The magical thing that is Discord.

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

I have seen many authors post a link to their discord server.

Basically: Why? What purpose does it serve? I don't know much about discord other than voice chat. You click two things and then you're talking to someone, lol. Do people talk in a novel's discord?

How does the discord for a novel work? What do you do with it? How do you set it up? Whomst'd've? I'm pretty much ignorant in the ways of technology... it took me an entire weekend to learn how to post images in my chapters because I suck ass with computers and everything related to them.

Please bless me with the forbidden fruit of knowledge!

 

[Deleted member 45782]

idk but maybe i'll take a few guesses:
- for their fans to keep more in direct touch with them and easier push update/faster type messages than possibly on forum/sh profile like im
- build a community specifically cater to what they write (ex: bl discord)

Setting up, there's a way you can create discord and it gives you several server templates: gaming/community/artist/student /etc or something like that. Idk if got them all correct. Clicking a server template will help you populate basic text and voice channels for your server to get you started. Or you can just create your own without using those templates and go full customization with different channels, categories and permissions. I think I like it better when just creating server without using template and then customizing it to what want for server.

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

That's... hella complicated. People do this? That's like a chatroom with extra steps tbh... will see what I can come up with lol

 

[Snusmumriken]

Well, if you have a lot of active readers or, especially, if you post on multiple sites, then you can try to aggregate all activity to one place. That way you don't have to check comments on multiple sites daily.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Can I magically get more one-star ratings if I create a discord?

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

Can I magically get more one-star ratings if I create a discord?

My study of the dao is not deep enough to answer such conundrums!

 

[Cipiteca396]

Chat with the author, free proofreaders. Good for writer's block, a good source of procrastination/motivation.

If it's a niche book, having a place where all the weirdos who read it can interact may be the only way they can talk to people with the same interests.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

its kinda nice once you get used to it. i still don't really understand how use bots for discord thu.

start with basics: category contains channels. text messages in channels can be pinned. for each category/channel you can go to permissions and set who has access to text or read it. You can also make groups within discord and set which group has more permissions, such as those with mod rights, those that are regular or everyone.

Ex:
Category [Server Stuff]
- Server rules
- Server announcements
- Server events

Category [General]
- general chat
- general voice channel

Category [Story]
- story updates
- etc,

Category [Art]
- your art posts
- fanfic art of your stories

 

[Geminel]

I imagine in most cases it's for the text, not the voice. Personally, I have a disc with multiple authors that we all communally promote our work together, and have custom roles for fans for which novel they're there for and whatnot.

As my novel has a leveling system that grants superpowers, we had managed to line that up with a bot that tracks experience and levels based on activity, so we then distribute roles as people reach level milestones. It's meaningless, but it's strangely satisfying for everyone involved.

Mostly it's just a chat room with a lot of different channels, one channel we flood with memes, another has artwork for characters in the novel, a channel for daily snips tracking views/followers of my novel, and so on.

There's a handful of fans in there but they aren't as chatty as us authors are, lol. But, in general, most people are much more comfortable with idle conversation in a text channel in disc than they are in comments on a novel, or on forums, and I feel that's the main purpose behind having a discord for your novel; to reach those people.

Also, for spamming emojis at each other.

 

[CadmarLegend]

That's... hella complicated. People do this? That's like a chatroom with extra steps tbh... will see what I can come up with lol

you can also add bots to help and to have fun games.

 

[K5Rakitan]

My study of the dao is not deep enough to answer such conundrums!

Please let me know if you ever find out :)

 

[ThatOne]

In steelz's discord i usually talk (in text channels) about random stuff and praise the yandere. Other than that, chapters, memes, nsfw, idk its really random

 

[MajorKerina]

Discord makes for a decent writing and notes archive since you can have different channels assigned for different themes and ideas and stories. That’s mainly what I use it for myself.

 

[Derin_Edala]

Nobody uses the audio in my discord, we just use text. Same as being on a forum or having groups in facebook chat, you know the drill.

Generally people join my discord because they use discord a lot already and appreciate getting notifications for the story updates (if they read from my website and not a site like scribblehub or royal road). Some people join for easy access to downloadable versions of the story (I have them in a google drive and link them there), or because they want to talk about the story with other readers. Some are just there to talk to me or to each other in a semi-public area, to link funny youtube videos or talk about life or whatever. Joining someone's discord is free (unless they've put it behind a paywall, which is a bad idea in my opinion), so if you want to talk to an author or talk about their stories, why not?