Episodes
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An episode is what a reader opens and pays for: a run of page images with a title, a price, and a time it is published at. Episodes live inside their series. On the Series list, choose Episodes on the series' row to open them.
The list shows each episode as its position and title, with its status, Draft, Scheduled, or Published, its price, and, for a scheduled one, the time it is due. An episode not shown on both the site and the app is marked Web only, App only, or Not shown anywhere. Edit opens the episode, or View for an Auditor. Its edit screen has two tabs: Cover image, which The cover image describes, and Basic information, which holds every other section of the screen.
An episode is made of page images, whether the work is a comic or not. Novels written as text are not supported yet (#505).
The order of episodes
Episodes are listed, and numbered on the site, in the series' order. A new episode goes to the end. To move one, drag it by its handle, or focus the handle and use the arrow keys. The list shows twenty episodes to a page, and an episode can be moved only within its page.
The site numbers each episode by its position, Episode followed by the number, counting the episodes readers cannot see yet. Keep drafts and scheduled episodes at the end of the order, so that the published ones are numbered without gaps.
A new order reaches the site as soon as it is saved.
Creating an episode
Choose Create on the episode list and fill in:
- Title: the episode's title in the site's default language, such as
Episode 1 — A beginning morning. It can be changed later, and given in the site's other languages there. - Price: the price in the tenant's currency, which the field names, with no more decimal places than the currency has:
500for 500 yen,4.99for 4.99 US dollars.0makes the episode free. - Reading period: how many hours a purchase keeps the episode open.
0keeps it open with no end. It starts at the series' Reading period. - Rental price and Rental period: what renting the episode costs, lower than Price, and how many hours a rental keeps it open. Leave Rental price empty not to rent the episode. Rental period starts at the series' Rental period.
- Publication date and time: when the episode is published, read in the tenant's time zone. Leave it empty to create a draft. A time that has already passed publishes the episode as soon as it is created.
- Shown on and Sold on: where the episode can be found and bought, as Shown on and Sold on describes. Both start by following the series.
Price, Reading period, and the rental can be changed later. Selling episodes explains them.
Choose Create episode. The episode is created with the Authors credited on the series, and its edit screen opens to add its pages.
Changing the title
Title, at the top of the episode's edit screen, holds the episode's title in each language the site offers. Languages has a tab for each of them, and the field below holds the title in the one selected. Change it and choose Update title. The site and the app show the new title as soon as it is saved. A title cannot be left empty.
A language the episode has no title in yet is marked (not added). Its tab opens the field empty: enter the title and choose Add translation. Until then, readers of the site and the app in that language see the episode's title in another language. Delete this translation, beside the tabs, removes the selected language's title, but not the last one an episode has.
The episode list, and the console's other screens that name an episode, show its title in the site's default language.
Changing the price and reading period
Price and reading period, on the episode's edit screen, holds the values the episode is sold on, with the same rules as when it was created: Price is in the tenant's currency, 0 making the episode free, and Reading period is a number of hours, 0 keeping a purchase open with no end. Rental price and Rental period hold the rental: emptying Rental price stops renting the episode, and on an episode that is not rented, Rental period offers the series' Rental period, so renting it takes only a price. Change any of them and choose Update price and reading period. The site and the app sell the episode on the new values as soon as they are saved.
A change applies to purchases made after it is saved. A purchase already made keeps the price it was paid and the time it expires, and a reader who opened the payment provider's checkout page before the change pays what that page shows. Changing the series' Reading period or Rental period does not change these.
An app that sells through the stores buys an episode as the store product of its price, so a new price, or a new campaign price, may need a new product: see Store products.
Adding the pages
Add comic pages, on the episode's edit screen, adds pages in one of three ways under Upload method:
- Select multiple page images takes several JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP files at once, chosen or dropped onto Page images. They are added in the order the browser hands them over, usually by file name, so check the order afterwards.
