ScribeCount is Getting Rid of Free Tier Next Month

[writeway]

For those who don't know, ScribeCount is getting rid of its free tier and if you don't cancel, you will be charged in October with the new rates. I am canceling because I rarely used the service anyway and had some issues with it in terms of accuracy. It would always be behind the other retailers in terms of figures, etc. So, another free service bites the dust. I just wish these places would start off charging if that's their intent and not having a free tier if they are going to always get rid of it. This is just like Booksprout. The point of ScribeCount was it was free for many authors. So now, what's going to make people choose it over Book Report that's been around for ages? And most of the features ScribeCount has implemented, I don't need anyway. I can check BookFunnel and stuff on my own.

Just giving a heads up to those who don't know.

[Post-Crisis D]

Lots of free stuff seems to be going the way of the dodo.

I remember when you used to be able to enter a phone number in a search engine and you could look up who was calling.  Now you get dozens of search results, each offering to reveal the caller for a fee.

And advertiser supported stuff is getting worse as well.  I notice on YouTube that videos have a heck of a lot more ads than they used to.  And no segues either.  You'll be watching a video and in mid-sentence an ad comes up.

/rant

[writeway]

Yeah, my main issue is it feels like these places rake customers in with the free tier to build up their clients then yank the option from under them once they've become established. It's like they no longer need "those people" anymore but it's the people who were on the free plans that help these places become established. We saw this with Booksprout, StoryOrigin. I understand companies needing to grow but they obviously don't start off making people pay for certain tiers because they know they can't compete with places that have been around forever. StoryOrigin was free temporarily because it helped them compete with BookFunnel. But at least the SO guy had been saying for a year or more he would eventually switch to paid but these other places do it out-of-the-blue. Booksprout was free because they couldn't compete with Hidden Gems and Book Sirens out of the gate. ScribeCount was probably free because who would've picked it over Book Report if it hadn't been? Then the way this was rolled out wasn't good either. Both Booksprout and ScribeCount only waited a few weeks if that to inform people? Why not mention this at least a month ago. I doubt SC didn't know they wanted to ditch the free tier.

I'm so done with this practice. I don't think I'm gonna go with any "free tier" companies anymore because it seems more than clear that's a ploy they used to hook customers. A lot of people used SC because it was free, as I said what makes it any different than Book Report now? I also think they've added way too many features and it might backfire on them. Especially with as glitchy as the program already is. Might be best to fix the glitches before ditching the free option.

[Cobbah]

I've not heard anything about this anywhere except here. I think the industry makes enough out of me as it is, I'm not going to accept someone else siphoning off my hard-earned. I used it because it put everything in one place, but I can easily go back to keeping the different platforms open on my browser (it's still free). Thanks for the warning.

[writeway]

You're welcome. It was posted on Facebook. Many are leaving. Several writing pals PMed me are not happy with the change because SC was the only free thing they could use. Commonsense should tell the SC people that if people were using the free version most likely they weren't willing or able to pay to use it. It's like these companies think you all of a sudden get extra money. This stuff adds up. You can say, "It's only $10 a month." Yeah, but do these places understand all the expenses authors have to pay and many are not making a lot of money? Ten dollars is a lot if you have a tight budget or already spending money on other things like most people are.

What gets me is the disingenuous practice of luring people in with a free plan then when you have built your clients up, then you wanna screw over the people who helped you become relevant. I respect places like BookFunnel that charged right off the bat. They had confidence in their company. It's best to just do a free trial not have a free plan then ditch it when people started depending on it. It's like these places go, "Come on, let's bleed all the money we can from authors." And supposedly the people behind SC are authors too but yeah, let's just keep getting money from struggling writers. It's not being upfront that I don't like. They knew they were gonna start charging a long time ago. Could've warned people.

[Anarchist]

Good for SC.

In my opinion, they're doing it right by offering a 14-day free trial. Perpetually-free users consume resources, and most of these users will never graduate to paid. Better for SC to set the expectation upfront, like ProWritingAid.

[TimothyEllis]

Good for SC.

In my opinion, they're doing it right by offering a 14-day free trial. Perpetually-free users consume resources, and most of these users will never graduate to paid. Better for SC to set the expectation upfront, like ProWritingAid.

Maybe so, but all the free users will now bail on them, and those who are moving towards crossing the threshold will do it somewhere else.

Sending potential revenue away that probably won't come back doesn't seem like a good thing to me.

I just got the email myself, even though I only ever just checked it out. Now trying to figure out how to log in and delete, just to be sure.

[sliderule]

I enjoyed ScribeCount because I could see all my sales on one dashboard. However, there were times when ScribeCount had issue connecting to sellers and the sync seemed to roll on for hours with nothing new.

I could accept that since it was free.

I'm not going to stay with a service where the sync issues still continued and then pay for the privilege as well.

Looks like I go back to manually tracking.

[LilyBLily]

I don't think a 14-day free trial on a service that reports sales is useful to most authors. Ideally, the free trial would be 30 or even 60 days--enough time to get a full month's reporting regardless of when in the month one started the service. Then the service will have proved its usefulness.

I'm willing to pay for results. Signing up here and there for random services that are free and do nothing is not a bargain.

[She-la-te-da]

I sell mostly on Amazon, I can check that on my own easily enough. The other places send me an email if I sell something. *checks around*  Yeah, I'm good. Maybe at some point I'll need someone to tell me this stuff. If they're any good, I'd pay.

[idontknowyet]

is it sad i dont even know what this service is for