Payout

What it means

When a reader pays by card, the money first lands in a balance at the payment provider, such as Stripe or PayPal. A payout moves that balance to your bank. Payment fees come off before it arrives, and any refunds or disputes are taken from the balance.

Retailers work differently. Amazon, Apple and Kobo pay royalties on their own schedule, some time after the month of the sale ends. A distributor pays after the stores pay it.

A romance author with a busy launch week might see several payouts that month. A nonfiction author who sells a few workbooks a week might set payouts to weekly so the money comes in one go.

Why it matters when you sell direct

Direct sales are usually paid much faster than retailer royalties. The money is yours from the moment of the sale, minus payment fees and the store’s fee if it has one.

Know where your money sits. With some stores, the store collects the money and pays you later. With others, the payment goes to your own account and the store never holds it.

How Lanternbee handles it

You connect your own Stripe account. Readers pay you directly and Stripe pays out to your bank on the schedule you set in Stripe. Lanternbee never holds your sales money. On the Free plan, Lanternbee takes its fee from each sale; on the Author plan there is no fee. Your recent payouts show in your Lanternbee dashboard.