# Where can I sell my ebooks for bitcoin?



## Guest (Feb 10, 2014)

I know that there are a lot of headaches involved in setting up an online store that deals in traditional currency ($, £, €, etc). Are the headaches the same for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, or is it easier to set up and run such a storefront? I'm mostly curious about the technical aspects, though I recognize that sales tax is a major part of it as well.


----------



## Bluebonnet (Dec 15, 2013)

I wish I could be of more help, but I am still trying to understand Bitcoin myself. I did find a website where people can upload and sell their e-books using Bitcoin:

http://bitbooks.co/
On their FAQ page, they describe how what kind of books they accept, how to upload them, etc. They take most types of self-published books except for porn (erotica is okay). Formats accepted are pdf files, ePub or Mobi. They have 33 books for sale today. Look around on the site for additional information.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=181816.0
This is a Bitcoin forum where the founder of bitbooks discussed his project. He founded the company in 2013.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1nbnrf/how_do_i_sell_digital_downloads_using_bitcoins/
Some technical information about using Bitcoin payment on your website. They said you can download a free "bitcoin wallet" from bitcoin.org to your website to process payments. They also said that you can use a third party shopping cart program that can handle Bitcoin.

You can also read about it on the Bitcoin website, https://bitcoin.org/en/ Try the "Getting Started" page.

For sales taxes, you would have to determine what the sale was worth in dollars (or currency of your country).


----------



## Aducknamedjoe (Apr 25, 2013)

I think you could use https://bitpay.com/ to take BTC on most traditional eCommerce platforms (Shopify, Magento, etc.), or there's a couple stores already out there like Bitbooks or CoinWrite.org.

Check out the subreddit devoted to it:

http://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoReads/


----------



## Guest (Feb 10, 2014)

Interesting. If someone else has already set up the store and is looking for content to fill it, then I suppose that would be a much better way of going about selling my ebooks for cryptocurrency.

What are the main sites selling ebooks for bitcoin right now? A google search shows a mix of sites, but some of them are down, some of them are giving me security problems, and others look like they're dedicated to a particular genre (mostly erotica--go figure). Looks like there's still a lot of volatility with no clear leader.


----------



## Bluebonnet (Dec 15, 2013)

Just wondering -- if an author published the e-book on Amazon Kindle and then also sold it on another site for bitcoins, how would Amazon be able to match the price? The value of bitcoin seems to fluctuate a lot. If I understand the rules correctly, Amazon won't let you sell your book cheaper on another site.


----------



## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

An important question (especially for erotic authors). I looked into it a year ago and couldn't find a good solution. My money's on dogecoin, btw. Much riches. Wow.

B.


----------



## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

SM Reine said:


> (I actually somehow have over 25000 dogecoin now and I'm not entirely sure how it happened.)


That's...an impressive stack of doge.


----------



## Guest (Feb 10, 2014)

So wow. Much doge. Very want.


----------



## mattposner (Oct 28, 2010)

Bluebonnet said:


> Just wondering -- if an author published the e-book on Amazon Kindle and then also sold it on another site for bitcoins, how would Amazon be able to match the price? The value of bitcoin seems to fluctuate a lot. If I understand the rules correctly, Amazon won't let you sell your book cheaper on another site.


I am wondering about this also. I was about to write to Amazon and ask, but I am worried that they will think I have already done it, even if I say I haven't, and will start deleting my books. I could just post different books on the bitcoin site, but I want to deliver the same quality of books there that I would anywhere else, and my best work has to go on Amazon to maximize sales.


----------



## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

B. Justin Shier said:


> My money's on dogecoin, btw. Much riches. Wow.


Such mine, many currency. Dogetipbot +500 verify



SM Reine said:


> (I actually somehow have over 25000 dogecoin now and I'm not entirely sure how it happened.)


I mined 201,000 Doge back when the difficulty was like 40. I have no idea what to do with them now.



Joe Vasicek said:


> So wow. Much doge. Very want.


I thought I was alone in my love of Doge. This is the best thread in a while. :O


----------



## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

David Adams said:


> I thought I was alone in my love of Doge. This is the best thread in a while. :O


I love how it's linguistically separate from lolCat, and each dialect does is a good reflection on the general demeanor of the animal. lolCat - primarily full of "I" statements, emphasising the self-centered nature of cats. Doge, on the other hand, is happy and vibrant and full of "big" emotions.


----------



## Bluebonnet (Dec 15, 2013)

I couldn't figure out why y'all were talking funny like that until I saw the Dogecoin twitter page.

https://twitter.com/dogecoin

Very podcast such interview
many talks wow


----------



## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

Bluebonnet said:


> I couldn't figure out why y'all were talking funny like that until I saw the Dogecoin twitter page.
> 
> https://twitter.com/dogecoin
> 
> ...


Much research! wow

If you want to learn a bit more, here's the Know Your Meme page.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Joe Vasicek said:


> I know that there are a lot of headaches involved in setting up an online store that deals in traditional currency ($, £, €, etc). Are the headaches the same for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, or is it easier to set up and run such a storefront? I'm mostly curious about the technical aspects, though I recognize that sales tax is a major part of it as well.


The most obvious headache is that I just read an article that says Bitcoin is currently crashing in value. So why you'd want to get paid in that, well...


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> The most obvious headache is that I just read an article that says Bitcoin is currently crashing in value. So why you'd want to get paid in that, well...


Bitcoin has being going up about 1000% a year, so if you have had a bookstore that paid you in bitcoins for the last few years and held on on the bitcoins, you could have made hundreds of dollars for every sale. Bitcoin right now about 5 times higher than it was 5 months ago, which isn't bad for a crash. Plus, there are now services which will instantly convert from bitcoins to dollars if you want to avoid the exchange rate risk.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a big bitcoin-based bookstore set up which is totally uncensored in terms of content, given all the problems erotica authors have had with Amazon/Kobo etc. I guess the pool of bitcoin buyers is small enough yet, but it feels like there'll be a market there in the future.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

David J Normoyle said:


> ...so _*if*_ you have had a bookstore that paid you in bitcoins for the last few years...


Need I spell it out for you?

(Apparently. IOW... Big "if")


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Need I spell it out for you?
> 
> (Apparently. IOW... Big "if")


If you aren't happy dealing with the currency volatility then, as I said, a service should as BitPay could be used so the buyer pays in bitcoin, but the supplier receives dollars. There is a fee for the service but it's less than PayPal/credit card fees.

Of course, bitcoin enthusiasts are happy to be paid in bitcoin since most believe it is still going up.


----------



## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

SM Reine said:


> Tip a bunch to my wallet! I will say nice things about you behind your back.
> 
> DKe7GDgWZ8xTpB636NyWZ4Y5LA6tpStrsC


Such send, many tip, wow.

