My Philosophy of Subscription Software

NOTE: This article discusses Prosecraft.io, a linguistic analysis website we discontinued in August 2023. To learn more how things work today, check out our follow up article: How Shaxpir Does Linguistics

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I got an email this morning from a prospective Shaxpir user, expressing some concerns about the increasing trend of subscription software in the world.

Her message was well-articulated, and she expressed some of the common concerns I’ve heard from regular people recently about the idea of subscribing to a software platform, rather than buying a software suite and owning it directly.

So as I read her message it reminded me that I’ve never really talked publicly about my philosophy of subscription software before, and I want to take a second to do that today. I tried to be very mindful about designing the Shaxpir subscription tiers, knowing how many new writers might struggle with the pricing of a Pro subscription.

Anyhow, here’s the message I received (with the sender’s name removed)…

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I do not believe in subscriptions for software. I think this is a punitive and self-serving method of extracting “future” money from customers. If someone doesn’t believe in living on credit, as is the nature of our economy, they will eventually be excluded from all participation. I willingly join this group. This technique has to stop somewhere. I hope you register my protest.

Just add up all the “subscriptions” that any one individual is subject to and you will find someone with no money, no planning for the future, no budget. Your tiny little $3.99 a month, added to all the others I have encountered in as little as a month, adds up to more exploitation of the very people you have counted on. I say NO.

I am sorry if you are taking the brunt for every other business that is indulging in this deceitful practice.

I hope that others start to register their complaints.

Don’t be part of the problem!

A Prospective User

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And here’s my response to her…

As I wrote her back and pontificated about software subscriptions, I realized that message might be useful for other prospective Shaxpir users, so I’m publishing it on the blog…

I hope it clarifies our philosophy :)

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Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. I really appreciate you sharing your perspective about subscription software. I totally get it.

That’s why Shaxpir lets you create an account completely for free, with everything you need to get started writing your novel. Take a look at the features here:

https://shaxpir.com/pricing

With your free account, you can brainstorm your novel idea by building a notebook of all your characters, places, plot-points, themes, and random ideas… You can do visual world-building, by attaching concept artwork to anything. And you can create cross-references anywhere, linking your characters and story elements according to their relationships, symbolism, and foreshadowing. It’s like having a private wikipedia for exploring the world of your story.

You can use our manuscript-builder to organize your novel into juuuuust the right narrative structure, with a hierarchy of front-matter, back-matter, parts, chapters, and scenes. You can even make margin-notes to yourself anywhere, in either your manuscript or notebook. You can use our unique spell-check dictionary (trained specifically for fiction) to correct errors, and you can try out our linguistic highlighting engine to analyze your manuscript for vividness, passive-voice, adverb-frequency, and more. You can have as many different projects as you need: books, articles, short-stories, and ideas; so you can use Shaxpir as home-base for all your writing projects.

You can write offline anytime, and when you get back online, Shaxpir synchronizes all your content to the cloud, where we keep secure backups of everything. When you’re done writing, you can export a Microsoft Word doc of your completed manuscript, so you can send it to an editor or share it with your friends. We even keep tabs on your daily word-count, and the number of minutes you spend writing, so you can set goals as an author, and track your progress.

All those features are included with your Shaxpir 4: Everyone account, which is totally free forever. It’s great for new writers, or casual writers who don’t need the advanced capabilities of Shaxpir 4: Pro.

If you ever decide to opt for the Pro subscription, you’ll get unlimited sync between multiple devices, as well as publishable EPUB exports and version-history tracking, plus ProseCraft linguistics and sentiment analysis… which you can compare to your favorite popular authors, at http://prosecraft.io

The Pro version costs $7.99 per month, and you’ll always get the first chance to use our newest and most exciting features. Plus, the more Pro subscribers we have, the faster we can develop all those cool new features! We’re working hard to invent a whole new category of tools and toys and platforms for working authors, to increase your productivity and enhance your creativity.

Of course, you can downgrade back to the free version anytime you like, and you’ll still be able to access all your writing projects. We hope you’ll be willing and able to maintain your Pro subscription. But if you don’t need it, or can’t afford it, you can keep using the free version until it seems worthwhile again. Your choice.

We just want people to use this platform, nurture their stories, and help us build the Shaxpir community. The free version will always be powerful enough for working authors to do their work. But the Pro version will change the way you write.

Thanks for listening :)

If you ever have any feedback, I’m always happy to hear it!

Benji