Hi, I am a software developer with some interest in writing. Recently I have been thinking of developing an online platform for authors to write books and provide other services (e.g. get isbn number, share ideas or collaborative writing etc), something like a crowd-writing thing. I googled this and seems there are a couple of platforms available, but is far from a full market. As I am not a professional author, just wondering if real authors will use this kind of platform to write? Or still prefer MS word or something else? Many Thanks
I wouldn't use it. i have a perfectly fine word processor, and I think crowdwriting is a load of trendy manure.
I tried litLift and Scrivener, personally Scrivener is much easier to use. I am wondering if I can develop an online platform which works like Scrivener, which people want to use it? Certainly it will be free.
Since you yourself have found a couple of such platforms, then clearly it shows authors do use them. So... is there something more specific you're looking for? If you're trying to gauge how large the market could be, you may have to start looking into age demographics and such. I don't think the question should be, "Is there a market?" Of course there is - you've found those platforms already. Your question should probably be which niche writing group uses those sort of platforms, and what is currently lacking on those platforms that yours could provide. Again, you'll probably have to do a bit of research and maybe design a few questionnairs/polls for this to gather data.
Hi, I suddenly got this idea as I wrote a site to sell second hand books, and I was thinking can't I do a new project to help people write book other than sell? As I am a software developer, not really a writer, so it is bit difficult for me to think what a writer really wants. But from what I can see, Scrivener has a much better interface than most online writing platforms I saw and tried. It will be interesting if I can make an online writing platform which has all the good bits of Scrivener. Many Thanks
After taking a quick look at LitLift, it seems to me very similar to an online version of Novel Factory, which has some nice features but ultimately lacks some of the tools that heavy-hitters like WriteWyPro, yWriter, and WriteItNow boast. I don't particularly want to sign up so my views on LitLift are pretty much limited to the screenshots. I'd suggest you look at the applications I've listed, to see their features, and take it from there. Personally, I've never found one piece of software to fit me perfectly (The character generator in Liquid Story Binder is wonderful, the best I've found), but I do find all of them far more convenient and worthwhile than a wordprocessor and multiple files; I tried that, and as someone who plans his pieces, the quantity of files becomes tiresome to manage. I found Scrivener for Windows to be more trouble than it's worth, and moved away from it as soon as I could, but others seem to like it. Currently, I use a piece of software on my laptop, with the file held in Dropbox (which I back up semi-regularly), and I struggle to see how something like LitLift can be a better solution than the one I have, particularly if there's a chance I might not be able to connect at will - that is, the site might disappear at any moment, along with my work. I'm off visiting relatives and have just taken a few minutes to hammer this out, and also add to my manuscript. I note that over 61,000 people appear to have put their faith in LitLift, so perhaps I'm being unduly pessimistic. <smile>
The problem with crowd writing is that everyone has a different vision of POV, mood, theme, plot, etc. It would get muddy fast.