(soon as my wallet resyncs to the network...)


----------



## Guest (Feb 12, 2014)

wow
 very excite
 how start
 such crypto
 very currency
 much giddy
 so wow

D8dATTTXKqzMPWqKvEa5Hdwedvb7JVgMYS


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/02/10/the-morning-download-bitcoin-faces-its-moment-of-truth/



> In case you missed it over the weekend, Mt. Gox, one of the biggest exchanges, froze withdrawals to outside wallets. Monday, the exchange issued a statement saying it had identified a software bug that needs to be addressed by the "whole [bitcoin] community," the Journal's Paul Jackson reports. Meanwhile Russian authorities said they will crack down on "cryptocurrencies," report the FT's Kathrin Hille and Stephen Foley.


----------



## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

The bitcoin plummet today is a biggie. Down to 411 Bitcoins/$US on Mt. Gox (30-day high was 745). A massive DDoS attack on some of the exchanges is worsening matters. Looks like it's a good day to Doge.

B.


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

B. Justin Shier said:


> The bitcoin plummet today is a biggie. Down to 411 Bitcoins/$US on Mt. Gox (30-day high was 745). A massive DDoS attack on some of the exchanges is worsening matters. Looks like it's a good day to Doge.
> 
> B.


No point in looking at the MtGox rate, they have been been having problems for a long while, and their rates don't align with the rest of the world (they may be insolvent). The price hasn't fallen as much on other sites (unfortunately, I'm looking to buy). Lots of long term good news for bitcoin means price should recover soon, the bug is just a shortterm problem (from what I've read), nothing fundamentally wrong with bitcoin. I don't see the appeal in Doge.


----------



## Guest (Feb 12, 2014)

How can you not see the appeal in Doge






Seriously, though, if there's a community of cryptocurrency enthusiasts who are eager for their coin of choice to succeed, and the way to make it succeed is for them to spend it, and that cryptocurrency can be exchanged for cold hard cash, what does it matter if the coin is based on a silly internet meme? If people are eager to spend, omg how can I offer my books to these people?


----------



## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

Joe Vasicek said:


> If people are eager to spend, omg how can I offer my books to these people?


Does this help?

http://quickercoins.com/guide-creating-ecommerce-website-accepts-bitcoin/

https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-for-ecommerce


----------



## Guest (Feb 12, 2014)

You know, when I started this thread, I thought it would be worth setting up a storefront of my own to sell my books for bitcoin/litecoin/dogecoin directly. But now that I've thought about it, I've come to the conclusion that we are fundamentally suppliers, not merchants, and that getting a foot in the merchanting side of the business would be a major undertaking no matter the currency. However, as bitcoin/dogecoin/whatever becomes more popular, there are bound to be merchants in those currencies who are desperate to get suppliers like us. This would be a much better way to sell ebooks, since instead of having to go to each author individually, the consumer could just go to one main store and buy all their ebooks there. So my question now is who is setting up these cryptocurrency ebook stores, and how can I get my books in them?


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

There'll be 100 billion dogecoins around in two years time, plus 5 billion being made every year thereafter. So I can't see them having any longterm value.

Having a single cryptocoin used worldwide is awesome. Having thousands of different types of cryptocoins used by different people is much less useful. In the same way if you were on Facebook_clone1, and your friends were divided among Facebook_clone2, Facebooks_clone3, etc., Facebook wouldn't have the same usefulness.

I'd love for there to be a way to sell books for crypto too though, I'm with you on that.


----------



## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

I think the main crypto market places are still up and coming, but a couple of places might be:

http://www.stuffcoins.com/
http://cryptomarketplace.net/


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

Joe Vasicek said:


> You know, when I started this thread, I thought it would be worth setting up a storefront of my own to sell my books for bitcoin/litecoin/dogecoin directly. But now that I've thought about it, I've come to the conclusion that we are fundamentally suppliers, not merchants, and that getting a foot in the merchanting side of the business would be a major undertaking no matter the currency. However, as bitcoin/dogecoin/whatever becomes more popular, there are bound to be merchants in those currencies who are desperate to get suppliers like us. This would be a much better way to sell ebooks, since instead of having to go to each author individually, the consumer could just go to one main store and buy all their ebooks there. So my question now is who is setting up these cryptocurrency ebook stores, and how can I get my books in them?


I have briefly thought about setting up a crypto-only bookstore recently as well, but it's a pretty major undertaking. Plus some of your advantage could be wiped out fast if Amazon started taking bitcoin. (Which mightn't be too far away now that OverStock does.)


----------



## Guest (Feb 12, 2014)

Yeah, I wonder if the established shores will start taking crypto before anyone in the cryptocurrency community has a chance to start up a store of their own. For the little guys, it definitely seems like driving into the smoke.


----------



## olefish (Jan 24, 2012)

Bitcoin is all good and nice theory. But my issue with it is that it's too complex for the average joe to deal with. For example, a few days ago on reddit bitcoin forum, someone reported that after foolish installing a bitcoin-related program without verifying its source, his mac was infected with a virus, and he lost 20 BTC. Not an insubstantial loss...

Now the hack was not due to a fault in the BTC protocol. The hack was fairly low level.  The virus monitored when he signed into his online bitcoin wallet and stole his password.   But you should read the forum.  Almost everyone had some fairly complicated means of securing their BTC wallet. Short version: Keeping that password safe and secure by any means possible.   I mean their measures weren't trivial for the average joe. But the schemes are absolutely necessary, given that the world of bitcoin is a wild west of rogues and thieves.  If you own a fair amount of bitcoin, you should be 100% assured that hackers are looking for ways to steal your password.  I mean seriously ... I know cash isn't secure. Credit cards get stolen, but at least you can get some of your money back. But it's impossible to get your money back with the bitcoin protocol. Once it's gone, it's gone. 

I don't mind selling by my books of bitcoin, though. I give it away free; I might as well get bitcoin for it.  I just don't see myself paying cash to buy bitcoin.


----------



## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

David J Normoyle said:


> There'll be 100 billion dogecoins around in two years time, plus 5 billion being made every year thereafter. So I can't see them having any longterm value.


How's the US dollar doing?



David J Normoyle said:


> Having a single cryptocoin used worldwide is awesome. Having thousands of different types of cryptocoins used by different people is much less useful. In the same way if you were on Facebook_clone1, and your friends were divided among Facebook_clone2, Facebooks_clone3, etc.


Not the same. As long as efficient exchanges persist, multiple currencies should behave no differently than the numerous asset types (spread numerous asset classes) that we have today. Governments could really kink this up (see China and Bitcoin), but that's a separate phenomenon. Further, there are already like 180+ official "de facto" paper currencies in circulation. What's the inherent problem with adding a few more crypto-generated ones?



