User Terms and Conditions

Reedsy Discovery

  1. Introduction

    1. Welcome to Reedsy Discovery. If you view our website or you wish to become a reviewer or submit content to Reedsy Discovery you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use (“Terms”). If you disagree with any part of these Terms, please do not view our website, apply to become a reviewer or submit any content to Reedsy Discovery.
    2. The term ‘we’ means Reedsy Limited, a company registered in England whose registered office is 483 Green Lanes, London, England, N13 4BS and company registration number is 08841985 (“we”, “us” and “our” will be construed accordingly). Reedsy Limited is the owner and operator of the website www.reedsy.com/discovery (the “Website”) and any related mobile applications, together with all features, services or tools available through it. ‘Reedsy Discovery’ is a brand name of Reedsy Limited.
    3. The term “you” refers to the viewer of Reedsy Discovery, or the person applying to become a reviewer or submitting any content to us (and “your” will be construed accordingly).
    4. Reedsy Discovery uses cookies. By using Reedsy Discovery and agreeing to these Terms, you consent to our use of cookies and to the use of your information in accordance with our Privacy & Cookies Policy.
  2. About us

    1. Reedsy Discovery provides a place for you to discover, review and talk about books with friends and our community and as an author, to get exposure for your book.
  3. Registration

    1. You must be over 18 years of age to use our Website. You warrant and confirm to us that all information provided to us is true, accurate and not misleading.
    2. If you register an account on behalf of a legal entity, you warrant and confirm that you have the authority to do so and you enter into these Terms on behalf of that entity.
    3. If we provide you with a user ID and password to enable you to access restricted areas of this Website or other content or services, you must ensure that the user ID and password are kept confidential. We will be entitled to assume that any person that logs into or uses your account is either you or has your consent. You must notify us immediately if you know or suspect that anyone other than you has had access to or knows your password.
    4. We may disable your user ID and password at our sole discretion without prior notice, if we believe you are making improper use of the Website.
    5. We may allow you to connect to Reedsy Discovery using third parties, such as Goodreads or Twitter. This way, you can (if you wish to do so) allow us to have access to some of the information you have on these external accounts. This will allow us to improve your experience on Reedsy Discovery. For instance, we'll be able to suggest people you may wish to connect with on Reedsy Discovery.
  4. Acceptable use policy

    1. Your use of Reedsy Discovery, is conditional on your agreement to comply with the following Acceptable Use Policy. You agree that you will not:
      1. breach any laws or regulations in your use of the Website;
      2. violate the posting rules (which may be given or updated from time to time on the Website);
      3. post any material which is deemed threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene or indecent;
      4. post or message any false or misleading material;
      5. distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm Reedsy Discovery or the interests of its users;
      6. impose an unreasonable load on Reedsy Discovery technology or infrastructure;
      7. distribute spam, chain letters, or promote pyramid schemes;
      8. use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access Reedsy Discovery without our express written permission;
      9. interfere with the proper working of Reedsy Discovery;
      10. collect information about other users of Reedsy Discovery, including email addresses, without their consent;
      11. use any of Reedsy Discovery's content, copyrights and trademarks without permission;
      12. bypass measures designed to prevent or restrict access to certain parts of Reedsy Discovery;
      13. promote any unlawful, illegal or dangerous activity;
      14. infringe the copyright, trademark or other rights of any third parties;
      15. permit any third parties to use your login details.
    2. We reserve the right at our discretion to refuse content that we may believe is inappropriate or is in breach of the above terms.
    3. Except in relation to User Content (as explained below), or unless otherwise stated, Reedsy Limited owns the intellectual property rights in Reedsy Discovery and its content. Subject to the license which is granted to users as explained below, all these intellectual property rights are reserved.
    4. You may view Reedsy Discovery pages, download Reedsy Discovery pages and print Reedsy Discovery pages for your own personal use, subject to the restrictions set out below and elsewhere in these Terms.
    5. We reserve the right to restrict access to areas of Reedsy Discovery, or indeed all of Reedsy Discovery, at our sole discretion. If we provide you with a user ID and password to enable you to access restricted areas of Reedsy Discovery or other content or services, you must ensure that the user ID and password are kept confidential.
    6. We may disable your user ID and password at our sole discretion without prior notice, if we believe you are making improper use of Reedsy Discovery. We also reserve the right to decline membership at our discretion.
    7. You are responsible for all information that you submit to Reedsy Discovery and any consequences that may result from any message, review or content you submit to us.
    8. Reedsy Discovery reserves the right to upgrade and remove any features of its Website at any time.
  5. Misuse of Reedsy Discovery

