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The Paypal problem
Feb. 27th, 2012 11:33 amAfter reading this post about Paypal coming down on certain types of erotica at Smashwords, All Romance Ebooks and Bookstrand at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ebooks over the weekend, I went hunting for more information. I found a giant roundup of links to internet chatter about the issue (somewhat helpful), and this morning, Jane at Dear Author posted an interesting roundup(*) of the facts associated with the situation, including a valuable little bit about the history of Paypal's exception regarding erotic ebooks. That answered a question I've been asking myself since I saw anything about this story-- namely, why on earth anyone publishing erotica online would keep doing business with Paypal.
So far, from what I've seen, the answer has been convenience, with a hefty side of "they'll probably turn a blind eye". Which seems to have been true for bigger ebook stores like Smashwords et al, at least until now.
( It all makes me wonder what exactly is going on at Paypal )
Of course, the real bottom line here is that I'm going to have to learn as much about online payments as I can. In an environment where ebook compatibility is still a problem, and the biggest players are fighting to have their format and ebook store end up as the only effective place for authors to sell their ebooks, the ability to handle ebook sales with your own setup is looking more and more important.
(*) Jane's post was overwritten by mistake at about the time I posted this, so you might have seen a handful of small book reviews when you checked this link yesterday. I let her know about the error, and the original post is back up in its entirety.
ebooks over the weekend, I went hunting for more information. I found a giant roundup of links to internet chatter about the issue (somewhat helpful), and this morning, Jane at Dear Author posted an interesting roundup(*) of the facts associated with the situation, including a valuable little bit about the history of Paypal's exception regarding erotic ebooks. That answered a question I've been asking myself since I saw anything about this story-- namely, why on earth anyone publishing erotica online would keep doing business with Paypal.So far, from what I've seen, the answer has been convenience, with a hefty side of "they'll probably turn a blind eye". Which seems to have been true for bigger ebook stores like Smashwords et al, at least until now.
( It all makes me wonder what exactly is going on at Paypal )
Of course, the real bottom line here is that I'm going to have to learn as much about online payments as I can. In an environment where ebook compatibility is still a problem, and the biggest players are fighting to have their format and ebook store end up as the only effective place for authors to sell their ebooks, the ability to handle ebook sales with your own setup is looking more and more important.
(*) Jane's post was overwritten by mistake at about the time I posted this, so you might have seen a handful of small book reviews when you checked this link yesterday. I let her know about the error, and the original post is back up in its entirety.