David J Normoyle said:


> I'd love for there to be a way to sell books for crypto too though, I'm with you on that.


Agreed. Micro-transactions are rather fee heavy, so crypto-currencies, by their nature, could improve our bottom lines. I mean, crypto-currency transactions are already simple and efficient. I just post my Dogehouse ( DRmt7RVFokrUZFHVcdoNBPQaoQQmSkjt3i ) and people can send me money with nominal transaction costs. The issue is going to be on the other end. If I'm a consumer, I want to know that the ebook I am paying for is delivered to me, and if something is not to my liking, I can get a refund. That's another can of bananas for sure. 

ETA:



olefish said:


> I don't mind selling by my books of bitcoin, though. I give it away free; I might as well get bitcoin for it. I just don't see myself paying cash to buy bitcoin.


To me, this is a very reasonable stance. All currencies depend on our collective perceived value of them. Crypto-currencies have a way to go in that regard. If a single DDoS attack can tank a currency's value, that currency is certainly not where I want to store my rainy day fund. At the moment, IMHO, they should be treated like speculative assets. But it is a good idea to get familiar with them now, in their infancy, so as to profit from them as they mature.

B.


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Yeah, I wonder if the established shores will start taking crypto before anyone in the cryptocurrency community has a chance to start up a store of their own. For the little guys, it definitely seems like driving into the smoke.


I think the market gap that would allow a crypto-bookstore to succeed is to make it completely uncensored in terms of content. So it'd become the home to any sort of erotica.


----------



## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

David J Normoyle said:


> I think the market gap that would allow a crypto-bookstore to succeed is to make it completely uncensored in terms of content. So it'd become the home to any sort of erotica.


They exist. I found two after Joe asked. Both had really impressive UIs. Kind of a mix between the Kobo store and Netflix. I'm not linking to them for obvious reasons, but both were offering the standard 70/30 revenue split. As usual, the oldest literary profession is leading the way.

B.


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

olefish said:


> Bitcoin is all good and nice theory. But my issue with it is that it's too complex for the average joe to deal with.


I agree that it's not ready for the average joe yet. But it's new, give it time. Lots of venture capital money being invested to come up with solutions to the problems you mentioned.



> Not the same. As long as efficient exchanges persist, multiple currencies should behave no differently than the numerous asset types (spread numerous asset classes) that we have today. Governments could really kink this up (see China and Bitcoin), but that's a separate phenomenon. Further, there are already like 180+ official "de facto" paper currencies in circulation. What's the inherent problem with adding a few more crypto-generated ones?


Bitcoin has the potential to solve a lot of problems created by having to exchange between the 190+ paper currencies.

There's no problem having hundreds of crypto, and in fact there's already over 100. Just that a lot of the value will come from having one (or a small number) that come(s) to dominate. Doge uptake has been rapid, maybe it'll be one of the ones that are here to stay. Just seems that it's not great as a longterm store of value, so I wouldn't trust it as much as bitcoin. Be interesting to see what happens though.

Just started finding out about cryptos about a month ago, and I'm now fascinated by them.


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

No one has mentioned Lindens. I recently read that Second Life will be coming out with a version 2 of itself. So perhaps there can be a fresh start and new economy. I stopped going there a while ago, so I don't know if the Lindens will carry over to the new world, as I have been out of the discussion loop, but...that is one cryptocurrency that you can cash in for dollars directly with the source. I do know that people sold books and art there. However, beware of cloning and piracy. Anyway, it's something you might want to research.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

I still prefer Burt Bucks.


----------



## pauldude000 (May 22, 2013)

I am not doing much of anything yet with crypto-currency. I see a nasty trend of government regulations coming, and want to see what the fallout is before I start messing with it. I have been watching the trend, and have been seeing an uptick in attempts to regulate crypto (such as New York State) or treat it as money laundering (current law enforcement stings happening in Florida). 

I have heard claims from the crypto section that it cannot be regulated nor government controlled, as it is only virtual computer data. Wishful thinking. Many types of computer data are both illegal and prosecutable, while others are currently highly-regulated. Crypto-currency is an attempt at an alternate virtual currency, which could place it under the legal terms of counterfeit money or money laundering. 

I am waiting to see what position the major gov's do in relation to crypto before I jump in at all.

If the gov's take the position that it is "similar to stocks or bonds," then the crypto-currency concept will flourish. If it doesn't, then just having a crypto balance in a virtual wallet could mean fines or jail time.


----------



## Michael Murray (Oct 31, 2011)

Joe Vasicek said:


> How can you not see the appeal in Doge
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Seems like dogs vs. cats to me. And you know what they say: _CATS: All your base are belong to us..._


----------



## mynameismonkey (Jan 6, 2012)

Hi folks, I'm Jaz/mynameismonkey, I built and now run BitBooks.co - an eBook marketplace that allows you to create your own store and upload eBooks for sale with payment being made to you in Bitcoin. Prior to that I've worked with several authors and helped out with eBooks and getting ISBNs and such, on a very small scale. Philosophically I'm hugely in favour of the self-publishing, empowering and enabling aspects of the Internet as a social technology, so BitBooks is in a sweet spot for me to have a personal project that I can enjoy working on.

One of your members invited me in here to respond to the thread, so I'll do my best. I will steer clear of the rights, wrongs, pros and cons of Bitcoin or any other currency, that's for other folks to discuss.

The first question I saw was how to set up a store. I used WordPress and WooCommerce to set up BitBooks, no real headache there, but there are plenty of headaches accepting Bitcoin as payment, especially if you want a hands-off automated checkout process. I opted to allow direct payments to the BitBooks wallet as well as using a third party processor, I chose BitPay. I spent quite a bit of time rewriting chunks of PHP code and hacking at various plugins available online.

The real major headache was pricing. I really wanted the underlying software to run in Bitcoin mode, more as a proof of concept than anything else, but with volatile valuation I ended up having to reset the shopping cart software to use US Dollars as the base price, then the site converts to current Bitcoin prices at checkout. I also added a converter that allows visitors to shop in the currency of their choice, so for example the author sets the price at $4.99 USD, visitor X comes along and clicks a button to only see prices displayed in Yen or Bitcoin or GB Pounds, while the underlying price remains constant at the USD price. Therefore, regardless of current BTC valuation, the author always receives the intended USD amount (minus commission). There are of course the usual headaches of setting up any online business regardless of the currency you accept, such as getting people to actually visit your site )

The second question I noted was what other sites do what BitBooks does? The one I would recommend looking at is http://CoinDL.com/ - they've been around a little longer than BitBooks, and have a decent reputation as far as I can tell. I haven't used the site myself, but they seem to be well-referenced and linked to. CoinDL is for _any_ digital good by the way; one of the main reasons I built BitBooks was to specifically set up a home for self-published authors looking to explore cryptocurrency. (I also believe I can do it for lower commission, but I'll count that as my one shameless plug ;o)

Thirdly, other eBook stores that may or may not have the option to sell your own works. I have seen a few other book stores, be aware and steer clear of the copyright infringers, there are numerous stores that simply resell other people's work at low, low prices. There are also a couple of erotica-centric sites. One store I would point you to is http://www.cointagion.com/ - I've seen that one knocking around for a while and seems to have a nice checkout system for one-time purchases.

