Scribe Media Master Terms & Conditions

1. Do the Right Thing

We always try to do the right thing, regardless of what's in this agreement.

Agreements can't cover everything. And even long contracts are only as good as the people who stand behind them. We are not in this business to haggle over terms. If things get to the point where people are quoting contracts, things have gotten very bad.

That said, we still need to know the rules of our relationship. The sections below lay out the most important legal terms and expectations so we can both do the right thing by each other.

2. Call Recordings

Plain English: Part of providing you with a seamless experience is being able to accurately recap and share key decisions. Recording our calls helps us do that.

Our video and audio calls together will be recorded and may be monitored, and your consent for us to do so is a requisite to work with us. By agreeing to these terms, you consent to this recording and monitoring.

You may also have members of your team or other third parties speak with us. By agreeing, you confirm that you will be responsible for obtaining consent for such recording from your staff or other third parties who may participate in calls with us.

3. Intellectual Property

Until full payment is received for the services provided by Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, your manuscript will not be published.

However, should the author decide to terminate the agreement or if the project is abandoned before full payment is made, the author shall retain ownership of the content paid for up to that point.

For example, if the project is 40% complete and the author has correspondingly paid for that portion of the work, the author is entitled to receive and own the completed 40% of the manuscript or other content. No further intellectual property rights will be transferred until and unless additional payments are made to cover the completion of the remaining work.

4. Confidentiality

Plain English: Your private working material stays private. Your published book does not. Once it's out in the world, we'll promote it everywhere we can, because that's our job.

Scribe will treat the Author's unpublished materials as confidential. This includes drafts, notes, interview and call recordings and transcripts, and any proprietary methods or business information the Author shares that do not appear in the published book. Scribe will use these materials only to perform the services in this agreement. Every Scribe employee and contractor is bound by confidentiality obligations under their engagement agreement with Scribe, and those obligations continue after their engagement ends. When the engagement ends, Scribe will return or delete these materials on the Author's written request, except for copies Scribe must keep for legal, accounting, or record-keeping purposes.

This section does not apply to anything that is or becomes public, including the published book and its contents, or to information Scribe is required by law to disclose. Nothing in this agreement limits Scribe's right to promote the Author and the book, including listing them on Scribe's website, featuring them in Scribe's marketing, advertising, and social media, and using the Author's name, likeness, bio, book title, cover, and excerpts from the published book.

5. Royalties and Profits

Plain English: You get all the profit from your work. We get nothing.

Neither Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, nor any other third party involved in any stage of the book creation process, is entitled to any share or claim on any part of any profit from the book, or associated with the book, since only the Author has the ownership rights and rights to the proceeds from the book.

However, if the Author fails to pay Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, for work done on the book, then the Author does not have the right to use the book that contains the work of Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, and if the Author does so anyway, Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, shall have a lien against the book proceeds, up to the amount owed under this Agreement.

All book and distribution accounts are yours (the Author's), not ours (including Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, etc.). We place those accounts in your name and you have full control.

6. ISBNs and Publisher of Record

Every edition of your book needs an ISBN, the identification number that retailers and distributors use to list and sell it. We include ISBNs for every edition at no extra cost, and we strongly recommend using them. Your book, its copyright, and all of its royalties remain 100% yours, and the imprint you publish under is shown as the publisher on every edition. The ISBNs are simply registered through our account, which lets our team handle the registration, metadata, barcodes, and distributor uploads from start to finish without depending on anyone outside the project.

If you want to own your ISBNs yourself, you can, but it requires publishing under your own custom imprint, because the ISBN owner and the publisher name on your book must match. A custom imprint is available for an added cost. Owning your own ISBNs also adds steps that sit outside our control. The registration has to match exactly what Amazon and IngramSpark expect, and when it does not, those platforms can reject the upload. Fixing a rejected registration can take several days, and close to launch that can mean delays or a book that is not available on your launch date.

If you choose to provide your own ISBNs, you will purchase them for every edition, including the audiobook, from the official ISBN agency in your country, and provide them to us before interior layout begins. You are responsible for registering each ISBN with that agency using the publisher and imprint details we provide, and for keeping that registration accurate. If you provide ISBNs after interior layout or cover design has started, we will need to update the completed layout and cover files with the new ISBNs and barcodes. We will quote that work in advance, and it will be charged as described in the Unlock Fees section of your agreement. Delays caused by ISBN registration count as author-caused delays.

7. Liability and Indemnification

Plain English: Because this is entirely your book, you are entirely responsible for all the content. These are your ideas, your words, and your book (not ours), and you have full approval over everything that goes out in your name.

