I Stopped Trying with my Webcomic | Instagram and Webtoon Success

[@QNiki]

Oh my god someone finally put my thoughts into words! I feel like these days aiming to be successful feels futile...and in a roundabout way I'm focusing more on just making the art, rather than the final product. Just because I like it...funny how these things work out

[@ndbern42]

Ah man, I feel you so much, I'm exactly the same here! especially in the age of ai, the making will be the central point of art again. May it give you loads of joy for a long time!

[@notevenashamed]

I had the exact same experience with global comix, like I felt it was such a weird uploading process and a pain in the butt to get things approved and also barely any vocal readers, I just stopped posting... The platform I liked the most so far is comic fury, as it let me had a more customizable landing page, I feel there aren't that many readers there, but the ones that I managed to snatch have been fairly active and chatty, but I could've just lucked out I feel such terrible burnout from social media, and the thought if spending even one day a month to chase an algorithm or some big entity approval sound nightmareish to me... idk... I feel like I get the most sad and unfulfilled when I'm chasing something I can't control... because I could really love something and have it perform poorly and it ruins my entire day, but if I don't even check I can't be disappointed Also, not related to the video but about your comic, I also like to have roughly 20 panels per episode both as an author and as a reader , and I've never felt like you've cut any episode in a weird way or felt unsatisfied that the action was continuing on the next episode... if anything I feel the little avatar telling me the rest of the episode is coming son is not necessary... of course you're free to keep it there, but as someone reading whenever I have time (not clicking every time i get a notification) it's a bit weird to have attention called to the length of the episodes by announcing that the next part is coming soon... Anyways, great video, I love to have you in the background while I'm also struggling with my own comic

[@IocteNocte]

SAME!

[@polyweird]

I feel this...I can sometimes go months without posting anything because I get hit by a block due to depression or something else.

[@ndbern42]

Ah man, that sucks so much, I'm sorry you have to got through these sad spells. Don't beat yourself up about not posting, it's not what art was invented for. If anything, it should be the thing that lifts you up after some dark time.

[@pantheontalks]

Firstly that music at the end slaps. Like I loved it! Anyway I’m so glad your internally starting to look internally for what success is. We as creatives can define our own success. It’s so important to be more strategic with these companies and not put our eggs all in one basket.

[@ndbern42]

Right?? it does! Found it in the youtube studio library so it's even Royalty free XD I agree, the real satisfaction with art comes within, it's almost like meditation... and no one meditates to get other people to say "Wow, that person meditates so well, let me throw some money at them" I'm so glad we have you guys to help us be more strategic with the corporate world! I think many of us don't have such a healthy approach towards evil contracts and cunning business parties :)

[@ren_sensei]

Oh nd, the title nearly broke my heart 🤣 It is harder to get discovered now comparing to 5-6 years ago, no matter the platform, it's always seem like lottery and has little correlation to the quality and effort which is sad. So much has changed over the landscape of webcomic readers' behaviour and platforms, ai, algo etc. But we continue to do what we love right 🤗

[@ndbern42]

Hi Ren! oh no, it's a pragmatic but I do acknowledge on the thumbnail it sounded more dramatic than the video is ;)) Yeah, that's so true, we just continue, maybe even more happily than when there was something like reachable success!

[@HugeFrigginGuy]

First off; you have a lovely singing voice! And I say that as someone has very little tolerance for amateur vocals. But secondly, great video and a very relatable subject manner. I have also given up fully on Instagram, so would love to hear more about what works on that platform and maybe I'll find the motivation to try and actual make a go of it there too. I also struggle with that nagging "if you can't do it optimally, why do it at all," voice even though I know logically that makes no sense. As always, I appreciate your thoughts and insights, and here's hoping you get some love from a hot new publisher and not that aloof jerk of an ex-crush who never saw your real value!

[@ndbern42]

First off, the last sentence had me crack up for real, over here XD Ah man, I truly appreciate you like my (emphasis on) *trained* singing voice! it's the most I can do and I'm probably more proud of it than I am of my best piece of art! truth is, I doesn't come easy to me, it takes a lot of work to sing kinda well (one song, without being nervous, in the safety of my room). and that's probably why pushing this so hard is even MORE fun than pushing the drawing thing as hard. That little nagging voice is most likely self-sabotage or a good excuse to not have to put up with the insta-jungle at all XD (understandably) Maybe Instagram is too simple for you? People also avoid stuff that presents no (creative) challenges to them. I'll dig into this subject a bit more in the next few weeks and will be very happy to share whatever comes out! Thank you Sean it was nice to read you again, hope all is going well!

