These beautiful and intelligent people wrote

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  SandyReply

  November 22, 2011 at 11:20 pm

  It’s never mattered, except to the artist. A self-imposed deadline can be a useful motivator, but as for building an audience, it’s irrelevant. People will seek out good work regardless of the update schedule.

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    KrishnaReply

    November 22, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    Very true. My points exactly!

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  William 'Shaggy' ChrapcynskiReply

  November 22, 2011 at 11:20 pm

  Personally, that wouldn’t work for me. I need structure, goals and milestones. I suppose that’s part of having OCD. Having a set schedule motivates me to get the job done and it’s been working well for me for the past few years. :) To each their own, though.

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    KrishnaReply

    November 22, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    Don’t get me wrong, William. I still have a set schedule for making my comics – but at the heart of the matter is the publication cycle. I think it’s moot these days to have a pre-determined publishing schedule.

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  Rob StenzingerReply

  November 22, 2011 at 11:35 pm

  I think you have a great point in that fixed schedules aren’t critical.

  Though I wonder – what if there’s a growing base of readers that roll with a flexible schedule numerous enough that it covers the loss of readers that prefer a static schedule.

  That would mean both models of reader-habits are partially correct.

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  Scott HallReply

  November 23, 2011 at 12:18 am

  I agree. Just publish whenever, I’m all about RSS because every single site has one. I wish other some other comics would do the same, maybe it would encourage them to make sure a comic is great before posting it instead of just thinking “it’s Monday, gotta post a comic” (doesn’t apply to yours actually).

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    qkaReply

    November 23, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    Another vote for RSS, for pretty much the same reasons.

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  Mark StokesReply

  November 23, 2011 at 12:19 am

  I’d be interested to know how this works for you. The bottom line is delivering your strip to your audience on a regular basis, and of course it’s important to continue producing new work. A consistent and dependable update schedule has been rally cry amongst online cartoonists from the beginning, a roll-over perhaps from newspaper strips. But I do see the validity in offering my work on a scheduled update both for my readers and for myself. The delivery systems that you mention seem to be working for you, especially the custom apps to notify readers of an update, and email subscribers. I’m curious to know how these are being applied and how they are working for you. One question. Where will you monetize with this business model?

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    KrishnaReply

    November 23, 2011 at 9:05 am

    Great questions, Mark. I haven’t noticed any decrease in viewership since switching to the new updating schedule. Having the flexibility in publishing a comic as soon as it has been finished lets me deliver topical tech comics straight away, “striking while it’s hot”, to coincide with the corresponding tech news / announcement.

    To me, the ability to publish a comic outside of a fixed, regimented schedule is the beauty of making comics online.

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  MikeReply

  November 23, 2011 at 12:29 am

  I follow Krishna on twitter, am subscribed to the Toon Mailer, occasionally log into Google+ and have the RSS feed. It’s pretty much impossible for me to miss a new comic being posted.

  At this point, I think it depends on two things
  1. The artist (and/or writer and/or others involved). Some people requires strict deadlines, others don’t. Whatever works for them.

  2. How can I put this nicely….The dipshitedness (I love making up new words) of the fans. Some people get so up in arms about getting their FREE content when they want it. I remember some fans going nuts at Scott Kurtz when he stopped updating on Sundays (I think it was Sunday). Fans are important, in fact a necessity to making a webcomic work. However some have an over inflated sense of their role in the process. So if you have good fans or can tolerate the dickheads. I think it can work.

  This is all coming from an outside perspective. At one point a friend and I were going to try and make a webcomic. However University & College got in the way and the idea died about 8 years ago. I can only speak about what I have seen as a fellow fan.

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  Martin T.Reply

  November 23, 2011 at 2:28 am

  But what does BOB think…?

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    KrishnaReply

    November 23, 2011 at 9:07 am

    Bob has no choice. His hands are tied, as it were. ;)

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  Antoine GagnonReply

  November 23, 2011 at 8:35 am

  I would assume it would be important for an artist to show he can follow a consistent schedule “IF” he is aspiring to be published by other medias (magazines, newspapers, big publishers, etc..) where these would require a really consistent schedule.

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    KrishnaReply

    November 23, 2011 at 9:10 am

    Regular updates vs. consistent updates is what I’m trying to differentiate between. I wholeheartedly agree that regular updates are needed to build and grow an audience.

    I update 3 times a week – but whether that happens on M-W-F or M-T-Th week to week is immaterial, IMHO.

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  DrezzReply

  November 23, 2011 at 9:24 am

  I’ll play Devil’s advocate here.

  I’d prefer to just update when the page is done and let the content be the incentive to drive people to come back, but anything I can do to create an easy return pattern for people to follow, the better.

