Books and editions
“The Weeknight Kitchen (Ebook)” and “The Weeknight Kitchen (Paperback)” stop being two products and become one book with two editions.
Moving from Shopify
Move off Shopify and take your readers with you
The importer reads your Shopify store and rebuilds it around your books. Check the preview, point your address at Lanternbee, and old product links land on the right book pages. Links without www need one extra step at your domain provider.
Not open yet. We’re letting authors in from the waitlist, a few at a time.
Selling on Shopify today? Join the waitlist, say yes to “Are you selling on Shopify today?”, and you get 1 extra free month when your store opens.
How the move works
Two ways to move. Shopify keeps selling either way.
With your AI assistant
Nothing to install in Shopify. Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini reads your Shopify store through Shopify’s own connection and recreates your books, formats, prices, series, descriptions and discount codes in Lanternbee. You check each step in the chat, and covers and files go through upload links. It can’t bring readers, their purchases, past orders or old links.
With the Lanternbee importer
You approve read-only access in Shopify, and Shopify adds the Lanternbee app to your store so we can read it. You can remove the app from Shopify when the move is done. The importer brings everything at once, readers, purchases, orders, discount codes and old links included, and you check a preview first.
Have readers and past orders you want to keep? Use the importer. Just want your books over, without installing anything in Shopify? Use your assistant. You can mix them: run the importer, then let your assistant tidy up.
The importer in five steps
Connect your Shopify store
Sign in to Shopify from Lanternbee and approve read-only access. Shopify adds the Lanternbee app to your store for this. Nothing else in Shopify changes.
Check the preview
See your products grouped into books and formats, and into series if you write them. Fix anything we guessed wrong.
Import
Books, readers and their purchases, orders and discount codes come across together.
Look around your new store
Take as long as you like. Shopify keeps taking orders while you check.
Switch your address
Point your shop address at Lanternbee, and old product links land on the right book pages. Links without www need path forwarding turned on at your domain provider. Then cancel the apps you no longer need.
What the importer brings
Series
Shopify collections become series. You check the reading order before anything goes live.
Readers and their books
Customers become your reader list. Everything they bought is waiting in their library.
Order history
Past orders move with you, so your sales records stay in one place.
Discount codes
Active codes carry over. The code in last month’s newsletter still works.
Old links
Old product addresses send readers to the new book pages once your shop address points to Lanternbee. If your old links start with yourname.com without www, see the extra step below.
Keeping your old links working
Your Lanternbee store opens at an address with a word in front, like www.yourname.com or shop.yourname.com. Which of your old links keep working depends on how they start.
Links that start with www
Use www.yourname.com as your Lanternbee address. Links like www.yourname.com/products/my-book then open the right book with nothing else to do.
Links without www
Links like yourname.com/products/my-book need forwarding at the company you bought your domain from. Turn it on for yourname.com, send it to your Lanternbee address, and pick the option that keeps the rest of the link (often called path forwarding). Then test it: open an old link to one of your books, starting with https://yourname.com, and check it lands on that book. Not every provider can do this. If yours can’t, tell us and we’ll help you find a way. How to keep old links working, or connect your own domain.
What readers notice
Very little. They sign in with the email they always used and find the books they bought from you. Old links keep working once your shop address points to Lanternbee, as set up above.
What you stop paying for
The Shopify plan, plus the apps for ebook delivery, bundles and reviews. Until sending print orders to the printer is live, you place those with BookVault or Lulu yourself. Compare the cost, or read Shopify and Lanternbee side by side.
Questions about moving
Do I have to install anything in Shopify?
Not if you move with your AI assistant. It reads your store through Shopify’s own connection, and Lanternbee adds nothing to Shopify. The importer is different: you approve read-only access, and Shopify adds the Lanternbee app to your store for that. You can remove the app from Shopify when the move is done.
Will my store go down while I move?
No. Your Shopify store keeps selling the whole time. Readers only start buying from Lanternbee once you point your shop address at it.
Do my readers have to do anything?
Very little. They sign in to their Lanternbee library with the same email address they used on Shopify and find the books they bought there. Old links keep working once your old shop address points to your Lanternbee store. Addresses without www need path forwarding turned on at your domain provider.
What happens to the links in my back matter and newsletters?
Old links keep working once your old shop address points to your Lanternbee store. Addresses without www need path forwarding turned on at your domain provider. Old Shopify product addresses then send readers to the matching book pages on your new store. The help page “After the Shopify import” shows how.
What if the importer gets something wrong?
You see everything in a preview before it is imported: how products were grouped into books, series and formats, and what each one costs. Fix it there, or fix it afterwards in your store. Nothing goes live until you switch your address.
Which Shopify apps can I cancel?
The ones Lanternbee replaces: ebook and audiobook delivery for sales, bundles and reviews. Sending print orders to BookVault or Lulu is still being built, so until then you place those orders with the printer yourself. Keep BookFunnel if you use it for reader magnets or advance review copies, and keep your email tool if you like it.
Do I need to cancel Shopify straight away?
No. Cancel it when you are happy with your new store. You can keep it for a few weeks while the first orders come through.
How the importer reads your store, the importer step by step, move with your AI assistant, with nothing to install in Shopify, or ask us about yours.
Not open yet
Bring your store across
We’re opening a few stores at a time. Join the waitlist and we’ll help you move when your turn comes.
Free to join. No card.