[@somethingsomething7798]

Love your videos! You inspire me so much

[@ndbern42]

For real, your comment is so pure and precious, I'll have to read it first thing tomorrow morning XD Thank you so much!!!

[@RoseOfAtom]

This is very helpful. I love your artstyle I'll definitely want to read it I haven't read webcomics in a while.

[@ndbern42]

Oh thank you so much! Actually I only read 3 series at the moment, so I'm even more flattered you'd be interested in reading mine :) no pressure tho!

[@JulieSteam]

Didn't you make a song for your webcomic a while back? I remember thinking how amazing it is to have knowledge in multiple artistic fields. That's impressive !

[@ndbern42]

Oh dang!! you remember that??? thank you so much, I actually almost forgot about it XD

[@FrootDeMoN]

I relate to this a lot. Life in general is too fast, but in order to catch up, you need to slow down. Also, I would love to watch a stream from you. Maybe a drawing stream would be cool! It's also okay if speaking in English is not easy for you and you don't feel comfortable doing it. ((as a person who also has English as their second language, i get it))

[@ndbern42]

I love this! It's so true, we have to slow down and see that we do the right thing at least 50% right instead of doing the wrong thing 100% right :D PS: I'll think hard about that stream, but maybe I can just do a longer video XD

[@zhaskader8093]

Somehow i can relate to this because being creative is a way for us to express the art and story we`ve been dying to make , but was hold back by self doubt. However running away from it won`t solve it, you just gotta do it and enjoying the process, accepting the art flaws and improve. I like you point about creating content for instagram, yeah sometimes you just don`t want to kneel down to the social media , but i feel like you have to if you want to engage for your upcoming audience that would be your potential readers. Don`t be hard on your self, take time and breath enjoy the little things in life. Your health is wealth

[@ndbern42]

I agree sooo much with not running away! I tried that once and developed a whole lot of unhealthy coping strategy to deal with the loss of making art 😂 And I also agree with instagram being a necessary chore, I'm really hoping to find the right approach to get it done :)

[@augustawickmanart]

I think globalcomix just does not have a very large audience. More so than that, it seems like the only people on globalcomix are creators. So they aren't really any readers there looking for a new comic to read. It's just creators posting their comics. I do think you analogy of having a crush on someone who won't notice you is funny and fitting though. It's so hard and heartbreaking trying to appease Webtoon. It's much more healthy to create a comic without obsessing over the idea "will they notice me?"

[@ndbern42]

THat might be Globalcomix issue! sounds unhealthy, like an over saturated single platform with just one of the parties that make a couple XD

[@Jess-wm5js]

Honestly I feel like that’s such a healthy approach. You can’t control the actions of a publisher. So you just have to try your best and not let them kill your joy.

[@ndbern42]

Very well summarized, I agree 100%. if we let the people who want to make money of the *joy* that makes our work desirable, kill that same joy, that's really not productive for anyone. It's just a shame we creators have to be the party that first stops this viscous cycle

[@daniellaemeline]

Me too 🤣 I start posting on IG again to promote my new comic but not long after that I decided to stop posting again since IG is not like what it used to be

[@ndbern42]

Yeah, right? It's changed so much!

[@J.KINGTOONZ]

I gave up on Instagram a long time ago, posts seem to never reach anyone especially when your a nobody. It's not the same anymore it feels more pay driven now for the unknown.

[@ndbern42]

I agree, it seems to be all about money or some outlandish degree of fame. certainly no good motivators to make art! PS I love your animations, are you working on something at the moment?

[@J.KINGTOONZ]

@@ndbern42 Thanks!😄Yeah, I'm working on part 4 for my Saitama Vs Broly at the moment xD.

[@ndbern42]

@@J.KINGTOONZ yay, looking forward!!

[@J.KINGTOONZ]

@@ndbern42 I don't know if you noticed but your old character design was in my first part haha.

[@ndbern42]

@@J.KINGTOONZ LOOOOLLL!!! I didn't notice!! that's so funny!! I'm screaming! 😂😂 Its a me!

[@maojen__]

Can totally relate! Even if I tried to have zero expectations it still got to me a little bit that there are so few interactions. I gladly have some „old“ followers from a previous site I used to post who comment here and there but gaining new interactive followers is so hard🥲 and on Instagram it took me several months to have around 50 followers. I’m on a hiatus at the moment and living off my buffer but I hope I can gain some motivation soon again😩 I’m missing being in the drawing flow. I would appreciate if you would show us how you prepare your instagram content though :)

[@ndbern42]

Sounds like you're working hard enough (you deserve that hiatus) don't beat yourself up, in the contrary, enjoy the time you gained back while not posting on socials. PS: imagine 50 peoples in a room who look at your art. That's pretty damn many!