How buying works
An email address, one payment, and a file that stays yours. Here is exactly what happens between the buy button and the download — and why the money never passes through this site.
- 01
You give an email address
That is the whole checkout. No account, no password, no shipping form. The address is where the book goes and how you find it again later.
- 02
You pay
Cards go through Stripe's own checkout page. Some authors also offer bitcoin, which gets its own address and its own screen. Nothing else about your purchase differs.
- 03
The money goes to the author
Not to us, and not through us. A card charge is created on the author's own Stripe account, so they are the merchant of record and the funds land in their balance. Bitcoin goes to an address only they can spend from.
- 04
The payment clears
A card clears in seconds. Bitcoin takes about ten minutes for the first confirmation. Either way you land on your download page the moment it does — nothing to check back on.
- 05
The book is yours
A download page opens on the spot and the link is emailed to you: EPUB download, in-browser reader, and send-to-Kindle. No DRM, no device limit, no expiry on the file.
- 06
The link keeps working
It is not a one-time download. Come back in a year, on a different device, and it still opens. Lost the email? Ask for a fresh link with the address you paid with.
If the author takes bitcoin
Some shops offer it and most do not; nothing here depends on it. Where it is offered, there is no wallet on this site holding anything: the payment is collected on an address the author’s own wallet issued, and it is theirs the moment it lands.
The address comes from the author's own wallet
We ask their payment processor for a fresh receive address derived from an extended public key only they hold. It belongs to this order alone, which is how the payment is matched without an invoice number — and it means the coins are theirs from the moment they land.
The rate is locked for thirty minutes
The dollar price is converted at the BTC rate quoted at that moment and held. If the market moves while you are opening your wallet, your amount does not.
Send one transaction
Scan the QR code or open the payment URI in your wallet. Send the exact amount in a single transaction — the order is matched on the total received at that address.
One confirmation unlocks the file
The payment page updates itself as the transaction appears and then confirms, usually within about ten minutes. You can close the tab; the link is emailed either way.
Questions people actually ask
- Do I need an account to buy a book?
- No. You give an email address at checkout and the download link goes there. Accounts exist for people who want a library page across several purchases, but nothing in buying, downloading or reading requires one.
- Where does the money go?
- Straight to the author. Card payments are charged on the author's own Stripe account — they are the merchant of record and the funds settle into their balance, not ours. Bitcoin goes to an address derived from an extended public key only they control. Inkwharf never holds your payment and never sees a private key.
- Is my card safe?
- The card form is Stripe's own hosted checkout page, on Stripe's domain. Your card number never reaches this site, and we could not store it if we wanted to.
- I lost the email with my download link.
- Ask for another on the recovery page. Put in the address you paid with and a fresh link for every purchase is mailed to it — which also means the old link stops working.
- Can I get a refund?
- Refunds are the author's to give, since the money is theirs from the start. A card charge can be refunded from their dashboard; a bitcoin payment is irreversible, so it means them sending coins back to an address you provide. Read the free sample before buying either way — most books have one, and it opens in your browser.
- Why does my copy have my name in it?
- Authors can turn on social watermarking, which adds a licence page naming the buyer. It is not DRM: nothing is locked, the file opens in any reader and stays yours. It only means a copy posted publicly can be traced back to one purchase.
- What if I send too little bitcoin?
- The order shows as underpaid and stays open. Sending the remainder to the same address completes it, because matching is done on the total received.
- What if the bitcoin quote expires before my transaction confirms?
- Expiry only applies to orders with nothing received. Once a payment lands, the order stays open until it confirms, however long the mempool takes.