Please enter your phone number, including your area code.
Enter a short summary of who you are, what you enjoy, why you write, and anything else you'd like to share!
This Terms of Service Agreement (“Agreement”) is made by and between you (“your,” “User,” or “Author,”) and Book Hatchery, LLC (“Book Hatchery,” “we”, “us, ” “our”) as part of your participation in proprietary online digital publication distribution services provided by Book Hatchery (“the Services”). This Agreement contains the complete terms and conditions (“Terms”) that apply to your use of the Services and is binding between you and Book Hatchery.
This Agreement refers to third-parties who provide digital document distribution, marketing, and selling capabilities, such as Amazon Inc., as “Distributors.”
Please read these Terms very carefully!
1. Acceptance. You agree to be bound by the Terms of this Agreement either by clicking agree/accept when you are given the option to do so on the www.bookhatchery.com website, or by using the Services. If you do not accept these Terms, you are not entitled to use the Services. If you do not agree to the Terms and would like to express your reasons for declining to agree, please contact us at www.bookhatchery.com/contact.
2. Amendments to the Terms of this Agreement. As our Services change and grow over time, we may need to amend these Terms, and, therefore, we reserve the right to amend, modify, or change the Terms of this Agreement at any time and for any reason in our sole discretion. In the event that we amend these Terms, we will notify you and all Users of the changes via messages posted on the forums. The current and up-to-date version of these Terms will always be available at www.bookhatchery.com/terms-of-service.
3. Duration of Terms and Termination. This Agreement will be effective upon your acceptance and will continue until terminated either by you or by Book Hatchery. You are entitled to terminate these Terms at any time by following the procedures outlined in the Services or by furnishing notice to Book Hatchery (http://www.bookhatchery.com/contact). We are entitled to terminate or suspend your account at any time with or without advance notice to you, for any reason and in our sole discretion. If Book Hatchery terminates your use of the Services, Book Hatchery will remove all materials that you have submitted to Book Hatchery (“Work(s)”) from all Distributors, as governed by the policies maintained by each individual Distributor.
4. Eligibility and Registration.
4.1 Eligibility. To use the Services, you must: (a) have an active Service account (“Account”), and (b) be at least 18 years old.
4.2 Account Information. You represent that all Account information that you furnish to Book Hatchery when establishing your Account is accurate, and you agree to keep it up to date as long as your Account is active. You authorize us to make any inquiries we consider appropriate to verify information you provide.
4.3 No Multiple Accounts. You may only have one Account at a time. If your Account is terminated by Book Hatchery, you will not be able to establish a new Account. You hereby agree that you will not use a false identity to open another Account.
4.4 Account Security. You are solely responsible for protecting the confidentiality of your username and password. You are responsible for all activities which occur through your Account, authorized or not. You agree to immediately notify Book Hatchery of any unauthorized use of your username, password, or Account.
5. Grant of Rights. You hereby grant Book Hatchery nonexclusive worldwide rights to copy, reproduce, distribute, market, and sell your Works and to sublicense others to do so. In addition, you hereby grant Book Hatchery the right to distribute samples of the Works in any and all media formats, including printed media, in order to promote you, the Works, and/or the Services.
6. Acceptance, Distribution, and Withdrawal. Book Hatchery accepts and will distribute any Work or Works that do not violate these Terms of Service. You may choose the Distributor through which you would like to distribute each of your Works. Book Hatchery does not guarantee distribution through any particular Distributor, and does not guarantee the availability of certain Distributors. You may withdraw your Work(s) at any time, for any reason, by using the procedures outlined in the Services . If you withdraw a Work pursuant to the proper procedures, Book Hatchery will promptly communicate with the Distributors and take prompt steps to remove the work from distribution; however, the rules and policies of the Distributors will affect the time required to stop distribution completely. Book Hatchery reserves the right to refuse any Work for any reason, at any time, and at our sole discretion. In addition, Book Hatchery reserves the right to remove any Work or Works from distribution at any time and for any reason, at our sole discretion.
6.1 Work Modifications. Book Hatchery will not intentionally edit or modify the content of any Work. You authorize us to make any formatting changes required for digital distribution. During the digitization process and in preparing the Work for distribution, Book Hatchery does not guarantee accurate preservation of your formatting of the Work as submitted to Book Hatchery.
6.2 Originality and Copyright Ownership. Book Hatchery only accepts original Works directly from the author or copyright owner. If you are not the author of the Work(s) you are submitting, Book Hatchery will require you to provide written documentation that you are the authorized representative of the author (including an author that is a corporate entity), or that you are the copyright owner or the authorized representative of the copyright owner. Book Hatchery does not accept Works by multiple authors unless you provide written documentation that all authors of a Work agree to the submission. Book Hatchery does not accept public domain Works.
6.3 Language. At this time, Book Hatchery only accepts Works in the English language.
6.4 Completeness. A Work must be complete when submitted. Partial samples of works and works-in-progress are not suitable for distribution and will not be accepted.
