Paid swaps: charge for promoting other authors

A paid swap is a swap where one side pays instead of promoting in return: another author pays you to feature their book in your newsletter on a date they choose. You set prices per swap type in your list's swap settings, buyers pay by card, and the money goes to your own Stripe account. This article covers both sides. The basics of requests, accepting and confirming are in how book swaps work.

How the money moves

Payments run through Stripe on an account in your name; BookSparker never holds your money. The buyer pays the price you set, in US dollars, and BookSparker keeps a fee of 10 percent of that price, plus VAT on the fee where it applies to you, which means sellers in the EU without a VAT ID. Stripe also deducts its own processing fee, which depends on your country and the buyer's card. On a 20 dollar swap you keep 18 dollars before Stripe's fee, or 17.62 dollars as a German seller without a VAT ID. Stripe pays you out to the bank account you register, on the payout schedule you choose; there is no balance to withdraw on BookSparker and no invoice from BookSparker, since the receipt comes from Stripe.

Set your prices

Selling paid slots is part of the Growing Author and Pro Author plans. On the free plan every slot is a free swap and the paid modes are locked, with a link to the plans. Buying a paid slot from another author is open on every plan.

Booking Options sits at the foot of a list's swap settings, with one card per swap type: Solo, Feature and Mentions. Each starts on Swap Only, meaning free exchange. Paid Only sells that type and takes no swaps for it; the third option takes either. Choosing a paid mode reveals a Price (USD) field; switching a type back to Swap Only clears its price. A paid type only shows as paid to other authors once it has a price above zero. You can price one type and keep swapping the others.

Connect Stripe to get paid

Prices can be set before Stripe is connected, but a paid request cannot be accepted until it is. Open Earnings from your avatar menu or under Settings, choose the country of your bank account and press Connect Stripe. The country is fixed once the account exists, since it decides the bank details Stripe asks for and the currency you are paid in; 22 countries are supported, covering the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Western and Northern Europe. Stripe's form opens in a new tab. It sets up a Stripe account in your name with its own Stripe login, and Open Stripe dashboard on the Earnings page takes you to Stripe, where you sign in to manage payouts, refunds and disputes. BookSparker fills in the business details it already knows, and Stripe asks you to confirm them. If Stripe asks for a website and you have none, the full link to a public social media profile works, such as your author page on Facebook. On Stripe's bank page you also choose when you are paid: automatic payouts, daily, weekly or monthly, arrive by themselves, while with Manual nothing is sent until you start each payout yourself in your Stripe dashboard. Stripe charges no fee for normal payouts, but your bank may charge for each incoming transfer, especially in a foreign currency, in which case weekly or monthly suits better. You can change the schedule later in Stripe. You are ready when the status reads that you can accept paid swaps, which needs both card payments and payouts switched on at Stripe; that can take a few minutes after the form is done. If you sell as a VAT-registered EU business, enter your VAT ID on the same page so the fee is charged without VAT. Only the account owner sees Earnings; an assistant with access to your account does not.

What buyers see and pay

In Find authors each list shows one cell per swap type. A gray Swap pill means free exchange, a green price means paid, and both together mean the slot takes either. A dash means the list has no slot of that type. Prices there are rounded to whole dollars; the request and accept screens show cents. The Booking mode filter narrows to Swap Only or Paid Only, and Max Price hides lists whose cheapest paid slot is above your limit; a Paid Only list disappears from a Swap Only search.

Booking a paid slot asks the buyer for a card, saved securely with Stripe. Nothing is charged at that point: the card is charged only if you accept, and declined or expired requests cost the buyer nothing. Saved cards are reused on later requests and can be managed under Settings in Payment Methods. A paid request offers nothing in return, so the buyer needs no availability of their own.

Accept a paid request

On a paid request, They pay and the amount, marked Paid booking, stand where a swap shows what the other author sends back. Accept opens Confirm Paid Promotion, which lists the buyer, book, type, date and price and states the terms. Confirming charges the buyer's card on your Stripe account at once and books both calendars. If the card is declined, nothing is booked: the request returns to your Received tab marked Card declined, the buyer is asked to save a new card, and you accept again once they have. If no new card arrives within 48 hours the request is canceled and both of you are told. Paid swaps count toward your monthly swap limit and your response rate like free ones, except that a request which lapses after the buyer's card was declined does not count against you; if the buyer is over their own limit, the swap is held as pending an upgrade for 48 hours after the charge, as with any swap.

Getting paid after the swap

Cancellations and refunds

The buyer can cancel a charged swap for a full refund until the day before the share date, and BookSparker returns its fee too. From the share date on, the buyer cannot cancel, unless you have not confirmed sending within three days after it. You can cancel at any time until the swap completes; the buyer is then refunded in full from your Stripe balance, and Stripe may debit your bank account if the money was already paid out. Once a swap has completed nobody can cancel it and there is no refund; partial refunds are not offered.

To cancel a paid swap, always cancel it on BookSparker: that refunds the buyer, frees both calendars and returns BookSparker's fee in one step. Stripe keeps its processing fee on any refund. If you refund a buyer yourself in your Stripe dashboard, BookSparker automatically returns the matching share of its fee, but the swap is not canceled; if it should not go ahead, cancel it on BookSparker too. If a buyer disputes the charge with their bank, Stripe asks you to respond in your Stripe dashboard and Stripe's dispute fee applies; if you lose the dispute, BookSparker automatically returns its fee.

Common questions

Why can I not accept a paid request?

Your Stripe account is missing or not finished. Confirm Paid Promotion shows the Stripe setup in that case and keeps Accept off until Stripe has enabled both payments and payouts for you; the request waits meanwhile. Finish the setup and accept again.

When exactly is the buyer charged?

The moment you confirm acceptance, never when the request is sent. A card is only saved at request time.

Where is my payout?

With Stripe. Released on the Earnings page means the swap completed and the money is in your Stripe balance; Stripe transfers it to your bank on the payout schedule you set, which you can see and change in your Stripe dashboard. With Manual, nothing is sent until you start a payout there yourself.

Can I charge in euros?

Not yet. Prices and charges are in US dollars; Stripe converts the payout into your bank account's currency and charges its currency conversion fee for that.