UPDATE: The expected release date for Scrivener 2.0 is sometime around October, 2010
Hi,
Why you are going to hate me
Okay, I have to brace myself for this one… As many of you know, the next update of Scrivener has been in development for a long time, now - nearly a year. I’ve always said that what I have been calling 1.5 is really 2.0, but that I was calling it 1.5 because I didn’t want to charge for an upgrade just yet… However, at this point, after a year of coding and still more to go, I’m rethinking this: this is a significant upgrade and it feels as big as getting 1.0 out; in short, the bulk of what I have been calling 1.5 may well become 2.0 and - scowl and shout now - be a paid upgrade. This here is your opportunity to shoot me down for this. 
I’m naturally concerned that this risks causing a lot of ill-will - no one likes shelling out their hard-earned cash, especially on an upgrade that the developer has said all along will be a free update. So what gives? Well, here’s my reasoning:
• 1.0 came out two years ago - yes, Scrivener has been on sale for two whole years now. In that time there has been two new versions of Pages, one major OS release (and there will be another this year by the looks of it), which alone caused me to code like hell to get a version of Scrivener - 1.1x - that worked well on both Tiger and Leopard, and my main competitors have been through at least one paid upgrade (with the exception of the excellent Ulysses, which costs more than twice Scrivener anyway). This next version of Scrivener thus represents two years’ worth of improvements and refinements - more than that, given that it won’t be out there for a few months, most likely.
• This is a big change, a landmark in Scrivener’s development. It’s nearly as big a step as that between Scrivener Gold and Scrivener 1.0. There are radical differences in the refinements to the interface. The Compile Draft sheet has been completely overhauled, as have the preferences. All the menus have been reshuffled so everything is now in a different place and users used to the somewhat obtuse placing of the current menu items will have to reacquaint themselves with the newer, hopefully more intuitive, menu item locations. There are new features and replacements for old ones. Anyone downloading the update in the middle of a project thinking it is a simple point upgrade could well be frustrated and annoyed at the fact that they will have to re-learn certain things. Making it a 2.0 will mean people can consider whether or not they really want to upgrade to this version and learn the new features, or hold off for a while.
• Workload and user suggestions: Having spent nearly a year now on this update alone, I’ve implemented a lot of user suggestions and I’ve added stuff that I always said would be reserved for a 2.0 release. Page layout view? eBook support? Better scriptwriting features? Better integration for Edit Scrivenings, corkboard and outliner? Titles in Edit Scrivenings you say? And so on…
• User expectations for an update soon. A Scrivener 1.x update is well overdue. If I say that this big release is 2.0 and will be out later in the year, it frees me up to work on a lesser 1.x release that will fix some outstanding bugs, add Final Draft FCF export and a few other features, and get a decent 1.x release out there to replace the 1.12 beta that everyone is using. I’ll be able to do that soon-ish, as it won’t take a complete documentation rewrite, which is what will be required for the big update I’m working on.
• Capitalism (yeah, and I consider myself a socialist, ha): I think I deserve paying for a year’s work. I’m no capitalist pig, honest, guv - I even had a Windows user berate me for being a Mac hippy who doesn’t want to make proper money by releasing a Windows version recently - but L&L is now turning into a proper company. I have gone from a part-time developer into a full-time business. Hopefully users who like Scrivener enough to want to know its continued development is assured will appreciate this and want to support it. But of course, there will not be an obligation to upgrade.
• Enthusiasm: 1.wha? Honestly, the idea of making this 2.0 excites me. I genuinely think this next update of Scrivener is cool beyond belief, and there’s still much to do. Spending all day and all night every day (honestly, I work something like 12 hours a day 7 days a week on this at the moment - and I am supposed to be writing ) for an update that is just a 1.x upgrade and that will come and go without any fanfare isn’t exactly motivating beyond knowing what you are doing is really cool. Making this 2.0 and knowing at the end of it that the review cycle begins again, that you can start telling people about it and that they might be interested… That is cool. Should I be sharing this sort of stuff with the users? I have no idea. (See “I’m making this up as I go along”, below.)
What this means for you
All this means is that the next free update of Scrivener won’t be quite as whizz-bang as I may have inadvertantly led you to believe. There will still be another Scrivener 1.x release, an improvement on the 1.12 beta that is out there at the moment. But after that, I will be renewing the focus on 2.0, which will have all the snazzy new features such as page layout, improved Compile Draft and so forth. And there is no time-scale for this 2.0 - because there is still lots to do. But it will be out later this year…
I’m making this up as I go along
Really. If I had known how much was going to go into this next version, I would have said it was going to be a paid upgrade in the first place. Instead, just after the last 1.12 beta, I started thinking, “Wouldn’t this be cool… And this…” and before I knew it I was adding stuff that I had never intended for a 1.x version and still saying “Oh yes, it’s still a free upgrade” whilst lots of people told me I was mad to do so… Really, I should have just shut my mouth about the features I was adding and stuck to my promises for 1.12.
You can always haggle
In the final analysis (as they say), I really don’t want to p*** off any existing customers. Really, you guys are valuable to me. You’ve given me good press and you’ve been absolute stars in helping track bugs and suggesting new features. If, when 2.0 comes out, you personally feel it’s outrageous and that it’s not worth the upgrade fee… Well, you can either not upgrade and stick with 1.x, or you can contact me personally and let me know, politely, what you think. If you were someone who e-mailed me to ask if there was going to be a paid upgrade any time soon and I said no, well, just forward me that e-mail when 2.0 comes out and I’m sure we can sort something out.
Upgrade fee
Half price ($20-25) at the most. Free for users who have bought for a given time period before the upgrade, which we’ll announce nearer the time.
Right, let the backlash commence!
All the best,
Keith