6.5 Self-Publishing Disclaimer. Book Hatchery is a distributor, marketer, and seller of properly submitted Works. You understand and acknowledge that you are the publisher of the works you submit and that by using the Services you are a self-publisher of your submitted Work(s).
7. Warranties. You represent and warrant the following: (a) that you have the full right, power, and authority to agree to these Terms and grant the rights contained in this Agreement; (b) that your Work(s) is/are original; (c) that either your are the author or you are the authorized representative of the author or copyright owner and that, if the latter, you have provided written documentation to prove that your are the authorized representative; (d) that the information you have provided about each Work is accurate; (e) that you have previously obtained, in writing, and all rights and permissions necessary to reproduce and distribute the Work at time of your submission of the Work to Book Hatchery; (f) that you possess all rights to the Work and all material contained within the Work, or you have been legally and demonstrably granted rights to provide content you do not own in written documentation which you have provided to Book Hatchery; (g) that the Work does not violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights or other rights of any other person or entity, including, without limitation, contractual rights, copyrights, trademark rights, patent rights, trade secret rights, rights of publicity and privacy, or moral rights; (h) that the Work does not contain defamatory material or violate any laws or regulations in any jurisdiction, including laws regulating obscene materials; (i) that the Work does not contain embedded or encoded content, such as spamming keywords; (j) that the Work does not contain obscene material; (k) and that you have not entered into any agreement which would conflict with the rights you have granted to Book Hatchery under this Agreement.
7.1 Warranty Violations. Any violation of the foregoing representations and warranties by you can result in the withdrawal of publications, termination of your Account, forfeiture of your accrued royalties, and possibly legal action taken against you by Book Hatchery.
7.2 Indemnification. You will indemnify and hold Book Hatchery harmless against any and all liability, loss, damage, cost or expense, including reasonable attorneys fees and expenses, paid or incurred by Book Hatchery by reason of any breach of your representations or warranties under this Agreement.
8. Copyright Notice and Registration. Book Hatchery will not provide a notice of copyright in a Work. You have the responsibility of providing a proper notice of copyright in your name, if you are the author, or in the name of the author or copyright owner, if you are the authorized representative of such author or copyright owner. In addition, Book Hatchery will not file to register the copyright of any Work with the United States Copyright Office. It is the responsibility of the author or copyright owner to file to register the copyright in a Work with the United States Copyright Office.
9. Pricing. You will determine the retail price at which you want each of your Work(s) to be sold, and Book Hatchery will instruct all Distributors to list your Work(s) at your set retail price.
10. Royalties. As long as you are in good standing and not in breach of obligations set forth by the Terms of this Agreement, you will be paid a set percentage of net sales received from Distributors who sell your Work or Works at your price rate, as provided in Section 9. “Net sales” means the total amount remaining from gross sales less operating expenses, applicable taxes, applicable transaction fees and costs, and applicable discounts, returns, or charge-backs. Book Hatchery will provide a sales report to each Author with detailed sales information at the end of each Payment Period (as defined in Section 10.3 below), and upon reasonable request.
10.1 Standard Account Royalty Rate. If you choose the Standard Account, you will receive 85% of net sales.
10.2 Premium Account Royalty Rate. If you choose the Premium account, you will receive 88% of net sales. Premium accounts also provide a number of other benefits, including an ISBN for each submitted Work and a higher priority in our publishing queue. Future features we have planned include web site hosting and marketing help. Premium accounts are currently available for $25 a month or $250 a year.
10.3 Payment Period and Payment Method. Book Hatchery will make payments to you each month, and payments will occur within two weeks of the beginning of a new month. All payments will be made via PayPal. You will not be charged transaction fees to receive your royalty payments. In the event of overpayment, which may occur due to fraudulent or unauthorized charges, you agree to remit payment to Book Hatchery for the overpaid amount within 14 days of notification.
11. Your Interaction with the Services. While using the Services, you agree that you will not (a) violate the rules outlined within these Terms, (b) use the Service without meeting the eligibility requirements, (c) exhibit destructive and abusive behavior or partake in activities detrimental to Book Hatchery, our staff, and our community, (d) abuse features or engage in disallowed site activities, including but not limited to advertising, marketing, spamming, or flaming, (e) distribute malicious programs, such as viruses, malware, spyware, trojans, worms, and anything else that may be harmful to the Services and Book Hatchery, (f) copy, modify, or distribute content contained within the Services.
12. Limitation of Liability. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”. WE WILL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, RELIANCE, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES IN RELATION TO THESE TERMS, HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THEORY OF LIABILITY. BOOK HATCHERY DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE PRODUCT WILL MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF USERS, AND WE HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL CONTENT, PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND SOFTWARE RELATED TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, INCLUDING ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT BOOK HATCHERY CANNOT PREVENT ELECTRONIC FILES (INCLUDING EBOOKS) FROM THEFT OR MISUSE, AND BOOK HATCHERY WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM A FAILURE OF ANY SECURITY SYSTEM OR PROCEDURE OR CUSTOMER TO COMPLY WITH ANY CONTENT USAGE RULES.
If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, please let us know by visiting http://www.bookhatchery.com/contact.
Last Updated: June 2, 2011
