After creating the outlines of your story and finalizing your first three episodes, you’re probably eager to publish your webtoon on a webtoon platform. However, as explained in the article How to Create a Webtoon, it’s essential to take your time and avoid rushing. The publishing phase is critical as it spans the entire lifespan of your webtoon, sometimes months or even years.
Publishing your webtoon isn’t just a formality. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Therefore, it’s crucial to be well-prepared to ensure consistency and effective management in the long run. In this article, we’ll explore the essential steps to properly prepare for publishing your webtoon.
- Step 1: Preparing Your Episodes
- Step 2: Social Media to Build Your Audience
- Step 3: Consistency to Retain Your Audience
Step 1: Preparing Your Episodes
The first and most important thing before publishing your webtoon is to have episodes ready. This may seem obvious, but episode preparation goes beyond just the first three or five episodes. It’s essential to have a strategy to manage the ongoing creation of episodes and stay ahead in production.
This strategy will depend on your needs, whether it’s rest time or production time for a webtoon episode. As mentioned earlier, it’s designed to ensure continuous episode creation and provide you with a buffer to anticipate unforeseen events.
To achieve this, we can identify three types of episodes you’ll need to prepare:
Episodes Ready to Be Published
These episodes, typically between 3 and 5, will be published on the launch day of your webtoon. They should be fully completed (inking, coloring, lettering, etc.). The launch day of your webtoon is crucial to capturing readers' interest, especially if you benefit from a platform feature. Your readers need access to enough episodes to immerse themselves in your story and want to know what happens next. This is why webtoon platforms that publish licensed webtoons release several episodes on launch day. To ensure the success of your story at launch, it’s essential to publish 3 to 5 episodes, and not just one.
Episodes in Advance
These are episodes that are either fully completed like the ones ready to be published or still in the finishing stages (coloring or lettering). They allow you to maintain a steady rhythm even in the face of unforeseen events by staying ahead of your publication schedule. Having at least 5 episodes in advance will help you anticipate and even take breaks without affecting your readers. While 5 episodes is a recommendation, you’ll need to define how many advance episodes you require based on your publishing frequency and creation pace. The general advice is to have one month’s worth of episodes in reserve, meaning the same number of episodes you plan to publish in a month. Here’s a table to help you determine this:
| Frequency | 2 episodes/week | 1 episode/week | 1 episode/10 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month (4 weeks) | 8 episodes in advance | 4 episodes in advance | 3 episodes in advance |
| 1 month (5 weeks) | 10 episodes in advance | 5 episodes in advance | 3 episodes in advance |
These episodes are critical, as they’ll allow you to take breaks during your creative process if needed.
Storyboards
Finally, the last type of episode you’ll need is episodes in storyboard form. They allow you to plan your story across multiple episodes and get an overview of its progression. The more storyboards you have ready, the better you’ll be able to organize the continuation of your webtoon. Having at least 10 episodes in storyboard form will give you a clear vision of your project and help you save time during the creation of your episodes.
Step 2: Social Media to Build Your Audience
Preparing your episodes is one thing, but if no one knows your webtoon exists or is in progress, you risk missing out on readers at launch. It’s therefore crucial to “lay the groundwork” using social media. Proper preparation before your webtoon’s release can make the difference between 100 readers and just 5.
To do this, you’ll need to choose the platforms where you want to promote your webtoon. Select them based on your audience—you don’t have to be everywhere.
Publishing Strategy on Social Media:
It’s important to start talking about your webtoon several weeks before its release. Gradually reveal information to spark interest without spoiling the entire plot. Vary the formats (illustrations, videos, texts) and adapt your content to the specificities of each social media platform. A good mix of teasers and direct engagement with your followers will help you build a solid fan base before publication.
TikTok
On TikTok, the focus is on short video formats. Post episode teasers showing key excerpts of your webtoon. You can also share "timelapse" videos showing the creation of drawings or character reveals, gradually unveiling their traits.
Use Instagram to share illustrations of your characters, as well as banners or promotional images. Stories can be used to show behind the scenes of your webtoon creation. "Reels" can be used to tease dialogue excerpts or key moments, similar to TikTok.
X (Twitter)
X is great for interacting with your future readers. You can share sketches, ask questions to engage your audience ("Which character design do you prefer?"), or even announce important release dates. It’s also a good place to post threads explaining parts of your webtoon’s universe.
Step 3: Consistency to Retain Your Audience
Once your episodes are ready and you’ve built an audience anticipating your webtoon, the next step is to define your publishing consistency, if you haven’t already. This may seem simple, but it’s a key factor in retaining your readers and keeping your webtoon up to date. Choose a publishing frequency based on your creative abilities, the episodes you have in reserve, but most importantly, your audience. The frequency you choose should allow enough time to build anticipation without making the wait too long.
The most common frequencies are:
- Once a week
- Every 10 days.
You’re free to choose whatever frequency suits you. However, once chosen and announced, you’ll need to stick to it so as not to disrupt your readers or lose their interest in your webtoon.
Thanks to your earlier preparation (ready episodes, advance episodes, and storyboard episodes), you’ll be able to maintain this consistency without stressing.
Conclusion
Publishing a webtoon involves much more than simply uploading it. It’s a long-term project that requires a well-thought-out strategy, starting long before the release date. In this article, you’ve learned the importance of having advance episodes, whether completed or not. These episodes will serve as a solid foundation to anticipate unexpected events and even allow you to take breaks when needed. However, as an independent creator, if you want to ensure the success of your webtoon, you must be active on social media to promote it before and during its publication. Once your webtoon is published, you’ll need to maintain a consistent publishing schedule (the frequency you choose) to retain your readers and grow your audience.