

Ask HN: Review my startup, LitLift.com - dottertrotter

A few weeks ago I launched my side project; a novel writing application I call http://LitLift.com<p>So far over 370 users have registered to use the software, most of which are participating in NaNoWrimo.  The response has been incredibly positive.  The enjoy the simple user interface and the ability to create their ideas in any particular order.<p>Already I have managed to make the site profitable through a pair of partnerships that will be kicking off soon.<p>I know the design needs work, but I'm a programmer.<p>Any feedback on usability, interface and site structure are more than welcome.<p>Thanks.
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yesimahuman
Initial login impressions:

First of all, log me in right away when I sign up. I was confused that I just
got redirected back and didn't notice the green text telling me it worked.

I like that you don't ask me too much information. However, I personally
prefer to use my email to log in. That has the added benefit of you only
having to ask me two things at signup time: my email, and a password (no
password confirm). If I forget my password, I just reset it later with my
email.

I would definitely highlight that litlift.com is a tool to help you write a
book, but not where you actually go to write a book. I was confused for a bit
what the "description" was under my new book, I thought that's where you
expected me to type my novel (in hindsight, this was dumb of me).

It's very cool though. I think if I were to write a novel, this type of
approach would fit my engineering brain better.

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andrewljohnson
You know, I've always wanted to write a book, and I have dozens of pages of
writing for different stories. So, when I saw your post on HN, I was stoked.
Unfortunately, you did it all wrong. I say this in hopes that you will redo
it, because I want your product.

Here's the problem - your software is supposed to help me write a novel, but
it actually just hinders me. Your text editor functionality is non-existent,
you have no integration with my usual tools, and your website doesn't suggest
to me how to actually get a novel written.

So, go back and revisit your idea. If you are trying to help me write a novel,
it's not going to be by providing some archaic text boxes on the internet.

Here's some things that would help me write a novel:

* give me points or prestige for finishing parts - gamify it

* help me to get feedback on my writing - socialize it

* provide me with tools that I can use - integrate with Word or Google Docs - I'm not typing into your system

I'm not sure you really understand how a novel is written. Have you used your
system to write one?

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idiotb
[http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-succeed-like-
apple...](http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-succeed-like-apple/) hey
you can go through this article, I personally use it as my management
guideline.

~~~
aik
Cool thanks for sharing. The one that sticks out for me and the one that's so
easy to get wrong is the comment on benefits before features:

> Apple puts benefits before features and technical specs. They emphasize the
> benefit of a technology. Battery life in terms of work hours, storage in
> terms of music hours/total photos, etc. Talk to your customers in terms of
> benefits. Things like security, the ability to hold more stuff, work longer,
> and work faster are things they understand. GHZ, MPs, GBs, and 48X are just
> confusing.

~~~
idiotb
Great! it helped you... You can also go through his other Articles they are
very helpful.

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Dysiode
Fantastic! I actually made something with the same exact intent (except that
it was more geared toward sharing your ideas with friends) but not being a
writer myself it never really made it that far usability wise (although, it
did have a name generator ;).

I watched the screencast and it looks actually useful! However, navigation
looked a little clumsy, and having signed up and played around some, that's
proven to be true. For example, in the chapter list there's no direct way to
get back to the book except via the book menu. Also in navigation: having to
click "Show" is unintuitive to me. I naturally want to click anywhere in the
row.

As for features: I wish it were possible to interlink the various bits of the
book together with each other. For example, going back to your screencast,
being able to go beyond just saying "This is Sherlock's house." and linking
Sherlock and the setting together. Perhaps more useful would be tying
everything together in chapters (Sherlock and Watson and Arbitrary Character
do something at Sherlock's house in chapter 3!).

Those are my main thoughts. I'll have my 5 users check it out and see what
they have to say about it since they've actually used my site fairly
extensively (over 200 characters amongst them). They're used to everything
being public (I know how terrible that is, but they like reading each other's
stuff), but they should still have some decent feedback :)

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jeromec
Very nice. This combines two of my interests, book writing and tech startups.
:)

First impressions: the homepage looks good, nice and neat, but doesn't
communicate "what's in it for me" to the user easy/fast enough. You have a
great video demo, but I didn't even notice it was there until after I read
comments here. Just do a screen capture of the page with the video, crop the
video image, and stick that on the home page as a link to the video. Pictures
are so much more engaging for visitors than just text.

Next, the FAQ and video demo, etc. should exist on the same site design as the
homepage. I can understand this is an early release, and the crowd here at HN
is familiar with Posterous, but anyone from the outside would think "huh?"
when jumping to a different looking page. It doesn't look as professional.

The actual product looks very cool, simple and effective, as it should be. I
especially like the character name generator. :) I think the site should also
be clear about how the author's work is safe. As a dabbling author I will
certainly bookmark this site! A feature request would be to see an overview of
everything created -- characters, scenes, etc. -- on the same page to provide
a good mental outline of the book for the author.

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mr_b
Click-able: <http://LitLift.com>

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justlearning
haven't logged in. few things that didn't make me login: no
screenshots/preview. Although there is a demo video, I won't be able to watch
this at work.

No Privacy policy listed - how safe is my data? how secure is my data?

Also, you could connect using facebook and twitter, but you have your blog
link just beside - confusing me that you could connect thru posterous (send
emails?)

ps: could you tell us what stack/framework are you using? Is it on a VPS or
shared host?

~~~
dottertrotter
I built it RoR on the heroku system.

As for the privacy policy, I've been meaning to put that together. On the
site, nothing is shared. Your information is entirely private.

Understandable about the posterous link. It's just a link to my blog.

Thanks for the feedback.

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bryanh
Rather impressive, and congrats on the partnerships!

I would really try to showcase the features through a user narrative (this is
a novel writing app after all!) and lots of screenshots of novels in progress
with the app.

Also, photos of the people in the testimonials lend credibility. Faces sell
after all...

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Naomi
I signed up and I love it. It seems to be geared towards fiction though. Is
there a way to use it to help organize ideological themes and subtopics, so
you could switch them around and put them in different orders? Maybe a place
to set down main ideas so they could be elaborated on at a later time?

~~~
dottertrotter
for the main ideas, I just use a new book. As for subtopics and switching them
around, I would use the chapters section, which is completely sortable.

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devmonk
Good idea! If it helps, I liked this site- maybe it might give you some ideas
for things you could add:

[http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/depts/resources/resou...](http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/depts/resources/resour_writers/100daysbook/bk100da.html)

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andrewljohnson
Clickable: <http://www.LitLift.com>

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pratikjhaveri
Good idea and could be really useful to the folks that Amazon is trying to
recruit to write their new "Kindle Singles" product. Perhaps you should
approach them and offer the tool to folks that sign up with them.

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lfx
Hi, is any possibility to export book? O do I need to copy/paste all chapters?

Maybe in the future you are planing to let users to publish them work on line?

P.S. I watched video, but did not create account.

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araneae
Meh, the design is fine to me. But then, I am also design-challenged.

So far... I love it! This might actually tempt me to try to write a book.