Fourth, regarding micro-transactions. After the run up to $150ish last year, fees were actually getting silly on $1 purchases, but that has since been corrected by the Bitcoin protocol. Fees are once again manageable for small purchases.

Finally, I saw a few comments on other currencies; I've elected to stay Bitcoin-only for the time being, but I would respond to author-driven requests to accept LTC or any other reputable coin. For my own sanity I'll be staying on BTC until the site is either successful or dead and buried )

I'm happy to respond to specific questions, I really don't enjoy mixing politics with creativity so I'll avoid and evade questions about regulation, viability etc. BitBooks assumes Bitcoin to be a Good Thing(TM).


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

Hi, Jaz. I've decided to list with your site. So now I need to set up a bitcoin wallet to receive payments monthly from your site (hopefully!  ). I'm researching my wallet options. When I have that done, I'll list on your site. As practice, I set up a Dogecoin wallet last night. Yay me! So I'm figuring this out.

From what I can tell, Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin are the most popular, so in case you decide to accept other cryptos, those are the ones I would want.


----------



## OnajeJohnston (Dec 30, 2010)

Forget the selling. It's getting your money out that you should worry about if something happens.

Cautionary tale: I had money in Internet-based payment service E-Gold in 2007. The gov't indicted the company for money laundering and froze the assets. Seven years later [2014] I received a check for my money. I had to go though a claims process and identity verification etc. I stuck it out but I am certain other people gave up.


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

Well, it isn't going to hurt anything or anyone to accept bitcoin for my ebooks. Just another way to get more readers. And I live in Austin where real world goods, like food at restaurants, can be bought for bitcoins. People who lose bitcoins are people who do not take the necessary precautions, such as using paper wallets. I would only ever leave a small amount of crypto online at a time. Even the local Austin food bank accepts bitcoin donations which they use to buy real food for needy families. You don't have to participate in alternative barter/non-fiat systems, some choose to. Not everyone who chooses to is a fool. I saw a guy yesterday on the local news buy a sandwich at a trendy food shop with bitcoins for ~ a 10th of a cent (USD).


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

This is a stock (not a currency) that routinely crashes 20% in a day, so you want to exchange it for real money immediately unless you want to sell your book for a dollar in the morning and take home eighty cents or worse that night.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Apparently this is taking on the sheen of a religion, not a currency or stock. Why? Because no cautionary tales or facts deter anyone's trust that it's a good thing that can only help them and never hurt them.  That's religion in my book. 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk HD


----------



## nobody_important (Jul 9, 2010)

Have you guys even seen this madness in Japan? And you still want to use BitCoin?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/japan-minister-calls-bitcoin-collapse-expected/2014/02/28/7309998a-a05c-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Apparently this is taking on the sheen of a religion, not a currency or stock. Why? Because no cautionary tales or facts deter anyone's trust that it's a good thing that can only help them and never hurt them. That's religion in my book.
> 
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk HD


Yeah, it's impossible to read that Erik Voorhees 'speech' and not think 'cult'. But if you follow /r/Bitcion, they've moved on from cult speeches and 'this is actually a good thing' to conspiracy theories about the US and Japanese governments purposefully taking MtGox down.

But if it's a religion, it's a religion based on stock. Stock in a company that sells only its own stock certificates and begs people to trade goods and services for them.


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

NadiaLee said:


> Have you guys even seen this madness in Japan? And you still want to use BitCoin?
> 
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/japan-minister-calls-bitcoin-collapse-expected/2014/02/28/7309998a-a05c-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html


Good job there's never been company based on US dollar that went broke, or operated a ponzi scheme. That's how we know we can trust the dollar.


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

mynameismonkey said:


> Hi folks, I'm Jaz/mynameismonkey, I built and now run BitBooks.co - an eBook marketplace that allows you to create your own store and upload eBooks for sale with payment being made to you in Bitcoin.


Authors getting 90% on books sounds pretty good.

What kind of traffic do you get? How long have you been in operation? Do you have a marketing plan--how are you planning on getting customers?


----------



## nobody_important (Jul 9, 2010)

David J Normoyle said:


> Good job there's never been company based on US dollar that went broke, or operated a ponzi scheme. That's how we know we can trust the dollar.


I'm pretty sure Madoff's firm was "based on USD"...


----------



## Gunspringer (Feb 4, 2014)

Vaalingrade said:


> Yeah, it's impossible to read that Erik Voorhees 'speech' and not think 'cult'. But if you follow /r/Bitcion, they've moved on from cult speeches and 'this is actually a good thing' to conspiracy theories about the US and Japanese governments purposefully taking MtGox down.
> 
> But if it's a religion, it's a religion based on stock. Stock in a company that sells only its own stock certificates and begs people to trade goods and services for them.


My personal opinion is that the best money is to write a book based on this!

There must be a good story there; money, conspiracy, governments, religion, secret organizations, just add sex and you make money from "bitcoin"!


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

David J Normoyle said:


> Good job there's never been company based on US dollar that went broke, or operated a ponzi scheme. That's how we know we can trust the dollar.


The USD dollar has safety nets and controls to deal with these problems. The Bitcoin has... hoping really, really hard that Free Market God loves you when your lawless system proves an easy target for hucksters and incompetents.



Gunspringer said:


> My personal opinion is that the best money is to write a book based on this!
> 
> There must be a good story there; money, conspiracy, governments, religion, secret organizations, just add sex and you make money from "bitcoin"!


I'm not sure people would believe it even if you printed the events exactly as they happened.


----------



## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Vaalingrade said:


> This is a stock (not a currency) that routinely crashes 20% in a day, so you want to exchange it for real money immediately unless you want to sell your book for a dollar in the morning and take home eighty cents or worse that night.


It also routinely increases by 20% in a day, so you might want to wait to exchange it for real money. That way you can sell your book for a dollar in the morning and take home $1.20 or more that night.



> Apparently this is taking on the sheen of a religion, not a currency or stock. Why? Because no cautionary tales or facts deter anyone's trust that it's a good thing that can only help them and never hurt them. That's religion in my book.


