As for advertising, I have done a lot in the past but not for a while. The problem was that I get all these people the first day, but they didn’t stick around. Now I’m thinking that perhaps it’s because the comic is so hard to get into the first time because you just don’t know what’s going on without reading all the archive. But I think I can fix that. As I say you’ve all given me a lot of great stuff to think about. The biggest problem I have at the moment is limited time and energy. But I’m thinking that perhaps I can readjust a lot of things to save TFR. Thanks again for all the constructive input.

Your art is great, your characters are great, and your storyline, though choppy, is intriguing enough to keep me coming back. That’s pretty much all you need for a successful webcomic.

I think what’s probably holding you back is the lack of advertising. Most of the other comics I read on a regular basis offer ‘extras’ if people vote for them on sites like topwebcomics.com (which I couldn’t even find you on). The writers are often talking about the latest comicon event they’ve been to, or post comments on other artists sites. Not that you should just copy what every other artist out there is doing, but TFR just isn’t in enough places to attract new readers and your current readers (myself included) aren’t spreading the word. I can’t remember how I found it, but if I hadn’t bookmarked TFR when I did, I probably wouldn’t be reading today.

In reference to the choppy storyline. If you want to fix it I don’t think you’d need to redo the comic, but reshuffle the pages and add a few pages that tie sections together.

My suggestion would be to temporarily take TFR down leaving only a few ‘pretty’ intro pages up and a written storyline “Thus Far”. Then do the reshuffle, add pages, consolidate the storyline and color in the B&W pages. At the same time concentrate on some advertising (without being shy of spending). Then, reintroduce TFR in a couple months if you think you’ve got enough attention and see if that works.

I guess that wasn’t very quick was it. Sorry

Some you your pages are gorgeous, but those probably took longer. In general, I’d prefer story over graphics. I forget, did you stick to a style and stay with it or does a page come a a jarringly different style occasionaly?

Yes, you probably had a few timeline issues that made it harder to follow, and a reasonably large number of characters too. But all of that goes away if you build up enough of an archive.

I have a major point though. What makes you think a new project will succeed better than contnuing this one? Either continue this one because you love it, are stuborn enough to put in the years it takes to get recognition, or quit all comics cause the next one will start off worse and only build up to the level this one is at after a couple more years. If you can improve the new one with ads, you could do the same for this one. Same for plot, gags, color, and number of updates per week.

BTW, how long have you given to see the results of hardcopy sales? A month? And were you actualy going to follow though on the poll that showed people wanted an omnibus eddition instead of 2 books to get close to where we are now?

Sounds like you need to find some encouragement. But some of that comes from seeking it out. Ever take some of your books to a convention to sell even if you don’t buy a booth? Ever take some to a local book store? Shown your friends your work? Got a family memeber who ask how the next page is coming? Set up a forum for your fans? Hell, be honest with other webcomic authors and send them a sample of your work in exchange for a link. What about organizing your store? I see a link for wallpaper one place, the ebook another place, and the hard copy a third place, and the store link goe nowhere. What happened to the idea of using TFR for Zuda? If you are thinking of quiting anyway, why keep it “in reserve”? What about an ad post by you or fans on some SF theamed game boards? Did you put dontation incentives (sneak peaks) for us behind the vote buttons? Ever ask readers for a choice of a page they want as wall paper? Are you a fast enough sketcher to do unique character extras on the side for $? Ever thought of selling TFR themed pins, nicknacks, plushies, scultptures, etc?

Ok, I’m hitting buttons on your page and I see you have a forum, but I’ve never heard you talk about it. I see you have a Characters page mislabled for New Readers. Maybe it should be both. On your forum, ever talk about things there that people can only find there? In otherwords, do you do anything to draw them there? I think you need a critical mass, but you are talking about going back to square zero, which would be a waste.

But if you decide to keep on with TFR, banish talk of quiting since fans won’t know if they will get to see the end of the story.

If you fill you life up with other things than TFR, I don’t think you will come back to it.

I really am going to have to simplify the art somehow. Not sure how. I remember when I did the comic in pencil and colored that it went faster. So maybe I can try that again. Like both of you mentioned, updating three times a week would help, but I need to be able to do it without it taking forever for each page. I had tried doing it more sprite based in Flash but wasn’t happy with the results. Anyway, I’ll experiment with it and do some more writing. Thanks again for the input.

My personal opinion (for what it’s worth) is that one of the problems with Far Reaches was it’s rather erratic shifts of time and place. Thinking back on it, it feels more like it has the structure of a movie than a webcomic. Going through the pages quickly (i.e. in one or two sittings) it holds together much better than following it in real time.

The trouble is, when it’s updating even at the rate of twice or three times a week, it’s just too easy to forget what’s gone before, who’s doing what to/with whom. If it’s updating once a week or even less often, it tends toward the mystifying.

In order to attract a bigger audience I suspect you’d need to rewrite the whole thing from scratch to have much longer, more linear sequences between cuts, and forego flashbacks/flashforwards altogether. Either that or update much, much more frequently – at least three times a week.

Another thing that hasn’t helped is posting uncoloured or subtly tinted pages in the middle of richly coloured ones. People might be happy to put up with that in a gag-a-day strip, but in a plot driven strip it just looks like you can’t be bothered to put up finished pages. It is, I’m afraid, somewhat offputting to see what looks (or clearly is) an unfinished page, and have to come back sometime later to see it coloured as it was meant to be.

Also, many of the successful strips have started out basically as gag-strips. People can drop in erratically (or stumble upon any arbitrary strip) and get a laugh out of it. Then, once an audience has built up, storylines start to dominate. Whether that’s a possible approach would depend on whether you’d feel happy doing that.

Finally, there’s the option to just dump the Far Reaches (as a commercial venture, at least) altogether. I understand you want to make a living at this. Looking at it brutally, if the investment of time in the product (either ongoing or to get started) isn’t going to bring in a return, then you’re just piling up grief for yourself.

I would love to see Far Reaches continue. I’d love to see it updating more often, even with simplified artwork. But I wouldn’t like to see it dragging down your chosen career, and I suspect, if you love it for itself, you don’t want to see that either.

I hope these ramblings have been of some help .

Also, a more regular update schedule is good — it keeps people coming back for more story. I have you on RSS so I never miss an update, but for the people who don’t, it’s a pain to have to come and check.

I enjoy your story and your art — I don’t think there’s anything wrong there. It’s just a matter of getting more exposure and building a good reputation.

And I’m sure there some spy novel where a laundry list was used as code. That never happened with George Smiley, but I could see it as a possibility, especially under Moscow Rules.