    1. We aim to work together with the Reedsy Discovery community to keep Reedsy Discovery working properly and the community safe. Please report problems, offensive content and policy breaches to us at discovery@reedsy.com.
    2. If you believe that any User Content available on Reedsy infringes your Intellectual Property Rights or other proprietary rights or is defamatory to you, please notify us by email at discovery@reedsy.com.
    3. If you believe any User Content is in breach of yours or someone else’s copyright, please provide us with the following information:
      1. confirmation of your identity and/or your authorisation to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
      2. a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; and
      3. a description of the material you claim is infringing and where it is found on the Website.
    4. We may at our discretion issue warnings, limit or terminate our service, or remove User Content and take technical and legal steps to keep users off Reedsy Discovery if we think that they are misusing Reedsy Discovery. However, whether or not we decide to take any of these steps, we do not have any obligation to monitor the information submitted to or published on Reedsy Discovery and we do not accept any liability for unauthorised or unlawful content on Reedsy Discovery.
  6. User Content

    1. Reedsy Discovery permits the submission of user content including the submission of reviews, comments, posts or articles (including images, music or video content, where permitted) or other content by you (all of which is defined as "User Content") and the hosting and publishing of such User Content. You understand that whether or not such User Content is published, we do not guarantee any confidentiality with respect to any User Content (except in relation to manuscripts which are submitted for review, which shall remain confidential in accordance with the terms of clause 9).
    2. You agree to comply with all posting rules which we may provide on Reedsy Discovery and which will be deemed to be expressly incorporated into these Terms.
    3. You shall be solely responsible for your own User Content and the consequences of posting or publishing them.
    4. You represent and warrant that:
      1. you own or have the necessary rights and permissions to use and authorize us to use all copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights in and to any User Content to enable inclusion and use on Reedsy Discovery and in accordance with these Terms; and
      2. whilst, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Content, by submitting the User Content to us, you hereby grant us, in addition to any other rights which we may have, a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and transferable license (which is sub-licensable) to use, copy, prepare derivative works of (including without limitation, to rename, edit, shorten, split or compile), display and broadcast the User Content in connection with Reedsy Discovery and our business generally, including without limitation to grant access to third parties to view the User Content (and derivative works thereof) and to distribute the User Content through any and all electronic or hard copy media or distribution methods now available or later developed for the purpose of promoting our services;
      3. you will not: (a) submit material that is false or misleading, copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the User Content and to grant us all of the license rights granted herein; (b) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage us, our business or any third party; (c) submit material that is unlawful, obscene, libellous, threatening, pornographic, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or (d) misidentify yourself in submitting the User Content or misstate your true identity.
    5. Any breach of the above warranties may result in your account being immediately terminated and may result in you becoming liable to legal action.
    6. We do not endorse any User Content or any opinion, recommendation, or advice which it may express, and we expressly disclaim any and all liability in connection with User Content.
    7. You understand that when using Reedsy Discovery, you will be exposed to User Content from a variety of sources, and that we are not responsible for the accuracy, usefulness, safety, or intellectual property rights of or relating to such User Content. You may be exposed to User Content that is inaccurate, offensive, indecent, or objectionable and you waive any legal rights or remedies you may have against us with respect of such content and agree to hold us, our owners, affiliates, contractors, employees, agents and/or licensors, harmless to the fullest extent allowed by law regarding all matters related to your use of Reedsy Discovery.
  7. Reviewer terms