- Use a ZIP takes a ZIP file and adds the
.png,.jpg,.jpeg, and.gifimages inside it, in the order of their paths, sopage2.pngcomes beforepage10.png. Other files in it are ignored, WebP images among them, and it may hold up to 1000 images. - Use an ePub takes an ePub file and adds the JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP images its pages show, in reading order, up to 1000 of them.
Choose Add page images, Add a ZIP, or Add an ePub to upload. Each image may be up to 20 MB, and one upload up to 256 MB, whichever of the three it is, so a whole episode can be added as one ZIP or ePub. One larger than that is added over several uploads; each adds its pages after the last one. The card states these formats and limits under the file picker.
Registered page images shows the pages in order. Drag a page by its handle, or focus the handle and use the arrow keys, to move it. Under each page:
- Replace puts a new image in the page's place. Choose one JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP image of up to 20 MB under New page image, and choose Replace page. Every other page stays where it is.
- Delete takes the page out of the episode once Delete page confirms it. The pages after it move up one place. A deleted page cannot be brought back; add its image again to restore it.
Pages added to an episode that is already published, a page replaced or deleted, and a new order of its pages reach readers as soon as they are saved. A published episode with no pages shows readers that its pages have not been published yet.
Deleting pages leaves the episode's own Spreads start under Page layout as it was. If that page is now past the last one, the episode is shown without spreads until it has that many pages again.
Page layout
Page layout sets the two things a series decides for its episodes, for this episode alone:
- Reading direction: Follow the series, Right to left, or Left to right.
- Spreads start: Follow the series, or Set for this episode, which asks for the page spreads start at, from 1 to the episode's last page. Add the pages first: an episode without any can only follow the series.
Choose Update page layout to save. A value that follows the series changes whenever the series does. Reading direction and spreads describes what each does in the viewer.
The site shows two pages side by side only in a viewer at least 768 pixels wide and no taller than it is wide, and the app only on a tablet or a phone held sideways. Elsewhere pages are shown one at a time.
Previewing the pages
Preview, at the bottom of the episode's edit screen, shows the episode's pages in the viewer the site uses: in their saved order, turned in the episode's reading direction, and paired into spreads from the page its layout starts them at. A draft or a scheduled episode previews the same way as a published one, so the pages can be checked before readers see them.
Turn the pages as a reader does on the site: with the arrow keys, by clicking near either edge of the viewer, or by clicking the middle of it to show Previous page, Next page, and the reading progress slider under the pages. The preview follows the same rule for spreads as the site, so a wide enough window shows two pages side by side.
A change saved on the edit screen — pages added, replaced, deleted, or moved, or an update to Page layout — shows in the preview once it is saved, and the preview starts again from the first page. A value chosen in Page layout but not saved yet does not show. An episode with no pages says so in the preview.
Everyone who can open the episode can turn its pages in the preview, including those who cannot change it.
The cover image
An episode without a cover image of its own shows its series' cover image wherever the site and the app picture it, so a new episode needs nothing here. Give an episode one of its own where it should look different from its series.
The Cover image tab of the episode's edit screen sets it. Under Cover image, select a JPEG, PNG, or WebP image of at most 10 MB and at least 2400 × 3200 pixels, and choose Update cover image. Saving cuts it into the same four shapes as a series' cover, at the same sizes, which Aspect ratio images shows: Portrait (3:4), Square (1:1), Landscape (16:9), and Link preview (1200:630). The line under each slot says where that shape of an episode's cover is used.
Each shape is cropped from the centre of the image. To give one shape a different crop or a picture of its own, click its image under Aspect ratio images and select a JPEG, PNG, or WebP image at least as large as the slot asks, which may be the same image as before. Adjust the frame then sets which part of it the shape shows, and Replace saves it, leaving the other three as they are. A shape can be replaced only once the episode has a cover image, so upload one under Cover image first. Uploading a new cover image there replaces all four.
To go back to the series' cover, choose Delete the current cover image and then Update cover image.
