Break Update: Important Announcements and Questions (11/24/22)
Hi everyone, just checking in because I’m incredibly eager to start posting this next chapter. Just a reminder that page 41 will come out Next Week on Thursday (December 1st). I realize that’s not the day I usually post on, but I just wanted it to be exactly at the start of the month.
A few other things:
-Quick reminder that Nine Gates turned a year old last month on October 29th, so happy late birthday Nine Gates. I would’ve liked to have gotten more done but I’ve just been easing myself into this whole comic thing. If you don’t know, Nine Gates originally ran on a biweekly schedule, before I switched to weekly. Between my developing ability to pace a weekly release webcomic properly, and growing accustomed to actually getting a page a week done, I think Nine Gates should progress at a steady and enjoyable clip from now on. There’s definitely things I’m looking forward to getting to in the story, but I need to learn to enjoy the things I’m getting to work on now. rather than pining on things I want to do later.
-Something I’ve been thinking on for a while is the topic of two page spreads, and how I should consider them as far as page releases go. What I’ve decided on is that it is two pages, so I should treat it as such. Any time there’s a two page spread I’ll consider it the page release for that week and the week after. This is most certainly not relevant to page 44 and 45 at all.
-I’ve already talked about how I want to build a healthy community and fandom around Nine Gates. What I want to know is what you want out of a community, and what you would like me to do concerning that.
If you’ve stuck with Nine Gates and you’ve made it your weekly or monthly routine to check out the next set of pages, thanks for sticking around, I appreciate the comments on every other page. I originally started Nine Gates pretty much entirely for myself, but having people who enjoy it is a good motivation to continue improving my art and writing to make it the best it can be. I hope the following continues to grow, and honestly as Chapter 3 comes out it would be pretty badass if you could boost Nine Gates as much as you can. I can only promote it so hard, and the cost of ads kinda builds up after a while. So, tell your friends, shove it in people’s faces on reddit or discord or something, reblog tumblr posts about it, etc.
Happy Belated 1st Birthday, Nine Gates! 🙂
So, two page spreads are something that is up and coming? That sounds cool, so long as I can zoom in enough to read the text; some comics forget that from time to time. I’m guessing that two page spreads allow for less disruption in storytelling for certain scenes as well as preparing for the possibility of print publication? I’m not sure if they are more or less difficult, but it’s always fun to see an artist stretch their drawing muscles with larger scenes. 🙂
Regarding community, I read a number of comics on a regular basis and typically only end up in the comments section, if I interact with the author/artist at all, but for the ones on ComicFury I’ve also sent private messages from time to time. I don’t have much of a footprint on social media since I typically avoid it (I’m an old curmudgeon), but I will certainly mention Nine Gates to anyone I know who I think might be interested. I think one of the challenges most independent comickers have is having to do most of the lifting on their own when it comes to promotion. Platforms like Hiveworks, Spiderforest, ComicFury and so forth, make it a little easier for people to find new comics, but it’s still an uphill challenge. Hopefully there are other people with better ideas than mine. 🙂
I think an important thing to remember about webcomics, which I’m sure you’re aware of since you seem to read a bunch of indie comics, is that from the viewer perspective it’s difficult to “Buy into” a comic that’s only just getting into the actual plot and posts one or two pages a week. For me, this comic lives in my head day and night, there isn’t a day where I don’t think about it in some capacity, but I’m also the writer so I have to be a fan of my own work.
As Nine Gates gets longer I think that will naturally boost viewer retention to a degree, though another thing to take into account is that a lot of people who DO read the entire thing and enjoy it will go, “Oh, cool! I’ll come back and see where this is at in a few months then,” and then forget about it. That’s why I think having an active community surrounding it is so important: If you have a place for people to go and talk about the comic, it sticks in their mind longer!
And yes, don’t take this as an insult but you definitely do have the vibes of a mom or dad who will talk to you about their cool interests.