Bombarded with alternatives

Hi.

Love Scrivener. Long time user. Big promoter of it. Happy.

However, I’m being bombarded with writing alternatives and, I have to say, some of them are looking appealing. I know these alternatives are sucking me in with swish cloud based functionality, advanced tagging, and cool promises, however, I don’t have much knowledge about Literature & Latte’s roadmap. This is making me a little nervous for my beloved software of choice.

One of the things which has always worried me about L&Ls products is how cheap Scrivener is, and how I’d happily pay more for a ‘Pro’ version if given the choice. And yes, a Pro version would suggest a Regular version too.

I’ve met plenty of people who are scared of moving away from Word and who struggle with the perceived complexity which Scrivener might do to their words and/or writing. Mark rolls eyes This is despite me stressing how simplistic Scrivener can be. Anyways, those people might never switch over, but my point still stands.

Ideally, I would love to see a ‘Regular’ version of Scrivener with strip backed functionality to compete with all these cloud based alternatives, and a ‘Pro’ version for people like me who want all bells and whistles and are willing and able to pay extra for it.

I know I’m in the minority here, but I’d happily pay $40 a year for a Pro version, because I’m publishing with Scrivener. My first time writer friends are writing with Scrivener, may never finish, may never publish, and may only have one book in them. They’d be happy with the one-off $30 or whatever. We’re not the same customer and yet we both pay the same at the moment. Bonkers.

So, in the absence of L&L responding with a detailed roadmap, all I’m asking for is a wink emoji to suggest that plans are afoot.

And to repeat, this is only in the face of persuasive (yet inferior) competitors working hard to hook me and you into their subscription service off the back of the success that Scrivener has established.

Thoughts?

Mark

I’m not sure I fully understand your post. Are you asking if Scrivener has a viable business model? Or are you asking for a development road map?

If you’re afraid that Scrivener will suddenly go out of business, isn’t that a risk with all software?! Even from the big corporations. Just look at the number of services/apps Google has killed off over the last couple of years.

As for a Pro version, requiring an annual subscription, Scriv’s developer has rejected that idea a couple of times, particularly here: https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/please-do-not-go-subscription/37479/4

Seems to me that subscription customers are less safe in the event of a business failure.

In any case, there are no plans to pursue a subscription model, and the idea of a “Scrivener Lite” edition has been proposed and rejected on several occasions.

Katherine