Credits
Authors, on the episode's edit screen, lists the Authors credited on this episode, each in a role, with their share of its sales. A new episode starts with the series' credits, and is changed here on its own: a later change to the series' credits does not reach it. A credit added here is marked Episode only, for a guest who worked on this episode alone. Choose Save authors to save.
The episode page on the site shows these credits, and the series page shows the series' own. The episode's credits are also the ones royalties are paid on, as Reports and royalties describes, and an Author linked to a reader account can read the episodes credited to them, as Authors and Author roles describes.
To change the credits of many episodes at once, such as when an artist joins from episode 12, select the episodes on the list and choose Credits. Under Operation:
- Add credits an Author in a role on every selected episode that does not already have them in that role, with no share.
- Replace turns one credit into another.
- Remove takes a credit off.
- Set share changes a credit's share.
Choose the Author and Role the operation applies to, check the episodes under Episodes, which lists every episode of the series, up to 1000 at a time, and choose Apply. Replace, Remove, and Set share leave Episode only credits alone. The result says how many episodes changed, and why each of the others did not.
Shown on and Sold on
Each episode has its own Shown on and Sold on, which start by following the series:
- Shown on can narrow where the series is shown, but not widen it. An episode set to Web only in a series shown on App only is shown nowhere, and the screen warns about it. Choose Update where it is shown to save.
- Sold on can name a surface the series' own Sold on does not, but an episode is only ever sold where it is also shown. Choose Update where it is sold to save.
Setting Shown on so that the episode is shown nowhere takes a published episode off the site without unpublishing it. Selling episodes covers what readers see where an episode is not sold.
Free reading periods
A free reading period opens a paid episode to everyone, signed in or not, between two times. The episode keeps its price, which applies again when the period ends. A period on a free episode does nothing.
Free reading periods, on the episode's edit screen, lists its periods as Free now, Scheduled, or Ended. To add one, enter Starts and Ends, both in the tenant's time zone, and choose Add free reading period. Ends must be after Starts and still in the future; Starts may be in the past, which makes the episode free from now. Two periods of one episode cannot overlap, though one may start exactly when another ends.
A period cannot be edited. Delete it and add another; deleting a period that has started prices the episode again at once.
To give many episodes the same period, choose Free reading period on the episode list. Under Episodes, choose Selected episodes, the episodes checked on the list, First episodes, the first so many in the series' order, or All episodes. Then enter Starts and Ends and choose Add. Nothing is added if the period overlaps one already on any of the episodes.
The site shows a period from the moment it starts, and drops it the moment it ends: publira worker refreshes the cached pages at both ends, as Scheduled and maintenance jobs describes.
Campaign prices
A campaign price sells a paid episode for less between two times. Buying the episode during the campaign charges the campaign price, on the site and in an app that sells through In-app purchase alike, and so does buying it with the rest of its series, before the series' Bundle discount is taken off, and the episode keeps its own Price, which applies again when the campaign ends. A rental keeps its Rental price, and a purchase made at the campaign price keeps the price it was paid.
Campaign prices, on the episode's edit screen, lists its campaigns with their price, as On sale now, Scheduled, or Ended. To add one, enter Campaign price in the tenant's currency, lower than the episode's Price, then Starts and Ends, both in the tenant's time zone, and choose Add campaign price. Ends must be after Starts and still in the future; Starts may be in the past, which puts the episode on sale from now. Two campaigns of one episode cannot overlap, though one may start exactly when another ends. A free episode has no price to cut, so the section offers no form on one.
A campaign cannot be edited. Delete it and add another; deleting a campaign that has started sells the episode for its own price again at once. Lowering the episode's Price to or below a campaign's price ends that campaign's effect, since the episode then sells for its own price.
To put many episodes on sale for the same price and period, check them on the episode list and choose Campaign price. Enter Campaign price, Starts, and Ends, and choose Add. Nothing is added if the price is not lower than every checked episode's Price, or if the period overlaps a campaign already on any of them.