Seems lots of people are being deterred.



> But if it's a religion, it's a religion based on stock. Stock in a company that sells only its own stock certificates and begs people to trade goods and services for them.


It is not a stock because it does not convey ownership in anything. Neither a dollar, nor a gold coin, not bit coin convey ownership of anything other than themselves.



> The USD dollar has safety nets and controls to deal with these problems. The Bitcoin has... hoping really, really hard that Free Market God loves you when your lawless system proves an easy target for hucksters and incompetents.


Yet it continues to lose purchasing power. Sell a book for a dollar today, and in a year that dollar buys less than it did today.



> I'm not sure people would believe it even if you printed the events exactly as they happened.


How exactly did they happen?


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

NadiaLee said:


> I'm pretty sure Madoff's firm was "based on USD"...


I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic.

Bottom line for me is this: my many hours of research versus condescending, emotional, and hyperbolic arguments against use of cryptocurrency by people who obviously have not researched it carefully because some of the counterarguments on here are misinformed. I'm gonna go with my own research.

Anyway this thread is to find places to sell our ebooks for bitcoin (ohmygawd it's so much more controversial to get a potential financial ROI than giving them away for free wherein there is zero ROI). What fools we are. 

I'd like to also sell my books for Litecoin and Dogecoin. Anyone got any site recommendations?


----------



## olefish (Jan 24, 2012)

Victoria Champion said:


> Anyway this thread is to find places to sell our ebooks for bitcoin (ohmygawd it's so much more controversial to get a potential financial ROI than giving them away for free wherein there is zero ROI). What fools we are.


Yep. I don't care to buy bitcoin, but I really don't mind selling my books for bitcoin.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Victoria Champion said:


> my many hours of research versus condescending, emotional, and hyperbolic arguments against use of cryptocurrency by people who obviously have not researched it carefully because some of the counterarguments on here are misinformed. I'm gonna go with my own research.


Yes, you're absolutely right.

Posting links to real articles about BitCoin places going bankrupt and out of business, taking BitCoin value with them, as well as links to other financial articles talking about the state of current and future cryptocurrencies, and seeing posts by people with real-world experiences going broke or waiting for seven years for an actual payout following a government crackdown... all of that is just "condescending, emotional, and hyperbolic arguments" by "people who obviously have not researched it."

We're all dumb and/or liars. You true believers are obviously never gonna get hurt because this is all completely unique, has no parallel experiences you can compare to, and is completely unprecedented in all human experience. Only good things will happen, nothing bad is even conceivable. Scams do not exist, solely because you don't believe they exist.

Happy?

Good... I'll give you two genuine BurtBucks for your entire library of titles.  I'll even toss in a Stan Lee-signed Marvel No-Prize as a bonus.


----------



## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Heres a link to a chart for Bitcoin. It has options to change the period covered. An interesting note is the price did not tank with the MtGrox debacle. We can see a volume spike, but price held. The December low at $500 is a level to watch. There is also a pretty good trend line from the Dec high. It looks like about 700 would break that.

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bitstampUSD#rg360ztgSzm1g10zm2g25zv


----------



## morgan_n (Oct 21, 2011)

You can only sell bitbooks for bitcoin.


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Yes, you're absolutely right.
> 
> Posting links to real articles about BitCoin places going bankrupt and out of business, taking BitCoin value with them, as well as links to other financial articles talking about the state of current and future cryptocurrencies, and seeing posts by people with real-world experiences going broke or waiting for seven years for an actual payout following a government crackdown... all of that is just "condescending, emotional, and hyperbolic arguments" by "people who obviously have not researched it."
> 
> ...


Yeah because posting ONLY negative articles and not also positive ones is sooooo unbiased. And calling users of the system 'cult members' is so not hyperbolic, emotional, or condescending.  Craig, your gratuitously condescending response here, which I will call out for what it is: biased fear-mongering, is really laughable to me. Spew your vitriol at someone else. I haven't got time for it.


----------



## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

I wouldn't mind selling my ebooks for BTC. My problem is getting the BTC converted over to hard currency. To date, utilities and banks don't accept bitcoins as payments.

The plus side of accepting BTC is its volatility. A reader may have paid you $4.99 for your ebook, but in two or three weeks, it could potentially be worth $150. Of course, the caveat is the volatility could work against you. That $4.99 could drop to be worth only 4.9¢ next week. Well, the thing about volatility is if you pay attention, you can make it work for you. If it drops, don't bail out. Just hold your position. When it swings the other way, then you sell and make more money than if you accepted currency.

The crypto currency market is in a state that we Americans call "Wild West," referring to the untamed culture of the western United States in the 1800's. Completely unregulated, mostly lawless, fortunes were made and lost during that period. 

The Mt. Gox unpleasantness underlines the problem with BTC. They were either hacked or sloppy with their security, resulting in a significant number of bitcoins being siphoned out of their business. This put them into bankruptcy, and many people lost a lot of money.

The sad part of this is I had just opened an account with Mt. Gox, but got lazy about completing the process in the final steps. Now I'm happy I had done so!

Still, if I can find a reputable portal for exchanging bitcoin for cash, I'd be very willing to do business in bitcoins.


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

WDR said:


> I wouldn't mind selling my ebooks for BTC. My problem is getting the BTC converted over to hard currency. To date, utilities and banks don't accept bitcoins as payments.
> 
> The plus side of accepting BTC is its volatility. A reader may have paid you $4.99 for your ebook, but in two or three weeks, it could potentially be worth $150. Of course, the caveat is the volatility could work against you. That $4.99 could drop to be worth only 4.9¢ next week. Well, the thing about volatility is if you pay attention, you can make it work for you. If it drops, don't bail out. Just hold your position. When it swings the other way, then you sell and make more money than if you accepted currency.
> 
> ...


We have bitcoin ATMs in Austin, from which you withdraw USD from a bitcoin wallet. Coinbase is popular for EFT USD deposits into users' bank accounts from a bitcoin wallet. (May be for merchants only?) BitPay is used by many merchants to buy and sell, including BitBooks, mentioned above, as well as Overstock.com, etc...

One thing lost in the media hype right now is that Mt. Gox was only one of several large bitcoin exchanges, and the most major players, such as Coinbase, are still doing fine. Also, the user's risk of bitcoin loss is greatly reduced by using desktop or paper wallets instead of online wallets.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Victoria Champion said:


> Yeah because posting ONLY negative articles and not also positive ones is sooooo unbiased. And calling users of the system 'cult members' is so not hyperbolic, emotional, or condescending.  Craig, your gratuitously condescending response here, which I will call out for what it is: biased fear-mongering, is really laughable to me. Spew your vitriol at someone else. I haven't got time for it.