    1. To apply to become a reviewer, please follow the steps set out on the Website. We reserve the right to remove reviewers from the Website at any time and for any reason, at our discretion.
    2. By submitting a review to Reedsy Discovery you agree to the following terms.
    3. You agree to access and use User Content solely for the purpose of providing reviews for Reedsy Discovery in accordance with these terms.
    4. You will use all reasonable efforts to ensure that any User Content which you access will be securely stored and protected from unauthorised use. You agree to delete and not to retain any copies of the User Content following completion of your review and, in particular, you agree not to use, copy or transmit any portion of the User Content to any third party for any reason whatsoever.
    5. All reviews must be fair, honest and unbiased. You are not permitted to post a review for any book or publication of which you are the author or to whose author you are closely connected. Any attempt to manipulate the community or features by submitting a false, misleading or biased review is strictly prohibited.
    6. Reviewers are not permitted to post a review in exchange for compensation of any kind, including payment (whether monetary or in any other form) or in exchange for any services or to receive a corresponding review back from the author for the reviewer’s own work. This clause does not prevent readers from giving Tips to reviewers (provided such Tips comply with our Tipping Policy set out in clause 6).
    7. Although we have no duty to and may not pre-screen any review before publication, we reserve the right to edit your review as we see fit and we may choose whether to publish your review or not for any reason at our discretion. We may use all or any part of your review in accordance with our User Content policy set out in clause 4.
    8. Please be aware that once a review has been submitted it shall be considered as ‘User Content’ (see clause 6). This means that the reviewer will have no ability to edit or remove any review they have submitted to us, including on termination of their account. Please note that although we will remove their social profile, the reviewer's name will remain attached to the review they have submitted.
  8. Tipping

    1. We permit readers to tip reviewers to say thank you for their time and effort spent in reviewing books and for introducing them to new titles.
    2. Authors (and those closely connected to an author) are not permitted to tip reviewers who have reviewed their own books.
    3. Tips can be made through the Website using the Stripe payment application. In order to receive tips, you must register an account with Stripe.
  9. Author submission terms

    1. The following terms and conditions apply to all books submitted to Reedsy Discovery for review.
    2. Your book must comply with the following requirements:
      1. it must be an original work written in the English language;
      2. it must be submitted only by the author or a person authorised on behalf of the author to submit the work;
      3. it must not violate any right of any copyrights, intellectual property rights or any other rights of any third party;
      4. it cannot contain any content which is libellous or offensive, including racial slurs, excessively graphic or violent material, or excessive use of profanity. We do allow submission of materials with sexual content, but pornography or offensive descriptions of graphic sexual acts are prohibited.
    3. You acknowledge that you are responsible for any submission you make, including the legality and copyright of any such material. You represent and warrant to us that you own or otherwise control all necessary rights to the content (including any images contained in the publication) and that you are authorised to submit the book to us. In the event of your breach of these terms or any other Terms, you will indemnify Reedsy Limited against all cost, claims, damages or loss (including all legal fees) which may arise as a result.
    4. By submitting your manuscript, you are granting us (i) permission to use, reproduce, distribute, and display your book's sample chapter and metadata (including but not limited to title, subtitle, author name, cover image, and synopsis) on the Website for reading and review and (ii) the right to send the manuscript to reviewers for the purpose of their review. Please also note that whilst you may request cancellation of your account and erasure of your personal data under the terms of our Privacy Policy, the sample chapter of your manuscript which you submit to us, the metadata as listed above and any reviews will remain on our Website.
    5. You should keep a copy of any content you submit to us for your own protection. We will not be liable for loss of your content.
    6. We charge a submission fee of $50 per book submitted for review (the “Submission Fee”). This fee is not refundable (except as provided in clause 11.3). We may from time to time offer discount coupons against the Submission Fee.
    7. We cannot guarantee the quality of any review you may receive and we do not guarantee that you will receive any reviews for your book. You accept that any reviews you may receive may be negative as well as positive and you may not agree with the views of our reviewers, or any other users.
    8. By submitting a book for review, we do not guarantee that your book will appear on our Website.
    9. If you wish to make any use of a review received from Reedsy Discovery, such as on your own blog, or on your book cover, or on Amazon, you must comply with our excerpts policy set out in clause 12.4.
    10. In the event that a book has been submitted for review, but the reviewer thinks the book is not ready for a review (for example, because the reviewer believes that it is not yet ready for publication without further editing), they will offer some basic editorial feedback. However, we will not refund the Submission Fee or feature the book on our Website in such a case.
  10. Fees

