Musings Over Coffee: Take My Money

This post isn’t about writing per se but about a writing app I use. It’s the only one that has helped me write over a million words since 2012. That app is called Ulysses by the Soulmen which is a distraction-free writing app only available on IOS.

Yesterday they made the announcement of going with a subscription model of $4.99 a month or $39.99 for an annual plan. If you’re already a user, you get 50% off the monthly plan. This transition to the subscription model allows the developers to keep making the app better.

I remember feeling disappointed at first, thinking, oh great, I just paid whatever I paid through the years and I use it on my laptop and iPhone since the content syncs flawlessly between them. If I were still using my iPad to write, it would sync there, too. I saw the negative comments leveled on the developers on social media, some of them rating the app 1-star not for the app itself but for the move to the subscription model.

Then I thought, you know, for all the words I write, for all the stories I publish, $4.99 a month is nothing for something that allows me to get the words out. Hell, I already pay Netflix, HBO, Pandora, Scribd, Evernote, Flickr, and so many more apps a monthly fee to access services I don’t use (the entertainment ones are for the family but they go through my Apple account) and I don’t see myself feeling disappointed.

Instead, I feel only happiness every time I see that yellow butterfly.

Where else do I get to meet my characters every day, the ones who truly make my life happy given that my life is shittyright now? What’s $4.99 a month? Sorry, but I make more money with my books sold in one day than they want for an annual subscription!

And those books were made possible because of this app!

Come to think of it, I pay Microsoft $6.99 each month for Word which I don’t use to write my stories but I have it because my editors require it for Track Changes and authors I work with send me Word documents as a default. Do you see me complain about that?

So… Ulysses guys. Where do I sign up?