  People are creatures of habit, and if you post randomly rather than on a fixed date, there is no routine for them to follow and continue following (this is more for converting NEWER readers to loyal ones.) If you condition people to read your comic on X date, they integrate that into their own schedule. If you remove it, their first thought is often “Well what the hell am I going to do now to fill the time I spent reading X comic?”

  RSS Feeds and push notifications are great for instantly informing people that you’ve updated – and there will be a percentage of people who will jump to your comic he second it gets released. But there are still a large contingent of web users who follow a pattern in their daily browsing habits. If they check PC Weenies on a date where it regularly updates and nothing is there, they move on. Maybe they will check tomorrow, maybe they’ll wait until the next day its supposed to update. But what they take from that is, “Krishna didn’t update today. I wonder what happened?” Do that enough times, and they won’t care and check back with less frequency.

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    KrishnaReply

    November 27, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    Good points, Drezz. I suppose that is the flip-side of an irregular publishing schedule.

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  BartimaeusReply

  November 24, 2011 at 4:02 am

  It depends on how you intend to distribute your comic, and your average update frequency when you’re NOT binding yourself to a set schedule.
  Let’s look at a comic like Girl Genius: It updates every. Monday. Wednesday. and Friday. It has yet to miss a day, though it has gone B/W when the colorist was in the hospital.

  On the other hand, a comic that updates irregularly, but still has (let’s say) two updates a week is a bit tricky but still workable to follow. It’s no worse than a regular comic.

  However, the reason people say ‘stick to a schedule’ is that it’s easy for ‘no set schedule’ to become ‘no schedule’ if you don’t have the willpower to back it up. That’s what I believe people are trying to avoid with schedules.

  Disclaimer: I have never run a webcomic, and all of this is my surmise and opinion.

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  dgriff13Reply

  November 28, 2011 at 1:50 pm

  all great points, both in your article Krishna and the followup comments. The main reason, prior to social media, was to give your readers a schedule to count on… much like they would count on for the newest spiderman comic book or for the daily funnies. It’s a method they’re used to from “old-world” comics. Following in RSS, in particular, makes this moot. Hard to say other social media (twitter, FB, G+) makes it totally moot as well, however… as you have to hope your readers see your updates in their growing streams, to remind them to check out your site.

  A poll of my readers suggested only a handful use RSS- most bookmark my site, or follow me on twitter for updates. So, personally, I cannot count on my readers to stumble on my updates w/o being subscribed and w/o a specific update schedule. Now for PC Weenies… a technology-driven comic, I would presume more of your readers understand RSS feeds and use them, than mine. Just a guess. So, this may be a “depends-on-your-audience” type deal.

  Beyond that, only reasons I can think of “FOR” keeping a strict schedule would be:
  • appearing “professional” and/or “serious” about your comic. (Tho I supposes you could still say “3x a week” instead of “M-W-F” and give the same impression)
  • artist’s preference for consistent deadlines so they don’t start to slack off (as mentioned)
  • catering to your current fans if they prefer it that way

  … which, honestly, aren’t all that profound. I’m interested to see how this works out for you.

  P.S. Now that I have a 1.5 month buffer, I like being able to get 3 comics done in a week, any day I wish to shuffle them in to my workload.. instead of frantically getting them done the night before (ok, I mean early morning).

  Good debate. Rules are made to be broken mwahahaha!

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  Don GarveyReply

  November 28, 2011 at 2:10 pm

  As someone who only started publishing a comic online in the past month, I think it might be easier for an established creator with a good sized archive under his or her belt to make this decision. There is something about proving to a reader that you are for real – the professionalism that Dawn talks about. I agree with you that there are sufficient content delivery systems to alert readers that your site/comic is updated, however – and I can easily imagine that going fine for someone who is established. While still building an audience? I think there’s a product maturity level that needs to be maintained. The web is sick with unfinished webcomics. Maybe that doesn’t matter.

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  Ken DrabReply

  November 28, 2011 at 2:21 pm

  Dawn goaded me into reading and I’m glad she did. Good topic Krishna, and I like that your audience (non-comicker’s) is chiming in – that’s as valuable information as any in reality.

  The Drunk, Drezz and Dawn make excellent points, specifically in regards to growing an audience, reader habits and type of audience respectively. I also like the thought Rob Stenzinger came up about the possibly that the ability to employ a flexible schedule is a growing among your audience. I’d like to add a thought myself.

  I think if you’re cognizant of the expectations your setting for your audience, it probably matters less as we all find ways to get über connected to our readers. If you tell them you’ll publish three times a week on a set schedule, they’re going to expect that. Missing those updates risks breaking that “trust” or alienating their expectations. Letting them know that you’re going to publish three times a week when the comic is done may actually help your traffic as people check in on your site to see if there’s a new comic.