You (the author) are solely responsible for the content of your book, including, but not limited to any third party citations and references. You represent and warrant that the content of your book does not, and shall not, infringe the rights of any third party (including any such intellectual property rights).

In the event there is any liability associated with your book (such as a claim of a breach of another's intellectual property right, or any other liability), you are solely responsible for such liability. In the event that any legal action is ever taken against Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, and/or any damage or other liability incurred, as a result of your book and/or our engagement with you, you agree to fully indemnify us for any liability or damage, our costs to defend ourselves, and any other reasonable expenditures we incur as a result thereof.

8. Limitation of Liability

Scribe's total liability under this agreement, under any contract, negligence, strict liability, or other legal or equitable theory, shall not exceed the total amount paid by Author to Scribe under this agreement. In no event shall Scribe be liable for special, incidental, or consequential damages, or for cost of substitute services, or for loss or corruption of data. The foregoing limitations shall not apply in cases of fraud or willful misconduct, or to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

9. Image and IP Licensing

Plain English: If you provide us with images for your book, it is up to you to make sure that you have the right to use them. If we create or source any images for you, we will make sure you have the right to use them.

Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, agrees to obtain all appropriate licenses and rights to any content we put into your book that you did not otherwise provide to us. In such instances, we agree to provide you with evidence that proper licenses were obtained.

If for some reason there is an issue with any media used in your book that we put in there and that did not come directly from you, then we accept full liability and will indemnify you from any damage arising because we didn't get the proper license(s) from a third party.

Similarly, you agree to obtain all appropriate licenses and rights to any content that you provide to us for inclusion in your book. If there is an issue with any media sourced by you (and not by us), then you accept full liability and will indemnify us from any damage arising because you didn't get the proper license(s) from a third party.

10. Third-Party Distribution Services

We use third-party distribution services to share your book with the world. We'll handle the initial upload to these platforms and the ongoing management as we launch your book, but we aren't responsible if a platform causes a disruption that is beyond our control.

11. Quality Assurance Commitment

We are dedicated to delivering a professionally crafted book that adheres to the highest traditional publishing standards and meets the requirements of all distribution networks we use, outlined in the book distribution section of your agreement.

12. Printer Variation and Large Print Runs

We utilize third-party, print-on-demand printers for the majority of our books. If you plan to order large quantities of your book for personal use or to sell directly to customers, we encourage you to order (1) copy first to ensure there are no printing errors or variations. You can discuss this more with your Publishing Manager, and they'll let you know how this will impact your timeline and process.

13. AI Content

Scribe is a human-led team. People lead the creative and editorial work on your book and approve what goes into it, and we will not use AI to generate the substantive text, editorial development, or visual content of your manuscript, cover, or interior artwork. Like an accountant who uses QuickBooks or an artist who uses Adobe Illustrator, we also use modern software tools, some of which include artificial intelligence, where they add value and efficiency. These include tools for transcription, meeting summaries, grammar and spelling checks, and research support, and you may ask for a summary of our AI tool usage at any time.

If you are uncomfortable with any of the ways we use these tools, let's talk about it. Please understand that the line around what counts as AI is blurry, since it is now built into everyday tools like spell check, Google Docs, Google Meet, and Photoshop. If you prefer that we not use certain tools on your project, we will gladly discuss it, but working without them takes more human hours and may change the price. For example, if you prefer that our editors not use the spelling and grammar checking built into tools like Google Docs and Microsoft Word, every line of your manuscript must be checked by hand, which adds significant time. We will quote any change in price for your written approval before the work begins.

Scribe will never knowingly submit your work, including your manuscript, drafts, call recordings and transcripts, designs, logos, and other creative materials you own, to be used to train any AI model, and will not sell or license it for that purpose. We use every opt-out from model training that our tools offer, and if we learn that a tool is training on your work, we will opt out or stop using it for your project. We rely on outside providers such as email, cloud storage, meeting, and transcription services, do not control how they handle data, and are not responsible if they use data in ways we have not agreed to or are not aware of. Please also understand that publishing means making your work public. Your book, along with the descriptions, author bio, cover, and other materials we create for Amazon, retailer listings, websites, and promotion, will be publicly available, and AI companies routinely collect public online content to train their models. Once your work is public, Scribe cannot control or prevent that.

Distributors like KDP require disclosure of AI-generated content, so you must tell us about any AI-generated text, images, or translations in your book, including cover and interior artwork. AI-generated means content created by an AI tool, even if you edited it substantially afterward. AI-assisted means content you created yourself and then edited, improved, or brainstormed with AI tools. You do not need to tell us about AI-assisted content.

