forum Notebook Rant

Started February 20, 2018 by @The Seliph-loving Gryffindor who also loves dragons and cats

tune

I love Notebook, but can I not have to pay for adding magic and creatures into my story? All I am doing is adding onto characters. I want to write without paying.

Please, Notebook people, listen to this. I want to write stories, but I can't use money for them.

I agree. I write almost purely fantasy, and I've had to keep all of my notes on magic and groups in the Scratchpad.

I have some great scenes, so why oh why do I have to pay for them?

A very important part of my story is the vast planets and how each planet differs and grows as entirely different cultures but I dont have the money to put that down anywhere but in notes

Guys, really nothing is technically free in this world. Somebody had to pay for what you're using for free right now. andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer) is one of those people, he worked hard to develope this. He charges for upgrades so he can make a profit and support himself off of what he spent his time and effort on to create. Before notebook.ai was created, there were other ways for you to organize your stuff. Now you can get a lot for free. I personally can't afford an upgrade, but at least I have what I have! I organize the rest of my stuff on Google docs.

touche wise stranger touche

Hear ye, hear ye. I'm hoping to figure out new ways to share premium with more people soon. This includes free trials, but also potentially more giveaways, different ways to earn premium than paying for it, and maybe some kind of piecemeal plan for people that want just some pages. It's a lot of dev/research work that I just haven't gotten to yet.

One small feature that not a lot of people know about right now is premium sharing, though: if you have premium and invite other users to collaborate on your universe with you, they'll have full access to all the premium pages while working within that universe. It's a small way to share (or be shared with) premium, but it's also a small step towards unlocking everything for more users.

Also: just to be fully transparent, I actually haven't made any profit from Notebook.ai at all (and, in fact, paid for it out of pocket for almost a year before it started paying for itself!). Every dollar that users with premium pay goes directly back into maintaining the site, maintaining database backups, paying for the occasional freelancer when I need extra expertise, and ensuring that the site stays up indefinitely to house everyone's ideas forever.

In a perfect world, I'd love to give Notebook.ai away for free to everyone, but unfortunately there's gotta be a strategy to ensure it pays for itself in the long term, and I hope to massage and tweak that strategy over time to make sure it is successful while still sharing premium pages with as many people as possible.

Thanks for the feedback though, everyone. I'm happy every day that so many people are using the site and are so passionate about it. :)

Thanks @andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer)! Really appreciate all the work you've put into it. I've been telling a ton of people about it!