Buying from Chris Nohall
An email address, one payment, and a file that stays yours. Here's what happens between the buy button and the download, and why the money goes to Chris Nohall rather than through anyone else.
- 01
You give an email address
That's 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 take bitcoin, which has its own screen and address. Nothing else changes.
- 03
The money goes to the author
Not to us, and not through us. The card is charged on the author's own Stripe account, so they're the merchant of record and the money lands 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, your download page opens the moment it clears. Nothing to check back on.
- 05
The book is yours
Your download page opens right away, and the link is emailed to you too. You get the EPUB, an in-browser reader and send-to-Kindle. No DRM, no device limit, and the file never expires.
- 06
The link keeps working
It isn't a one-time download. Open it again on any device. A link lasts 90 days, and after that you can ask for a fresh one using the address you paid with.
If the author takes bitcoin
Some shops offer it and most don't, and nothing here depends on it. Where it is offered, we don't run a wallet that holds anything. The payment goes to an address from the author's own wallet, and it's theirs the moment it lands.
The address comes from the author's own wallet
We ask their payment processor for a fresh address derived from the author's own wallet. It belongs to your order alone, which is how we match the payment without an invoice number, and 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 at that moment and held. If the market moves while you're opening your wallet, your amount doesn't.
Send one transaction
Scan the QR code or open the payment link in your wallet. Send the exact amount in one 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 confirms, usually within ten minutes. You can close the tab. The link is emailed either way.
Questions people ask
- Do I need an account to buy a book?
- No. You enter an email address at checkout and the download link goes there. Accounts are there if you want one library page for several purchases, but buying, downloading and reading never require one.
- Where does the money go?
- Straight to the author. Card payments are charged on the author's own Stripe account. They're the merchant of record, and the money settles 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 checkout page, on Stripe's domain. Your card number never reaches this site, so we couldn't store it even if we wanted to.
- I lost the email with my download link.
- Ask for another on the recovery page. Enter the address you paid with and we'll email a fresh link for every purchase. The old links stop working when you do.
- Can I get a refund?
- That's up to the author, since the money is theirs from the start. They can refund a card charge from their dashboard. Bitcoin can't be reversed, so a refund means them sending coins back to an address you give them. Either way, read the free sample first. 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 with the buyer's name. It's not DRM: nothing is locked, and the file opens in any reader and stays yours. It just 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. Send the rest to the same address and it completes, because we match on the total received.
- What if the bitcoin quote expires before my transaction confirms?
- The quote only expires on orders where nothing has been received. Once a payment shows up, the order stays open until it confirms, however long that takes.