Besides tracking my progress in a 5x8-inch Field Book, I also use Basecamp. True to its word, it is simple project management. I use it with the family, with my writing and programming. One feature I enjoy is the automated question. At a period you choose, an email is sent for you to respond to its question. Every Monday morning, I’m challenged with what I’ve done the prior week. When I have one of my frequent periods of “didn’t do enough,” scanning through the prior weeks’ responses is encouraging.

I’m still charging with finishing ScribUnity. The basic application works, and I have an instance in production. There were a lot of pivots with the internals (user management, etc.), and I have a question or two about sending the emails. I have two ways of shipping it, either as a SaaS (Software as a Service) or self-hostable PSaaS (Perpetual Software as a Service). I’ve coined the latter phrase as the type of application that is a SaaS where the licensee holds a perpetual license. This is inspired by the Once product line. Until about a month ago, I was heading down the traditional path before accepting that I did not want to be a SaaS provider. I’m building these applications because I want to use them. But if others want to use them, I’m happy to share. It looks like it costs $6/mo to host SU on Digital Ocean, but I’ve not stress tested it. 

Following the Once inspiration, I have to figure out how to install the application on a production server. My plan for SU was to get it production-ready by 15 June, and I got there the week of 4 July. Had I stayed on one path, I would have finished by now. My plan for the sales platform and installer was 9 August. Let’s see what the next fortnight brings.

I’ve had some people ask about how I create print-ready PDFs from Scrivener. I plan on describing that later, but I want to hold off until I can host SU in production using the installer.