Hi everyone,
For all who write short stories, freelance, or simply like to track multiple submissions, there is a new iPod/iPhone application called Story Tracker. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks promising. It is $10. The developer’s site is here:
andrewnicolle.com/storytracker/
Cheers,
Barry
Thanks for the mention, Barry! I’m the developer of Story Tracker, and I thought I’d drop by to let everyone know version 1.2 of the app was recently approved. I’ve incorporated a bunch of new features since the first version, based on user feedback and feature requests. It’s gratifying to see people getting use out of the app and helping them keep track of their story submissions.
Rather than go into all the features here, I’ll direct you to the Story Tracker website at:
andrewnicolle.com/storytracker
If it sounds like something you’d be interested in, but you’re still not entirely convinced it’ll meet your needs, there’s also a free Lite version available.
I’m currently hard at work on the next version, so if you have any feature requests, bug reports, or other suggestions, drop me a line at storytracker@andrewnicolle.com.
Regards,
Andrew
In case you were on the fence about it, I’ve got the app on sale for 50% off this weekend for Halloween!
For the next update I’m planning to include backup/restore over Wi-Fi. This has been one of the most requested features, so I’m pleased to be working on it at last! If there’s anything else you’d like to see in the next update, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do 
Regards,
Andrew
…I don’t have an iPod or iPhone. 
How about a Mac? I’m trying to gauge the interest in a Mac version, but I’m not sure if the demand is there. In any case, I’m strongly considering porting the app to the Mac platform. Could be awhile, though!
The thread currently appearing next to this one is by a Scrivenista looking for a database to track and manage submissions. I don’t know if Siren has an iPhone or iPod Touch, but we’re all Mac users here, given our use of Scrivener, so I would have thought there would be interest. And I hope Siren has at least had a look at this thread, even if she currently doesn’t have the necessary hardware.
Mark
Yes, I have seen this thread… and, no, I don’t have an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Sadly. Because of this, I haven’t looked at AKNicolle’s product in detail, but if it could provide proper relational access to the data rather than something I could achieve with a spreadsheet, then I would certainly be interested in a Mac version.
The particular future scenario I want to handle goes something like this. Suppose over the course of the next few years, I were to stop faffing about and actually produce some useful work outside my academic endeavours. I then send loads of things to a number of publications with any one publication potentially receiving multiple submissions from me. Some of these are rejected, so I send them to other publications, possibly in a revised form. Meanwhile, my long-held novel-writing ambitions might one day result in an actual novel, which gets sent to a series of agents/publishers, possibly with changes along the way.
Over time, I would wish to track the progress of individual pieces of work and their passage through the hands of various organisations. I would want to track revised submissions both as a separate piece of writing and as a development of an earlier concept. I would also wish to track my relationship with each individual organisation (for example, with a history of submissions and responses) and with various personnel within each organisation (since these change with time, and since my submissions might follow individual people if they move to a new publication). I would want to view the data by time period (for development, submission and acceptance), and by subject area, and to store relevant contact details (which, again, may change with time, but for which I would want to store the entire history, so that each submission links to the correct version for its time, even if details have subsequently changed; I would also like a flag to show me that the information is now out of date). In addition, I would wish to track ongoing revenue from each piece, with descriptions of what exactly has generated each revenue entry.
Not exactly straightforward, but I live in hope! My database skills are extremely rusty, and were gained in a proprietary 4GL environment rather than anything useful like SQL, so I am not entirely convinced that I will ever be able to create such a database myself. But if someone else were to develop it for the Mac, I would definitely be keen!
Story Tracker handles most of what you describe, including submission histories for every story and market entered into the database. I envision a Mac application would behave much the same way, other than having a lot more screen real-estate to work with.
In the interests of simplicity, it does not currently handle multiple revisions of a story, or track changing market details (contacts, word-rates, address changes etc) over time. In these cases you would need to create new story and market entries with the new details included or add the new details to the notes field. That’s sort of clunky if you have a need for such a capability, so it’s certainly something I would consider supporting in a future version.
Your post has definitely provided much food for thought!
In the current rendition, I’d likely try out a Mac version, but whether I’d buy it or not would likely depend on how much I enjoyed the interface. If you added the editing capability to market details, and if you have a place where you can put pertinent link(s), I’d work it into the budget if I didn’t mind the interface.
As you might’ve guessed from all my comments about the interface, my attitude tends to be, “If I’m frustrated or irritated trying to navigate it, I don’t need it.”
I didn’t realize I was an interface snob until I started typing this up. 
A quick update on Story Tracker… I’m currently coding the next update, which includes backup/restore over Wi-Fi. All stories, all markets, or the entire database can be backed-up or restored to/from your computer. This opens the possibility of market listings that can be imported into the app, thus saving an awful lot of typing! I’m still debating whether I’ll offer some market databases on my site for download, or whether I’ll leave this up to users of the app to provide. Thoughts?
The next update should be ready sometime in January, so if you’ve got any other feature requests meanwhile, I’d love to hear them 
Story Tracker is currently on sale on iTunes for 50% off the normal price for the remainder of 2009. Keep in mind that all updates are free, so you’ll get the aforementioned Wi-Fi backup/restore feature as soon as the next update is available. Happy Holidays!
Cheers,
Andrew
Just posted some screenshots from the forthcoming Story Tracker update on the Facebook page:
facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 … 9401153068
I’m nearly done coding the backup/restore/import/export over WiFi features, so you can expect to see this new update appear on the App Store in a few weeks time. I’m interested in any feedback you may have.
