Where Should You Publish Your Webcomics?

Comic artists have the choice between publishing online or creating a physical, printed comic book. On-line webtoons have exploded over the last 20 years as people find their favorite things digitally instead of buying physical platforms.

If you’re one of the comics creators that’s interested in exploring digital publishing platforms, here are some online spaces that you should investigate. To be successful in your digital webcomic endeavor, set aside a little bit of capital as an investment, find the right platforms, and start posting.

Claim Your Online Identity

Before you start to post your comics, you need to make sure that your artistic nickname, if you have one, hasn’t been taken by another artist.

You may not be sure that you want to invest a whole lot when you’re beginning your artist's journey. Still, your professional artist's name is one of your professional persona’s most essential elements, so you must protect it.

To make sure the name you want isn’t taken, do a preliminary web search to see if anyone else has the same (or a similar) name. There are dozens of name-checker devices on the Internet. You should look for both @yourname and @yourartistname when you’re searching for anyone else who is using a similar-sounding moniker.

Some may contradict this by noting that many famous artists don’t have user names that match the ones they use professionally, but these artists usually chose those names after becoming famous. If you aren’t renowned, pick a similar name to the one you use professionally for a seamless transition.

Making the Most of Social Media

While you’re still in the nascent stages of your webcomic career, you may want to test the waters by  publishing some of your comics on your social media sites. These free platforms are ideal for gauging the public’s response to your art.

If you have accounts with Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, these are ideal places to put out a few webcomics.  If you’re inundated with likes and requests for more, you know you’re onto something.

Here are some key tips to making your webcomics look their best when you're first publishing them:

• Vertical orientation – Your comics will be more visible if they run up and down instead of side to side, and it’s easier for folks to scroll down than to scroll right or left.
• Photo series – If your webcomic is more than two to three panels, post it as a photo series.
• Crisp images – Make sure your images are posted at 500px wide, so they are clean-looking.
• Draft first – Before you publish them to the world, save and view your comics as drafts to see how they will look to the public.

If you have a glowing response on one of your social media platforms, you may want to move on to a middle-grade platform. Not entirely as free-form as social media, you can publish your comics on these sites for minimal to no investment.

Intermediate Web Comics Platforms

Those who have come before you have noted the different platforms that are especially amenable to publishing webcomics. Some of the more popular ones are Reddit, Tumblr, Webtoons, and Bored Panda. Here are some more details about each.

• Reddit – Post your webcomics in content-relevant threads to find more like-minded artists and fans. People up-vote the comics they like and down-vote the ones they don’t.
• Tumblr – A website with short, attention-getting blogs that also include webcomics. If you hashtag your comic, it will appear on both Tumblr and your website, which is very useful to novice artists.
• Webtoons – This site is a free platform for die-hard fans of webcomics with a vast range of styles and genres and a straightforward user interface. 
• Bored Panda – This website prides itself on boredom-busting articles and publishes webcomics periodically.

If you are pleased with the public’s response to your comics on these free platforms, you may want to consider some of the top-tier webcomics publishing platforms on the internet: hosting sites.

Expert Level: Hosting Sites

For these hosting sites, you usually have to pay a nominal annual fee for the right to put your comics on their platform. However, when you publish on these sites, you lose a lot of control over who views your comics and how you track the analytics.

ComicPress and Toocheke are two great options. However, you have to realize that  when you publish on these more-well known, pay-to-publish platforms, you will relinquish a lot of control and gain a lot of visibility. On the other hand, if you stick with your own, smaller websites, you will have total control but less visibility. In the end, the choice is yours.

The Last Panel

Publishing your webcomics takes hard work, dedication, the right tools, courage. You can find your comics’ ideal home with the right publishing team with the control and visibility you expect.

Comix Well Spring is a professional publishing service that can help you achieve your goals. Contact us today for more information about how to make your publishing dream a reality.