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Dirty Discourse

10K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  mojomikey 
#1 ·
I've seen the forum mentioned here a few times It's supposed to be strictly for romance genres. Does anyone know about this first hand? I went over to check it out but its a pay to use forum. I've never seen or used a forum that you need to pay for. 
 
#2 ·
idontknowyet said:
I've seen the forum mentioned here a few times It's supposed to be strictly for romance genres. Does anyone know about this first hand? I went over to check it out but its a pay to use forum. I've never seen or used a forum that you need to pay for.
The forum started out erotica-centric, but now the most commonly discussed genre is romance (of varying types). There are a lot of people writing in non-romance genres, as well, but the bulk of the discussions about genres probably center around romance. A lot of the discussions aren't genre-specific, however.

The paywall and the no-lurking policy keep the forum business-oriented. I'm a fan of that.
 
#5 ·
Back when I was attempting to write erotica, with eyes on doing romance, it was worth the lowest fee for me (you could join for $5 a month then, not sure if that level is still around), though the higher tiers had more benefits. I enjoyed the people there, mostly. Lots of fun discussions, though it was more related to business than off-topic stuff. It was nice to be able to discuss anything and everything that one can't do on most forums.

Edited to clarify monthly subscription cost.
 
#6 ·
Wired said:
Is DD useful? Worth the cost?
Whether or not it's worth the cost for you isn't something anyone else can really answer. There are very few regulars who aren't working their booties off writing, publishing, marketing, with an aim at profit and/or career-level income. You don't get the drive-bys who want to publish a book of poetry or that one novel they've been writing for a decade, or the people who can't be bothered to google answers to questions like "what's KDP?" I have nothing against anybody who lovingly crafted a novel for a decade (glances in my own trunk), but unless that person is then ready to launch it like a businessperson who wants to make money off it, they might not find much there that's useful.

Also, I think people who are truly unwilling to invest $5 or $10 for a month to see if it will help their business are probably not going to benefit that much from the place anyway, so the paywall works well for those within and without.

What's a no-lurking policy?
A policy against lurkers. To remain a member, you have to participate.
 
#7 ·
Shelley K said:
Whether or not it's worth the cost for you isn't something anyone else can really answer. There are very few regulars who aren't working their booties off writing, publishing, marketing, with an aim at profit and/or career-level income. You don't get the drive-bys who want to publish a book of poetry or that one novel they've been writing for a decade, or the people who can't be bothered to google answers to questions like "what's KDP?" I have nothing against anybody who lovingly crafted a novel for a decade (glances in my own trunk), but unless that person is then ready to launch it like a businessperson who wants to make money off it, they might not find much there that's useful.

Also, I think people who are truly unwilling to invest $5 or $10 for a month to see if it will help their business are probably not going to benefit that much from the place anyway, so the paywall works well for those within and without.

A policy against lurkers. To remain a member, you have to participate.
This is my sentiment exactly about why joining a private and/or paying membership group can help. One of the biggest frustrations I have with most writing forums is the influx of people who can't be bothered to read. Anything at all. Rules, TOS, Google results, writing books, any other books... They want their hands held and someone to coddle them through the business of selling books. Or else they think there's secret, magic formula that's being withheld from them, and if we'd just get over ourselves and tell them what it is, so they can become rich, everything would be super.
 
#8 ·
oakwood said:
If DD may be useful to you depends on who you are, what you write, and most importantly if you might need / want peer suppport
I agree with the sentiment that DD is very biz-focused. There is less social chitchat and more how/why/when/where to do things in order to become better, target the market and grow sales. Some members are very experienced and continously top the sales charts, others are just starting out and have 1 failed book under their belt but want to become better.

Main bulk of writers are in romance (of all sorts) although cozy also has a clique.
There is a predominant focus on writing-to-market (writing exactly what readers want in specific sub-genres).
There is a strong focus on productivity, setting up series, writing fast, cover choice for max exposure etc.
There are several accountability threads where writers either join in quests or are open with sales numbers etc.

Again, its biz-oriented. Worth every penny of you have a couple of books and decide its time to ramp up. Less worth the money of you are just starting out imho.
I don't write erotica, so I'm not a DD member. But I've paid for many forum memberships (up to $100/mo) to support other businesses.

Every forum is unique, of course. But in my experience, the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be high. The best ones, in my opinion, maintain higher price points and limit membership. Doing so minimizes the volume of newbie questions.
 
#9 ·
Shelley K said:
The forum started out erotica-centric, but now the most commonly discussed genre is romance (of varying types). There are a lot of people writing in non-romance genres, as well, but the bulk of the discussions about genres probably center around romance. A lot of the discussions aren't genre-specific, however.