Victoria,

I'm sorry, did I claim to be a journalist in regard to this thread? I'm a person with an opinion, just like you. I never claimed any journalistic sheen of non-bias, despite your accusation to the contrary.

And you're hardly unbiased yourself, considering you buy into all this uncritically.

Meanwhile, name-call me all you want, but my general message with my posts has been to sound a note of caution so that people (including you) don't get taken advantage of, because I don't want to see fellow writers get hurt by something that increasingly seems either inherently risky or not on the up-and-up.

If you wish to interpret that as hostile and condescending, then you are indeed acting like a cult member.

Upshot: I've seen schemes like this before, and had friends lose money to things like this before. Terrible me for caring about others...

But hey, it's your life. I never said it wasn't.


----------



## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

Victoria Champion said:


> Bottom line for me is this: my many hours of research versus condescending, emotional, and hyperbolic arguments against use of cryptocurrency by people who obviously have not researched it carefully because some of the counterarguments on here are misinformed. I'm gonna go with my own research.


Well said. I dismissed it out of hand when I first heard about it. As soon as I started researching it in detail (good as well as bad), I realized it's potential.

It's not ready for mainstream use yet, so it's probably better that those who are sceptical hold off for another year or two until the infrastructure and security is built up and the risks to it are reduced.


----------



## mynameismonkey (Jan 6, 2012)

Victoria Champion said:


> Hi, Jaz. I've decided to list with your site. So now I need to set up a bitcoin wallet to receive payments monthly from your site (hopefully!  ). I'm researching my wallet options. When I have that done, I'll list on your site. As practice, I set up a Dogecoin wallet last night. Yay me! So I'm figuring this out.
> 
> From what I can tell, Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin are the most popular, so in case you decide to accept other cryptos, those are the ones I would want.


Hi Victoria. I just approved your application, you're set to go. For what it's worth, I've never had a problem with Blockchain if you want a Web-based wallet, and their customer support is really good, or has been for me anyway. Litecoin is something I'm considering, Doge is still low on my list.

Let me know if you need help adding books to your store etc.


----------



## mynameismonkey (Jan 6, 2012)

David J Normoyle said:


> Authors getting 90% on books sounds pretty good.
> 
> What kind of traffic do you get? How long have you been in operation? Do you have a marketing plan--how are you planning on getting customers?


Traffic is very minimal thus far, still primarily focussed on getting authors. On an average day it's about 100 folks looking at books. I've begun buying regular advertising as of January; when I have banners up there's a rush of traffic, so far BitBooks has seen about 12,000 unique users. I will be building up the ads over the spring - I'm trying to stretch out my marketing to be a slow trickle instead of a flood. I think there's enough choice on there now that it's a worthwhile visit to browse and see what's on offer. Over 100 authors signed up and about 50 titles. Obviously that needs to grow to make it a viable store.

The site's been up about a year, but I only really started getting authors when I began posting "Sell your E-books online" ads in the autumn.


----------



## mynameismonkey (Jan 6, 2012)

I know I said I'd stay away from the Bitcoin politics but having read the latest posts I feel I have a few points to offer:

MtGox was a well-known problem and was frequented primarily by traders looking to capitalise on MtGox's and Bitcoin's shortcomings. Anyone and everyone I know who takes BTC seriously was long gone from Gox. I feel bad for anyone who honestly got caught out there, but you know what, my house dropped about 15 to 20% in value since the US bank crash. Stuff happens.

Yes, it's the wild west right now. I'm betting that a large number of folks on this forum are US Americans. Last time I checked, you're all mostly happy how the wild west turned out, i.e. you live in the world's most powerful nation. But yes, buyer beware, it's a bit crazy.

Turning BTC into cash does indeed require an exchange, but think about what you can buy with your BTC. Web hosting for your Web site. ISBN numbers for your books. Pizza. Here's a list of 20,000 merchants who accept Bitcoin, and that's just the ones that use BitPay as a payment processor: https://bitpay.com/directory#/ Also, find anyone who wants to buy BTC and sell it to them. Heck, I'll buy it right off you if you don't want to keep it. https://localbitcoins.com/ has a list of people willing to buy your coin from you, albeit at some discount under market value.

Thinking back to the early days of the Web, a lot of names were being thrown about back then too. People thought we were weird nerds. Buying stuff online was considered stupid and risky. Yet I bet most of you now routinely buy online from all sorts of places. The Web was the wild west just 20 years ago. 15 if you include the big dotcom crash. Things move quickly in tech, and either this works or it doesn't, but for sure we've seen crazier things. Imagine a future where even books are somehow digitized and sold over the Internet to be read on a range of electronic devices with no physical currency changing hands but instead, a virtual credit-based exchange occurs from an electronic bank system to the vendor directly? IMAGINE!

So, for me, if I were an author and there was an audience willing to play with mystery Internet money that put me in front of a slew of tech-savvy independent thinkers which mean I got to parlay my creative into a virtual currency that, let's face it, is not going to become the number one sales vehicle for anyone here in the next year, then why not risk it for a biscuit? At worse, you get some Bitcoins to play with and at best a few more people read your book. No-one's asking anyone to bet their house on selling E-books online.

I can of course understand people who want nothing to do with it. I happen to want nothing to do with the Zimbabwean Dollar but that's just me. I did buy a house in the US and there are plenty of people who think that was a stupid idea too. Point is, as with anything there are two extremes to the argument, but the topic at hand was one person asking where they could sell books online for Bitcoin. There are plenty of places to vigorously debate the ins and outs and successes and failures of Bitcoin and other currencies, but yanking this thread out from the OP seems a tad brutish.

To get back on track, I found this list of places you can list downloads for sale. (Still working on finding simialr for LTC and Doge)

http://coinuploads.com
http://coindl.com
http://satoshibox.com
http://coinlock.com
http://btcfile.com
http://www.coinuploads.com
http://min.io/create
https://bitorca.com


----------



## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

Victoria Champion said:


> We have bitcoin ATMs in Austin, from which you withdraw USD from a bitcoin wallet. Coinbase is popular for EFT USD deposits into users' bank accounts from a bitcoin wallet. (May be for merchants only?) BitPay is used by many merchants to buy and sell, including BitBooks, mentioned above, as well as Overstock.com, etc...


Thanks, Victoria!

Got my account set up over at Coinbase.

They just set up BTC ATMs here in Boston. Problem is, they are only one way: USD➝BTC. While I do enjoy a bit of gambling every now and then, BTC is just a tad too volatile for me to risk putting hard cash into it. But I sure as hell don't mind receiving BTC for product (books). In that event, I view the volatility as an advantage.

Now, off to Jaz's site&#8230;


----------



## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

morgan_n said:


> You can only sell bitbooks for bitcoin.


