How it works

How Lanternbee sells your books, from checkout to the reader’s inbox

Lanternbee runs your store, the checkout, delivery and printing. You write the books and tell readers where to find them.

Your store

Your own store, at your own web address

Your store starts at yourname.lanternbee.shop. Connect your own address, like shop.yourname.com, when you are ready.

Pick your colors and fonts and add your logo. Privacy, terms and refund pages start from a template, so you only read them over and make them yours.

Your books

Every kind of book, in the formats you sell

Add a title with its cover, description and genres. Tick the formats you sell: ebook, audiobook, paperback or hardcover. Each edition starts at the default price you set, and you can change any of them.

It works the same for a novel, a cookbook, a workbook or a picture book. If you write series, drag the books into reading order and readers see “book 3 of 5”.

Checkout and payments

A checkout readers trust, paid into your own Stripe account

Readers pay by card, or with Apple Pay or Google Pay where Stripe offers them, without creating an account. Stripe Tax adds the right VAT or sales tax for their country at checkout.

You connect your own Stripe account, so you are the seller and the money goes straight to you. Discount codes and bundles are built in. A bundle knows when a reader already owns one of its books and charges less. Switch on cart reminders, and readers who leave books in their cart get a reminder email.

Delivery

Books delivered by email, to Kindle and to any device

Right after paying, readers get an email with their download links. Ebooks can go straight to a Kindle. Audiobooks download or play on any phone or computer. EPUB files carry a line with the buyer’s email instead of DRM.

Lost the email? Readers sign in with their email address and find every book they bought from you. That means fewer “where is my book?” messages for you.

Read more: Send to Kindle, Kobo, Watermarking, DRM

Paperbacks and hardcovers, printed for you or sent from your shelf

Choose BookVault or Lulu for each print edition and upload your print files once. Sending each paid order to the printer, so it ships straight to the reader, is being built now. You will pay the printer’s price, and Lanternbee adds nothing on top.

Shipping copies from your own shelf? Set your shipping zones, and Lanternbee keeps count of your stock so you never sell a copy you do not have.

Read more: BookVault, Lulu, Print on demand

Readers

Every buyer lands on your reader list

Each buyer’s email lands on your list, tagged with what they bought and in which format. Send a release-day email to the readers of one book or one series, or switch on a welcome email.

Already use MailerLite or Klaviyo? Keep them, and new readers are added there too. Download your readers and orders as a spreadsheet any time.

Coming from Shopify? The importer brings your store over

Connect your Shopify store and the importer turns products into books and editions, and collections into series. Your readers, orders and discount codes come too.

You check a preview before anything goes live, and your old product links keep working after you switch.

Coming after launch

Signed and personalized copies, with a signing queue and packing slips
Pre-orders before release day
Special-edition campaigns, with tiers and stretch goals
One library for readers, with every book they bought from any Lanternbee author
EU VAT on ebooks handled for you, with Lanternbee as the seller of your digital editions
The Studio plan, for several pen names under one login