    1. Access to the basic Reedsy Discovery service is free of charge for readers and reviewers. If we change our pricing policy at any time, we shall inform you via the Website.
    2. If you wish to submit a book for review, you will be charged a Submission Fee (please see further terms for submitting content for review, in clause 9).
  11. Your right to cancel

    1. If you have signed up to Reedsy Discovery, you have the right to cancel your account at any time. You can do this through your Accounts Settings page or by sending an email to discovery@reedsy.com requesting the termination of your membership.
    2. Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, if you are a consumer, you will be entitled to request a refund of your Submission Fee. This refund shall apply only in the following circumstances:
      1. you have informed us of your wish to cancel within 60 days of submitting your book;
      2. we have not yet begun to provide reviewer services for your book; and
      3. your book has not publicly launched on Discovery.
    3. If a review does not properly follow our reviewer guidelines, we may at our discretion permit a refund of the Submission Fee.
  12. Permitted use

    1. Reedsy Discovery contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the content, design, layout, look, appearance and graphics.
    2. You are granted a licence to use the material contained on Reedsy Discovery subject to the restrictions described in these Terms.
    3. You are not permitted to:
      1. republish material from Reedsy Discovery (including republication on another website), except for the publication of minor extracts from the Website for the purpose of promoting use of Reedsy Discovery for example in social media (and subject to our excerpts policy set out in clause 12.4);
      2. sell, rent, license, sublicense, lease, distribute, copy, duplicate, publish or reproduce material from Reedsy Discovery and any material or any part thereof for use by any third party;
      3. use any material in any way that is unlawful or in breach of any person's legal or intellectual property rights under any applicable law, or in any way that is offensive, indecent, discriminatory or otherwise objectionable.
    4. Using any excerpt of content from our Website must comply with all applicable laws and regulations in respect of copyright and intellectual property rights of the author. In addition, any use must include proper citation, including the full title of the work and citing both the original author of the work and Reedsy Discovery. Users must wait at least two weeks following publication of the book on the Reedsy Discovery site before publishing their own excerpt and must also comply with best practice industry standards, including:
      1. if words are omitted from a quote, ellipses must be inserted in their place;
      2. no words may be added to a review;
      3. the integrity of a review may not be altered; and
      4. if content is to be used in online publicity a link back to Reedsy Discovery should be made together with the attribution.
    5. If you breach these Terms in any way then the licence granted to you will be automatically terminated upon such breach and we may take such action as we deem appropriate to deal with the breach, including prohibiting you from accessing Reedsy Discovery, blocking computers using your IP address from accessing Reedsy Discovery, contacting your internet service provider to request that they block your access to Reedsy Discovery and/or bringing court proceedings against you.
    6. All material contained on Reedsy Discovery is and shall remain at all times the copyright of Reedsy Limited and its licensors.
    7. You must retain, and must not delete or remove all copyright notices and other proprietary notices placed by us on any material.
  13. No Warranties