The paywall and the no-lurking policy keep the forum business-oriented. I'm a fan of that.
I had a look at it the last time I saw it mentioned here. The landing page for the forum struck me as crudely pornographic, so I didn't look further.
 
#10 ·
DarkScribe said:
I had a look at it the last time I saw it mentioned here. The landing page for the forum struck me as crudely pornographic, so I didn't look further.
Good call, because it's filled with erotica and steamy romance writers, and a lot of frank language about such things. If a single short sentence with the word anal in it as part of a humorous image was enough to put you off, you'd hate the place. The page did its job.
 
#11 ·
DarkScribe said:
I had a look at it the last time I saw it mentioned here. The landing page for the forum struck me as crudely pornographic, so I didn't look further.
Yep, just like a good book cover, you were forewarned about what would be found inside. You prob made a good call, as there is no bad language filter there, and it is most definitely not 'family friendly' like this place. Which is another good reason for the paywall. It def shouldn't be publicly searchable.
 
#14 ·
Anarchist said:
I don't write erotica, so I'm not a DD member. But I've paid for many forum memberships (up to $100/mo) to support other businesses.

Every forum is unique, of course. But in my experience, the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be high. The best ones, in my opinion, maintain higher price points and limit membership. Doing so minimizes the volume of newbie questions.
DD is the opposite. They keep membership low and encourage newbie questions. Still one of the best in my opinion, because some of the most business savvy romance authors hang out there and will actually take the time to answer the questions with little to no snark. Almost everything you ever need to know is there and the people running it really care if you're successful. I mean no one can make you successful. You have to do that yourself, but they have a lot of resources if you want to learn.
 
#17 ·
Anarchist said:
I don't write erotica, so I'm not a DD member. But I've paid for many forum memberships (up to $100/mo) to support other businesses.

Every forum is unique, of course. But in my experience, the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be high. The best ones, in my opinion, maintain higher price points and limit membership. Doing so minimizes the volume of newbie questions.
You should join for a month :) I think you'd enjoy it - afaik you write non-fic so a lot might not apply to you, but there's a lot of business discussion that's applicable across almost all niches. There are quite a few non-romance subforums or closed groups, too.

PSA: no-one sensitive to a crude joke should join.
 
#18 ·
AR W said:
You should join for a month :) I think you'd enjoy it - afaik you write non-fic so a lot might not apply to you, but there's a lot of business discussion that's applicable across almost all niches. There are quite a few non-romance subforums or closed groups, too.
I didn't realize that. Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out.

AR W said:
PSA: no-one sensitive to a crude joke should join.
Hell, crude jokes are a draw for me.
 
#19 ·
I joined for a while and found it interesting and useful, but wasn't active enough to keep up the membership.  Definitely worth checking out.
 
#20 ·
Shelley K said:
Good call, because it's filled with erotica and steamy romance writers, and a lot of frank language about such things. If a single short sentence with the word anal in it as part of a humorous image was enough to put you off, you'd hate the place. The page did its job.
lol. Just in case the name Dirty Discourse went over someone's head they added on final, less subtle warning.
 
#22 ·
jb1111 said:
I looked at it, saw that there was an entrance fee -- even just to read any of the forums.

I won't join a forum I can't see first. It's like buying a car without even knowing the make or the mileage.
Except it's five bucks, not the major investment of buying a car. :p

If you don't want to spend $5 to have access, I promise that you're not missing out on anything that you'd find useful. This is the paywall working as it should to protect the people and the info inside and make it more likely that people who join will benefit from it.
 
#23 ·
Shelley K said:
Except it's five bucks, not the major investment of buying a car. :p

If you don't want to spend $5 to have access, I promise that you're not missing out on anything that you'd find useful. This is the paywall working as it should to protect the people and the info inside and make it more likely that people who join will benefit from it.
That's true. I can't put a price tag on what I learned there. If I did it'd be a lot more than 5 bucks. That's 60 bucks a year invested in your career.
 
#26 ·
Hell, crude jokes are a draw for me.
[/quote]

hey, for me, the $5 is worth is for me to get a new source of crude jokes. Anything else I glean from the site would be BON-US!

But seriously, who would not put $5 down to see if they could benefit from something, whether it be a new ad venue, an e-book, or a forum like DD? One small time- or money-saving tip a month would more than make up for the cost and cover the losers that month too.

If you want to make money, you have to treat this like a business. After 15 years of owning a restaurant (sold it, still in business 14 years later - must have done something right!) , I would (and have ) gladly pay for things that can save me money or time. Make more money too, but I am still looking for that app that can make me more time....
 
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