Which is just perfect for a two-bit hack such as myself.


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

I'm up and running at Bitbooks. If you want to see my shop it's here: http://bitbooks.co/authors/dark-fantasy-paranormal-and-erotic-horror-fiction/ (if that's okay, mods, it's just for informational example purposes). So it is possible to sell your books for bitcoins.

The site uses Woocommerce at Wordpress, so there is a bit of a learning curve with the submit product fields. However, once you do one book, the rest are easier. Still got some kinks to work out, like editing product/description once it's gone live, and persistence of paragraph breaks. My shop description is a wall of text. Other desired changes to the site I would like to see: being able to not have to be manually approved for every book or account -- a process I see as unsustainable if the site gains a large volume of submitting authors. I'd like to be able to submit, change price, cover, file, and description on the fly.

If the site becomes easier to use (for instance, submitting the image for the product page tripped me up for a while, and there is no note to authors that the cover image for the ebook must be contained within the file itself -- we need more specific instructions -- and I thought I had submitted my wallet address but then that form field seems to have vanished. I resubmitted it in an email after Jaz emailed me and asked me for the address.), then I foresee a successful bitcoins commerce site.

BitBooks uses BitPay, if I'm not mistaken, so I am comfortable with that. I want to thank Jaz for setting the site up and enabling me to take part in the emerging marketplace. I hope my feedback is helpful. Overall I am very pleased with the presentation of my products, simple urls to link to, and the simplicity of the site for the consumer.

The most difficult hurdle is learning about the bitcoins themselves, how to set up wallets, and what sites to trust to exchange and move your bitcoins/fiat. Once you conquer that (you need a wallet address -- this is mandatory or you can't receive bitcoins), you can set up the process to sell your ebooks for bitcoins.

I'd be happy to answer any questions. First question I am sure I will be asked is: have I sold any ebooks? The answer is no, I only went live last night.


----------



## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

I'm in! Listed here: _Aggadeh Chronicles Book 1: Nobody._

I think this is a great experiment and I'd love to see how it works out.


----------



## mynameismonkey (Jan 6, 2012)

Victoria Champion said:


> I'm up and running at Bitbooks. If you want to see my shop it's here: http://bitbooks.co/authors/dark-fantasy-paranormal-and-erotic-horror-fiction/ (if that's okay, mods, it's just for informational example purposes). So it is possible to sell your books for bitcoins.
> 
> The site uses Woocommerce at Wordpress, so there is a bit of a learning curve with the submit product fields. However, once you do one book, the rest are easier. Still got some kinks to work out, like editing product/description once it's gone live, and persistence of paragraph breaks. My shop description is a wall of text. Other desired changes to the site I would like to see: being able to not have to be manually approved for every book or account -- a process I see as unsustainable if the site gains a large volume of submitting authors. I'd like to be able to submit, change price, cover, file, and description on the fly.
> 
> ...


Congrats Victoria, and thanks for adding your works to the site! I sent you a note on some of your comments, but thought I'd respond here to some points that may help others using the site.

The submission forms _are_ complicated. WooCommerce needs to be all things to all people and that leads to complicated forms; I've removed a ton of options you don't need, and I continue to work on a streamlined book form. I've gotten good feedback from others as well, I know it's a bit arcane at the moment but I hope to improve it over time. In case you missed it, there is the beginnings of a new book submission walkthrough here: http://bitbooks.co/author-faq/technical-support/

Allowing extra features such as live editing of products and more options for HTML are in the works, I know it's a bit clunky as is but this is my first outing with a multi-vendor marketplace, so for now authors need to request a reset for listings that need editing (I simply set them back to Draft mode and editing becomes possible again). I need to review submitted products manually for malicious code or simple accidents that would hurt the site.

Finally, regarding the cover image, BitBooks will accept the file with or without the cover embedded, but we'll still need a solid jpeg or png of the file uploaded separately.


----------



## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

Read the FAQ, but I don't see a Terms of Service/Use. Site's pretty bare bones. Are you planning on adding some legal stuff, mynameismonkey?


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

mynameismonkey said:


> Congrats Victoria, and thanks for adding your works to the site!


Thanks, Jaz.



mynameismonkey said:


> Finally, regarding the cover image, BitBooks will accept the file with or without the cover embedded, but we'll still need a solid jpeg or png of the file uploaded separately.


Yes, but it is important to embed the cover within the file so that it will display in the consumer's ebook reader, correct? The cover image in the media file area of Woocommerce is used for the product page display, but does not download with the separate ebook file the customer purchases, am I correct?


----------



## mynameismonkey (Jan 6, 2012)

Victoria Champion said:


> Thanks, Jaz.
> 
> Yes, but it is important to embed the cover within the file so that it will display in the consumer's ebook reader, correct? The cover image in the media file area of Woocommerce is used for the product page display, but does not download with the separate ebook file the customer purchases, am I correct?


Correct, as with any eBook prep, you'll need to prep the file for the reader. So wherever you would normally embed the cover, continue to do so. The uploaded file on BitBooks is for display only and does not accompany the downloads.


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

mynameismonkey said:


> Correct, as with any eBook prep, you'll need to prep the file for the reader. So wherever you would normally embed the cover, continue to do so. The uploaded file on BitBooks is for display only and does not accompany the downloads.


Okay. I was making a point of it for clarification because at major vendors, such as Amazon, etc... we are required to upload the cover image separately and they embed it in the file for us. So as a result, this is the way we are used to doing things. Therefore, when it says on the technical support page to upload cover image and what dimensions, it needs to be clear that it is for product page display only and that we need to also embed the full size cover image in our actual ebook file. This is super important, otherwise the consumer gets an incomplete ebook experience. (I did embed the covers in the files I uploaded on your site.)

Thanks for listening to and considering our feedback!


----------



## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

Looks like the basic functions of the site are working from the customer point of view. So long as things go smoothly for customers, I can live with glitches and inconveniences on the author-side of things.

If I was going to put a priority on things, I'd suggest working on setting things up so authors can edit their product entries, such as changing the price for a quick sale, fixing or changing the blurb, etc.

I'm happy I'm in there and it's working.


----------



## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

Victoria Champion said:


> I'd be happy to answer any questions. First question I am sure I will be asked is: have I sold any ebooks? The answer is no, I only went live last night.





MeganBryce said:


> ...That _was_ my first question.
> 
> I'm following this thread quietly, as are a lot of others judging by the page views. Please post an update re: sales when you can.


I've sold one book so far. Sale went smoothly and the bitcoins are in my account awaiting payout at the end of the month.