Wherever the site quotes an episode's price, an episode under a campaign shows the campaign price, its own Price struck through beside it, and when the campaign ends in the tenant's time zone. The price is fixed when the reader starts buying, so a reader who starts after the campaign has ended pays the episode's own Price, which the payment page shows, even if the page they started from still quoted the campaign.
The site quotes a campaign from the moment it starts, and drops it the moment it ends: publira worker refreshes the cached pages at both ends, as Scheduled and maintenance jobs describes.
The app quotes a campaign on the series' episode list, on a locked episode, and in the offer of the next episode at the end of the one before: the campaign price, the episode's own Price struck through beside it, and when the campaign ends, written in the time zone of the reader's device as every time in the app is. It does so whether it sells through the web checkout or through In-app purchase, which buys the episode as the store product of the campaign price, so the store's payment sheet charges the price the app quotes.
Publishing an episode
An episode is in one of three states:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | It has no publication time. Readers cannot see it |
| Scheduled | It has a publication time still ahead. Readers cannot see it until then |
| Published | Its time has passed. Readers can open it, as long as its series is public and it is shown on their surface |
Until an episode is published, its page answers as if it did not exist, it is in no list, and the previous and next links of its neighbours skip it.
Setting the time
Publishing settings, on the episode's edit screen, sets or changes the time of an episode that already exists. Enter a time in the tenant's time zone, or empty the field, and choose Update publication date and time:
- A time that has passed, such as the current time, publishes a draft or a scheduled episode at once. It is announced to its followers and sent to the search index, just as a scheduled episode is when its time comes. A published episode stays as it is, so saving the section with the time it already shows changes nothing.
- A time in the future schedules the episode for that time.
- An empty field makes the episode a draft.
A published episode is taken off the site by the last two, as Taking an episode off the site describes.
The usual way to publish a new episode of a public series is therefore:
- Create the episode with Publication date and time empty, as a draft.
- Add its pages, set its layout, and check both in Preview.
- Under Publishing settings, enter the current time to publish it now, or the time it should go out, and save.
When a scheduled episode appears
The episode is published by publira worker, which looks for episodes whose time has passed once a minute. At that pass, the episode:
- Opens on its own page and in its series' episode list on the site, and in the app.
- Is announced to every reader following the episode, its series, or an Author credited on it, with a notification and a push notification on each of the site and the app it is shown on.
- Is sent to the search index.
So an episode scheduled for 12:00 is readable by about 12:01, and the site's lists, such as the series list ordered by Recently updated, show it from the same moment.
An episode that is still Scheduled well after its time means the worker is not running, or is failing to publish it. A Tenant admin then gets a notification titled "An episode could not be published". This is for the operator to fix, as Scheduled and maintenance jobs describes, and the episode goes out on its own once it is. To publish it without waiting, enter the current time under Publishing settings and save.
An episode published while its series is not public waits for the series, so that no notification leads to a page that is not found. It is announced when the series is published, whether from Update series or by the series' own Publication date and time arriving, and from then on it shows the moment the series became public as its publication date, since no reader could open it before. An episode its followers were already told about, while the series was public before, keeps its date and is not announced again.
An episode published while it is Not shown anywhere is announced to nobody, and is not announced later when it is shown. An episode shown on only one of the site and the app is announced there alone: readers see its notification in that one's notifications, and its push notification reaches only their browsers or only their phones. Where an episode is announced is decided when publira worker sends its notifications, and changing its Shown on after that does not move a notification already sent. Set where an episode is shown before its time.
Taking an episode off the site
A published episode cannot be deleted. To take it off the site:
- Empty the field under Publishing settings and save. The episode goes back to Draft.
- Enter a time in the future and save. The episode is off the site until then, and is published again at that time without announcing it to followers a second time.
- Set Shown on so it is shown nowhere. The episode stays published, and comes back as soon as the setting is changed.
Readers who bought the episode lose access to it with any of these, until it is back.