Sell your e-books directly to readers

You can sell your e-books to readers straight from BookSparker, with no commission to BookSparker. Readers pay on Stripe's checkout, into your own Stripe account, and Stripe is the seller: it takes the payment, handles the taxes on each sale, and deals with payment questions, refunds and disputes. BookSparker shows the Buy button and delivers the book. Selling books is part of the Growing Author and Pro Author plans.

How it works

You connect your Stripe account to BookSparker, turn on Stripe Managed Payments, and make a Payment Link for the book in your Stripe Dashboard. Then you put the book on sale on BookSparker with that link. The Buy button shows on the book's Sales page, on the book's page on your author website and on its Universal Book Link pages. When a reader pays, Stripe tells BookSparker, and BookSparker sends the reader their book.

Connect your Stripe account

Selling needs a Stripe account that you own, so set it up at Stripe first. Sign up at stripe.com, or, if you already use Stripe, open the account menu at the top left of your Stripe Dashboard and choose New account. Use your author or imprint name as the business name, and finish Stripe's setup, including your bank details. A Stripe account you already have works too.

Then open Earnings from your avatar menu or under Settings, press Connect your Stripe account and choose that account on Stripe's page. Don't create a new account on that page: accounts made there belong to BookSparker's platform, and Stripe doesn't let those sell books. You come back to Earnings, which names your Stripe account. If you sell paid swaps, the same account takes those payments too. Only the account owner can connect Stripe; an assistant with access to your account cannot. If your current Stripe account was set up through BookSparker, connect one of your own the same way. Your paid swaps then use it as well, and swaps charged before keep refunding through the old one.

Turn on Managed Payments

Managed Payments is the Stripe setting that makes Stripe the seller of your books. Stripe sells each copy to the reader through Link, its checkout and wallet service, so the taxes on the sale, such as VAT and sales tax, are Stripe's to handle, and so are refunds and disputes. BookSparker only sells books through links with Managed Payments on. Turn it on in your Stripe Dashboard under Settings, then Managed Payments, and follow Stripe's steps; you only do this once. If the setup asks for a product, add your book with the settings described below. When it asks you to choose your checkout, tick Shareable payment links. Then open Tax settings and set Include tax in prices to Inclusive, so the price readers see on BookSparker is the price they pay; without it, Stripe adds tax on top. Stripe checks whether your business qualifies, which depends among other things on where your business is: Stripe offers it in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and several other countries.

Make a Payment Link for the book

First add the book as a product, unless you already did during the Managed Payments setup: in your Stripe Dashboard, open Product catalog and click Create product.

• Name: the book's title.
• Price: the amount readers pay, in the currency you want. Click One time, because Stripe starts on Recurring.
• Image (optional): the book's cover, which then shows at checkout.

Click Save product. Then open Payment Links and click New:

• Select the product you just added and leave the quantity at 1.
• Under Options, tick Enable Managed Payments; it starts unticked. Stripe then asks for a product category: click Choose category and pick Digital Books - downloaded - non subscription - with permanent rights (txcd_10302000). Searching for the code finds it fastest.
• On the After payment tab, choose Don't show confirmation page and enter https://booksparker.com/order/complete?session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}, so readers land on their order as soon as they have paid. The Sell this book panel on the book's page has the address ready to copy.

Click Create link. Managed Payments can't be switched on later for a link that was made without it, so make a new link if yours doesn't have it. BookSparker only puts a book on sale once its link sends readers back to BookSparker, so they land on their book right after paying. If you forgot that step, you don't need a new link: edit the link in Stripe, open After payment and paste the address.

The Sell this book panel on the book's page opens each of these Stripe pages for you and has copy buttons for the title, the tax code and the address. Each time you come back from Stripe, it checks your account, ticks off the steps it finds done and says what to fix.

Put the book on sale

Open the book on BookSparker and go to Sell this book. When you add a new book, you can tick Set up selling after I save this book to land there straight away. Pick the book's Payment Link: BookSparker reads the active links in your Stripe account and says what a link is missing. Before the book goes on sale you confirm three things: you have the rights to sell it, it isn't enrolled in KDP Select, and it isn't pornography or erotica made mainly for sexual gratification, which Stripe doesn't allow. Romance with sex scenes as part of the story is generally fine. The book needs a cover and its files saved on BookSparker, as described in adding a book: after uploading the manuscript on the book's page, click Save Changes before putting it on sale. Then click Put this book on sale. From then on, a Buy button with the price shows on the book's page on your author website and above the store buttons on the book's Universal Book Link pages. For a page that only sells the book, create a Sales page: on Landing Pages, press Create Landing Page, choose Sales page and pick the book.

What readers see and pay

Buy opens Stripe's checkout for your Payment Link, in English or German to match the page. The checkout says the book is sold through Link, and the reader's card statement shows Link, starting with LINK.COM. Receipts also carry your Stripe account's business name. If you write under several author names, give your Stripe account an imprint or business name rather than one of your author names, so a receipt never ties your names together.

What it costs

BookSparker takes no commission on your book sales. Stripe charges its usual card processing fee plus 3.5 percent of each sale for Managed Payments, and pays the rest out to your bank on the payout schedule you set in Stripe.

How readers get the book

As soon as Stripe confirms the payment, the reader lands on their order page and gets an email, sent as "Author Name via BookSparker" with your author name, with a link back to it. From there they download the book in every format it has on BookSparker, send it to their Kindle, or read it online. The link keeps working when you change or remove the Sales page, the book or your plan, and when you update the book's files, readers get the newest version. Books stay available to buyers while BookSparker runs the service, and if that ever ends, buyers get at least 60 days' notice to download their books. A reader who loses the email can ask for their links again on booksparker.com/order/find: every book they bought with that address is emailed to them.

Refunds, disputes and pauses

Refunds and disputes go through Stripe. A full refund, or a dispute the reader wins, ends their access to the book; a partial refund doesn't. A book stops selling, and its Buy buttons come off, when you deactivate its Payment Link in Stripe, change the link to sell a different product, or disconnect Stripe from BookSparker. A new price for the same product only changes the price BookSparker shows. On a plan without selling, your books stop selling until you upgrade again. Readers who already bought a book keep it in every case. Disconnecting Stripe doesn't stop the Payment Links themselves, which keep taking payments in Stripe, so deactivate them there too, or connect Stripe again.

Selling to readers in Germany

In Germany the fixed book price law, the Buchpreisbindung, covers e-books too: every shop must sell a book at the price its publisher sets for Germany, and as a self-published author you are the publisher. If you sell to readers in Germany, price the Payment Link in euros at the same price your book has in other shops there.

Common questions

Can I sell a book that's in KDP Select?

No. KDP Select requires the e-book to be sold only on Amazon while it is enrolled. Take it out of KDP Select first; its enrollment runs to the end of the current 90-day term.

Why isn't the Buy button showing?

The book isn't selling right now: its Payment Link was deactivated or changed in Stripe, Stripe was disconnected, or your plan doesn't include selling. Fix the link in Stripe, or give the book an active link, and check your plan.

Who answers readers' questions?

Questions about the payment, receipts and refunds go to Stripe, which sells the book. Replies to the order email reach BookSparker's support, for anything about getting the book.

Can I sell print books or audiobooks?

Not yet: e-books only. For a print edition, point the book's buy link at your own shop.