I'm using Coinbase for my exchange and I find myself comfortable working with them. They are based in San Francisco and present a professional looking face to the public. I like their policy of "instant payouts." If you have a shop on your site and someone buys something with bitcoins, they convert the bitcoins instantly to currency and direct deposit them into your linked bank account (a small transaction fee of 1% + $0.15, better than credit cards). The key reason for this is to avoid a Mt. Gox situation where someone hacked into the system and stole a lot of bitcoins stored on the MG systems. (Basically, the digital version of a classic bank robbery.)

The other side of this, if you would rather collect the bitcoins and wait for an opportune moment to sell, such as on an upswing in the BTC exchange rate, you can do that as well. I maintain a separate wallet for each sales source. This way I know what bitcoins came from what retailer and for security I am only exposing a different bitcoin wallet to each retailer.


----------



## mynameismonkey (Jan 6, 2012)

Just a heads up; BitBooks.co now accepts Litecoin, Dogecoin and Feathercoin in addition to Bitcoin. Announcements to the relevant communities are going out this week.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Just for laughs:


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

I received my first Bitcoin payments for my ebook sales at BitBooks. Very happy.

How it worked for me:
1. I set up a Bitcoin wallet at Coinbase (http://goo.gl/TWdNYj). In my Buy/Sell settings, I put a hold on up to 1 bitcoin, and any overage will be deposited directly into my US bank account.
2. I set up my storefront at BitBooks, and entered my Bitcoin wallet number, which I received at Coinbase.
3. I uploaded the ebooks to BitBooks with cover embedded and a separate cover file for the product page display. Filled in description fields and price in US Dollars.
4. People bought my ebooks using either bitcoins, dogecoins, litecoins, or feathercoins, at the conversion rate at the time of sale equal to the price of my ebook in US Dollars.
4. When a book sold, my royalty balance was maintained in US Dollar amount.
5. In the first week of the next month (sold books in April, was paid at beginning of May), that amount was converted to the current Bitcoin value and deposited into my Bitcoin wallet.
6. I now have a Bitcoin balance at Coinbase.

Notes: The bitcoin balance does not fluctuate, but its value in US Dollars does. When I exceed 1 Bitcoin (right now I am to the right of the decimal mark), Coinbase will convert the overage into its current US Dollar value and deposit that amount into my bank account. I may reduce the minimum hold balance. Also, at any time I can withdraw the converted value of the bitcoins, or, I can withdraw the bitcoins themselves into a paper wallet. I can also send bitcoins to any other wallet, or shop with them online, or at brick and mortar merchants who accept them. Here in Austin, I can also withdraw the converted US Dollar value from a Bitcoin ATM.

Any questions?


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

MeganBryce said:


> Very interesting. Thanks for keeping us posted.
> I don't need actual numbers but do you feel it was worth setting it up?


I do feel it is worth it, but keep in mind that this is a new site and will need some time to really catch on. I do feel I drove most of the traffic for my ebooks sales to the site myself. However, I think it is worth it to get in early for a couple of good reasons.

1. Bitcoin is at a low right now and if you can catch an upswing in conversion value after you get your monthly payment that would be good because it means you will earn more per ebook sale than your regular distributors like Amazon.
2. BitBooks offers 90% royalty, so I am already earning more per unit sale than any other distributor.


----------



## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

MeganBryce said:


> Thanks.
> 
> And, hey, 1000 posts! Congrats!


Woot!


----------



## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Can I resurrect this post? I would like to know if anyone has emerged in selling ebooks for Crypto!


----------



## ShaneCarrow (Jul 26, 2017)

Haha damn it mate I just read through this entire thread without realising it was three years old!

And when you're a bitcoin bear like me I do have to admit I wish I'd bought a few bitcoin three years ago...


----------



## Guest (Sep 11, 2017)

Terrence OBrien said:


> Yet it continues to lose purchasing power. Sell a book for a dollar today, and in a year that dollar buys less than it did today.


Currency loses or gains value due to inflation, which is the result of increasing prices. The value of bitcoins fluctuates on supply and demand and other market forces, not all of which are rooted in rational thought (a major breach can cause the value to plummet, while some good press can cause it to increase). Thus it is in fact much more a form of stock than an actual currency.

In addition, in developed nations, the rate of inflation is predictable, slow, and can be regulated. Like stocks, bitcoin behavior is less predictable and prone to extremes.


----------



## notjohn (Sep 9, 2016)

Putting one's retirement fund in bitcoin is pretty much turning it over to the Chinese Communist Party to manage. The cybercurrency has lost $400 in the past few weeks.


----------



## raminar_dixon (Aug 26, 2013)

notjohn said:


> Putting one's retirement fund in bitcoin is pretty much turning it over to the Chinese Communist Party to manage. The cybercurrency has lost $400 in the past few weeks.


Bitcoin losing $400 "in the past few weeks" is kind of meaningless to me.

Bitcoin has increased in value by $3,628 since this time last year. I can't really think of many other investments that have grown by almost *600%* in the past 12 months...


----------



## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

AlpacaAl said:


> Can I resurrect this post? I would like to know if anyone has emerged in selling ebooks for Crypto!


I've sold just a few. Most people who have Bitcoins hoard them waiting for the price to surge so they can convert them to local currency and make a windfall. Getting people to actually buy things with BTC is pretty tough.

I use Coinbase as an exchange, and I'm pretty happy with their setup. They also supply an API and tools so you can set up "Pay" buttons on your website to allow people to make direct purchases. As my programming skills are pretty weak at this point, I haven't actually attempted to set this up on my website.

For a while, I was selling my books via Bitbooks.co. But Bitbooks went under due to lack of sales. He put in a valiant effort and I sold a few books through him, but in the end there wasn't enough income being generated to justify the amount of work that went into maintaining the web store.

At this point, if someone wants to buy my books with Bitcoins, I can do the transaction with them via email. Once the agreed-on transfer of value has been verified, I simply email the ebook to them. At some point in the future when I'm feeling a little more motivated, I'll activate the "Books for Bitcoins" page on my website and make it publicly accessible.

My suggestion for anyone interested in selling books for bitcoins is to open an account with Coinbase and set their preferences to automatically convert the BTC to cash. The issue being, with BTC being so high against the dollar right now, if it drops you might only get pennies for every dollar you had received in BTC. If the price of BTC crashes, then I would recommend you leave the value in BTC until the prices start to climb again. BTC is very volatile. It is amusing to think that an ebook I sold for $5 two years ago would now be worth about $82. But it can go in the other direction pretty badly if you aren't careful.


----------



## alexabooks (Dec 3, 2016)

What a cool idea. I guess Amazon will eventually start accepting BTC, though.


----------



## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

Another zombie thread of no importance revived!

Mods, please lock these old posts. They have no relevance today, so only clog up the forum.


----------