The app is still on sale, at least until the new update hits. If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch, you might find it useful to help meet some of those New Year’s writing resolutions 
Cheers,
Andrew
@AKNicole
I continue to look for a story/submission tracking software that works on the Mac. I think there would be a decent niche market for it, especially if “packaged” with leading writing software. Several once existed for Windows; the only one I’ve found for Mac is a program called Manuscript Tracker that made it to version 2.01 under developer Mike Blaguszewski. I still have a copy on my hard drive though it has been unsupported since about 2004/05.
InkLink by Allan Izen was one of the better ones for Windows, pretty full featured; Slushomatic and Sonar are two others (for those of you who use Bootcamp or one of the virtual means to run Windows). Don’t know if they are still in development, though I think Sonar3 may still be in play under developer/author Simon Haynes.
Any desktop product would definitely need to capability for markets and contacts to be updated, as well as a record of expenses related to particular project and the means to track multiple submissions or sequential submissions, imho.
Meanwhile, I am quite curious about Story Tracker and will give the lite version a trial run. I’m not sure how well I would adapt to an iphone only version of tracking software for work that resides on my desktop/laptop. Looking forward to the exploration though. Thanks.
JP
Yes. iphone or ipod touch apps do not interest me at all but I would pay for a submission tracker on my mac. All I have now is an excel spreadsheet.
Apollo16
The Story Tracker v1.3 update is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.
Other than some bugfixes, it contains the frequently requested backup, restore, import and export over WiFi features. Not only can you backup your database to your Mac or PC, but you can also export your story and market databases and share them with other Story Tracker users, if desired.
You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group:
andrewnicolle.com/storytracker
facebook.com/pages/Story-Tra … 9401153068
The pending Lite version update will be able to backup and export your database, so it’ll be possible to upgrade from the Lite to the full version and transfer all your data across. I submitted the Lite (free) version update to Apple a few days ago, so hopefully that’ll be approved soon.
With this release, I’ve finally implemented the entire original feature list I envisioned for Story Tracker. I do have some ideas for future versions, but please feel free to send me an email at storytracker@andrewnicolle.com with any feature suggestions and comments you may have.
Meanwhile I continue to ponder development of a Mac version…
Cheers,
Andrew
The Story Tracker v1.4 update is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.
This version highlights overdue submissions with a red/orange colour on the submission list, and also indicates the total number of overdue submissions via red number badges on both the submission tab icon and the app icon.
You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group:
andrewnicolle.com/storytracker
facebook.com/pages/Story-Tra … 9401153068
Feel free to send me an email at storytracker@andrewnicolle.com with any feature suggestions and comments you may have.
Cheers,
Andrew
I’m currently working on adding iPad support to Story Tracker to take advantage of all that extra screen real estate. I plan to release an update to the app within a few weeks of the iPad launch date (April 3rd) that’ll support both the iPhone and iPad in the one package (the so-called Universal binary) at no extra cost.
To meet this goal, I’ll need some Story Tracker users to Beta-test the update! If you’re currently using the full, paid version of Story Tracker and have pre-ordered an iPad or plan on picking one up within the first week of launch, please send me an email (storytracker@andrewnicolle.com) if you’d be interested in doing some testing.
Thanks,
Andrew
The Story Tracker v1.5 update is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
This version is a Universal binary, meaning it’ll run on both iPhone/iPod and iPad at no extra charge. For those of you lucky enough to have pre-ordered an iPad or will be picking one up soon, the app takes advantage of the huge screen real estate available on the iPad, along with supporting new iPad user interface features like popovers, modal dialogs, and rotation.
You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group:
andrewnicolle.com
facebook.com/pages/Story-Tra … 9401153068
I’ve also posted a bunch of iPad screenshots on the Facebook group:
facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 … 9401153068
Feel free to send me an email at storytracker@andrewnicolle.com with any feature suggestions and comments you may have.
Cheers,
Andrew
I’m making great progress on the next Story Tracker update and should hopefully have it ready for submission to Apple this weekend.
This update contains THE most requested feature: CSV export/import to transfer your Story Tracker database to and from your desktop spreadsheet application. If you’ve pre-ordered an iPhone 4 or have a newer device that will support multitasking on iOS4 (iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3rd gen, or iPad later this year), you’ll also get multitasking support with this update.
I’ll post again here in this thread when the update becomes available on the App Store.
Cheers,
Andrew
The Story Tracker v1.6 update is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
This update includes the much requested CSV export/import feature, allowing you to export/import your Story Tracker database (via WiFi) to and from desktop spreadsheet applications like Excel and Numbers. The app itself includes the template file you’ll need to format your database appropriately. With the arrival of the iPhone 4 last week, I’ve added iOS4 multitasking support and a high-res icon for the Retina display. All of the text and the built-in web browser appears much sharper with the iPhone 4. I’ve also improved the iPad interface and fixed some annoying bugs.
In case you missed it earlier in the thread, Story Tracker is a submission tracking tool for writers, available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. I’d been looking for such an app ever since I bought my iPhone, but alas, no one had written one, so I decided to fill the void myself This is basically a carry-everywhere database for all the story submission data you may have scattered across miscellaneous spreadsheets, Word docs, or buried in notebooks.
You can find more details at my website or on the Story Tracker Facebook group.
Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions, comments or feature requests.
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew,
An off-topic question (sorry), but is that a wallaby on the stamp in your image?
nom