14. Communication and Calls

A fair amount of our work will require us to speak with you on video and audio calls. We promise we'll keep it mainly to business. All we ask is that you make yourself available and focused for your scheduled calls.

Delays in communication can subsequently delay the schedule of your book and may result in additional costs.

Call Cancellation Policy: We ask that you cancel or reschedule calls 24 hours or more in advance. We're happy to let one missed call slide. Beyond that, any no-shows or cancellations/reschedules within 24 hours will be subject to a rescheduling fee of $150.

15. Cancellation

If, at any point in your project, one or both of us decide that it would be best to part ways, we will discuss the appropriate next steps. The first invoice you pay is non-refundable, as it reserves your place in our production schedule. Any payments after that are refundable only if you’ve paid more than the value of the work we’ve completed. Once a deliverable is finished and approved by you, that portion of your investment is considered earned and non-refundable. We’ll always be upfront about what’s been done and are happy to walk you through it if a refund ever comes up.

16. Delayed Start and Pricing Expiration

The price in your agreement is valid for 3 months from the date you sign.

• If you start your project within 3 months of signing:
  • Your grace period timeline will begin when active work on your project starts.
  • You will keep the pricing in this agreement even if our prices increase during that time.
• If you start your project after 3 months but within 12 months of signing:
  • Your grace period timeline will resume at the 3-month mark.
  • If our prices have increased, you will pay the updated service price and be charged the difference going forward.
• If you do not start your project within 12 months of signing:
  • We will cancel your project.
  • Payments already made are not refundable and will not be applied to a future agreement.
  • Before canceling, we will try to reach you by text, phone, and email.

17. Project Pauses and Sunset Clause

We respect family, personal, and business needs that may require a break. Momentum is critical to finishing your book, and part of our job is to help you stay on track. Here is how pauses work.

• One pause up to 3 months
  • You may pause your project once for up to 3 months.
  • During this pause, we will pause your project work, your payments, and your grace period.
  • If our prices increase while you are paused for up to 3 months, we will honor the pricing in your agreement and your monthly payments will resume at the same amount when you restart.
  • We cannot guarantee that the exact same team members will be available when you restart.
• Pauses longer than 3 months
  • After the first 3 months of a pause, your grace period timeline will start again, even though your payments stay paused.
  • If our prices have increased when you restart, you will pay the current service price and be charged the difference going forward.
  • If your grace period has expired by the time you restart, you will be charged the monthly retainer described in the Payment Terms section in addition to your monthly payments.
• Pauses longer than 12 months
  • If your project is paused for more than 12 months, we will cancel your agreement.
  • Payments already made are not refundable and will not be applied to a future agreement.
  • Any work completed before your pause belongs to you.
  • If you return later, we can create a new agreement that takes into account the work you have already completed, based on our current pricing.
• Automatic pause for non-response
  • If we do not hear from you for one month, we will automatically pause your project.
  • Before we do so, we will try to reach you by text, phone, and email.

18. No Hidden Costs

We hate it when someone quotes one price, then tries to charge more later on. We won't do this to you. There are all kinds of additional work you might want to add, but we will NEVER do any additional work that would cost you money without first getting your explicit approval, both to do the work and for the amount.

19. Outside Work

We hope you love working with everyone you meet at Scribe, and you get excited every time you work with them. But we have to insist that you don't work with them outside of working with us, unless we give both you and them explicit approval. This means you don't ask them to do any sort of writing, editing, or other creative work that is identical to what we do, or very close. You also agree that if you do this, that we have the right to seek damages and lost revenue.

20. Payment Terms

Your investment is paid over the number of months specified in your Deal-Specific Agreement. The first payment is due within 24 hours of signing and is non-refundable. Our finance team will reach out to schedule the first payment. Remaining payments will be set up for ACH auto payment.

There is a 3% processing fee for all credit card payments.

If any payment goes unpaid for 14 days after its due date, we have to pause work on your project until the payment is received, and we cannot guarantee the same publishing timeline or team when your project restarts.

Your entire investment must be paid in full before we can publish your book.

If your project extends beyond the payment term specified in your Deal-Specific Agreement, monthly payments will continue at the overage rate specified in your Deal-Specific Agreement to cover the ongoing creative and operational work. If a delay is demonstrably caused by Scribe or our affiliated contractors, we will not charge the retainer for the length of that delay. This determination is at the sole discretion of Scribe Media.