your work! I hope you got it sorted.

 

[beast_regards]

I think I heard they were bought out by a company 2 years ago that specializes in manga and anime. I don't know. I hadn't heard anything about them until my daughter found them and encouraged me to put my stuff online. The dates you listed seem about right.

Tapas website is owned by the South Korean media company: Kakao Entertainment

Unlike the sites like Scribble Hub and Royal Road, they are an actual publisher, which means they may prioritize the IP they own over handling the self-published and amateur authors.

The Scribble Hub, for example, is the hosting site. Hosting site, as the name suggests, host your work, but they don't handle it in any publishing capacity. There are no agreements, no paperwork, no royalty, something which Tapas actually offers.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I think I heard they were bought out by a company 2 years ago that specializes in manga and anime. I don't know. I hadn't heard anything about them until my daughter found them and encouraged me to put my stuff online. The dates you listed seem about right.

I'm sorry to hear about your work! I hope you got it sorted.

Honestly I was a little flattered (except that their site seems a haven for virii)... :D