  Thanks for the conversation Krishna and of course, #thanksdawn!

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  quarktimeReply

  November 28, 2011 at 3:03 pm

  I do my best to stick to a Sunday PM/Monday AM post time because consistency seems to work best, both for my own tendency to procrastinate, and for the readership numbers. I have problems with chronic pain, and sometimes I get hit with a series of bad days, or medical treatments, and it blows a deadline. I see the result in the numbers. For a couple of months, I was off-sync, and was updating on Wednesdays, and my readership dropped by around 25%. There were no comments, no complaints, no flames, no dickhead screaming about entitlement. Just fewer visits. I fought my way back to Sunday PM/Monday AM posting, and the numbers are on their way back up in just a few weeks. It’s spooky.

  I like telling my story. I get a great deal of personal satisfaction out of the thought that others are enjoying it. I don’t make a dime from it, and don’t expect to. This is what I do for ME, and part of that is feeling good about the result. If people reading it are unhappy about it, I’m less fulfilled by the process, so I change it around until they’re happier, and I’m happier. (There are limits. I won’t ship out free cookies or endure severe pain for the readers. If I’m in severe pain, the entire world can go fish.)

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  John BogenschutzReply

  November 28, 2011 at 3:14 pm

  I think there is room for both types of schedules. As someone previously stated, it really depends on the artist.

  As for me, I have been told many times by my fans that they look forward to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (when I update), so I think there is still some validity in keeping a set schedule. Again, though, it depends on your fans. I think my fans don’t tend to use RSS feed so, for me, not updating on a set schedule would actually hurt my traffic.

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  ByronReply

  November 28, 2011 at 3:41 pm

  I think it’s important to stick to a set schedule. True, many people do come by via RSS, but many, many more do not. They come because they know it’s “update time.” TV shows don’t put an episode out when they feel like it as they have to build an audience and that audience needs to know that at 10pm (9 Central) their favorite show will be on.

  Same point here. At a certain point your audience will accept just about anything you do, as long as the content is solid, which for the most part the folks responding here do provide great content on a timely basis.

  I’m more in favor of seasons and building a solid buffer (like Dawn did), which allows an artist to then create the comic as needed and not worry about “Nuts, I have to get this comic done for tomorrow.” I don’t see why we have to provide content 52 weeks a year. Again, I take a tip from my network TV days… shows only do 20 episodes a year as it is costly and hard to produce a weekly show. We comic creators should take a lesson from that as well.

  I see your point and it works for you. And if it ain’t broken, then why fix it?
  :)

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    John BogenschutzReply

    November 28, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    Byron, I just listened to your guys’ podcast last night about the season format for the comics. I think the biggest downfall of the season comics is advertising. I don’t think you will maximize your advertising because you will have a smaller traffic at the beginning of your season (and it will gradually grow back up as people realize that your season is back), but once the season ends I think you’ll see a drop in readership again and your rates will be back down again.

    Now, over a course of a 3-4 month season, that will be less extreme, but someone mentioned doing the Spooky Doofus for only October. Being only a month I think that would seriously hurt ad rates as there will not be as much time for advertisers to see that your traffic is indeed going up, but then it will fall right off again.

    Just my thoughts on the seasoned comic format. I think you are missing out on major advertising money. Am I wrong about that everyone?

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  jynksieReply

  November 28, 2011 at 6:31 pm

  I’m of the belief that if you marry Krishna’s and Byrons line of thinking, there lies a better model for comic creating. If you intend to update on a regular basis, say twice a week, then whatever day those comics are ready to roll, then roll them out. Readers have so many avenues to know when you’ve published something new, it seems moot to need it to be on specific days.

  Then you have Byrons suggestion of running your comic in “seasons”. Allowing you down time to focus on upcoming scripts, buffering, maybe merchandising and marketing plans and the like. This way you aren’t trying to do it all to the point of confusion and exhaustion.

  My personal opinion on the future of comics is in the independent publishing market, so I’m not sure comic creators need to worry about proving they can keep a schedule for the syndicates, as much as prove to their fan base that they can keep all aspects of the business of comic creating running smoothly, efficiently and with little interruption to what their readers demand of them.

  Thats my 2.5 cents!

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  PaulReply

  November 17, 2014 at 9:58 am

  Well, you do a good of putting out content often enough that I don’t forget about the comic. I think that is the real key, especially so when you get into long story arcs like the present one. The story arc creates drama (and drama = interest in this case) so letting it go for too long without an update is detrimental.

  I believe that is the only important thing. In fact, irregularity might be a good thing. A little variation adds to the enjoyment.
  :)

  -Paul

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    KrishnaReply

    November 17, 2014 at 2:05 pm

    Good points, Paul. Thank you!