    1. Reedsy Discovery is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied. We make no representations or warranties in relation to Reedsy Discovery or the information and material provided on Reedsy Discovery.
    2. The content of the pages of Reedsy Discovery is for your general information and use only and it is subject to change without prior notice.
    3. We do not warrant that Reedsy Discovery will be constantly available, or available at all; or that the information on Reedsy Discovery is complete, true, accurate or non-misleading.
    4. Nothing on Reedsy Discovery constitutes, or is meant to constitute, advice of any kind. We do not provide any warranty as to the suitability of the information and material found or offered on Reedsy Discovery for any particular purpose. You understand and agree that Reedsy Limited is not liable or responsible for any product, service or opportunity offered by any user or third party on Reedsy Discovery. We do not assess or investigate the accuracy or identity of any posting or user and shall not be liable to you for any loss, damage or harm you may suffer as a result of using Reedsy Discovery or acquiring any product or service from a user or a third party posting on Reedsy Discovery.
    5. You acknowledge that information and material found or offered on Reedsy Discovery may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.
    6. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law we exclude all representations, warranties and conditions relating to Reedsy Discovery and the use of Reedsy Discovery (including, without limitation, any warranties implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and/or the use of reasonable care and skill).
  14. Limitations and Exclusions of Liability

    1. Our liability to you in relation to the use of Reedsy Discovery or under or in connection with these Terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, will be limited as follows: Reedsy Limited and its directors and employees will not be liable to you for any loss or damage of any nature whether arising directly or indirectly from your access to, use of or reliance on information found on Reedsy Discovery; Reedsy Limited and its employees will not be liable for any consequential, indirect or special loss or damage and will not be liable for any loss of profit, income, revenue, anticipated savings, contracts, business, goodwill, reputation, data, or information for any reason whatsoever.
    2. Nothing in these Terms will limit or exclude our liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence, limit or exclude our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation or limit any of our liabilities in any way that is not permitted under applicable law.
    3. By using Reedsy Discovery, you agree that the exclusions and limitations of liability set out in these Terms are reasonable. If you do not think they are reasonable, you must not use Reedsy Discovery.
  15. Indemnity

    1. If you breach these Terms you will be held fully responsible for any loss suffered by us or anyone else as result of such breach and will be held accountable for all losses caused or profits gained by you from breaching these Terms.
    2. You agree to indemnify us and undertake to keep us indemnified against any losses, damages, costs, liabilities and expenses (including, without limitation, legal expenses) incurred or suffered by us arising out of any breach by you of any provision of these Terms.
  16. Other websites

    1. Reedsy Discovery may contain links to other websites that are not under the control of and are not maintained by us. We are not responsible for the content or reliability of the linked websites. We provide these links for your convenience only but do not endorse the material on those sites.
    2. We may from time to time use affiliate links. These links allow users, for example, to click directly through to a sales page on Amazon to purchase a book. We may receive a commission on sales which are made through these links.
  17. Waiver

    1. The failure by us to enforce at any time or for any period any one or more of the Terms shall not be a waiver of them or the right at any time subsequently to enforce all Terms.
  18. Severance

    1. If any provision of these Terms shall be found by any court to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the other provisions of these Terms which shall remain in full force and effect.
    2. If any provision of these Terms is so found to be invalid or unenforceable but would be valid or enforceable if some part of the provision were deleted, the provision in question shall apply with such modification(s) as may be necessary to make it valid and enforceable.
  19. Variation

    1. We may revise these Terms from time-to-time. Revised Terms will apply to the use of Reedsy Discovery from the date of the publication of the revised Terms on Reedsy Discovery. Please check this page regularly to ensure you are familiar with the current version.
  20. Exclusion of Third Party Rights

    1. These Terms are for the benefit of you and us, and are not intended to benefit any third party or be enforceable by any third party. The exercise of our and your rights in relation to these Terms is not subject to the consent of any third party.
  21. Entire Agreement

    1. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of Reedsy Discovery, and supersede all previous agreements in respect of your use of Reedsy Discovery.
  22. Jurisdiction and Governing Law

    1. These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Any dispute, claim or matter arising out of, or relating to, these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.