Terms of Service
Welcome to The Story Tavern. By using thestorytavern.com (the "site"), you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.
Your account
You are responsible for keeping your login secure and for activity that happens under your account. Please provide accurate information when you sign up, and keep it up to date.
Content you post
You keep ownership of the content you post, such as listings, profile details, and reviews. By posting it, you give us permission to display it on the site as part of normal operation, and to use your listing's cover image, title, and description to promote your listing and The Story Tavern (for example, featuring your book in our social media posts, always pointing readers back to your listing). You are responsible for the content you post and confirm you have the right to share it.
Acceptable use
Please be respectful. Do not post content that is unlawful, harassing, hateful, infringing, spammy, or otherwise harmful, and do not misuse the site or interfere with its operation. We may remove content or suspend accounts that violate these terms.
No unsolicited selling in private messages. Private messages exist for members to talk about books and reading arrangements, not for prospecting. Sending unsolicited offers of paid services (editing, marketing, reviews, or anything else), soliciting review exchanges, or directing members off-site to purchase services is not allowed, and may result in losing messaging privileges or your account.
ARC, Alpha, and Beta arrangements
The Story Tavern helps authors and readers find each other. Any agreement to share, read, review, or distribute a book is between the author and the reader. We are not a party to those arrangements and are not responsible for them. Authors are responsible for how they distribute their work, and readers are responsible for honoring the terms an author sets, including not redistributing copies they receive.
Plans, reader teams & billing
Free plan. A free listing is a discovery listing: you post your call and readers find it here, but they apply on your own external sign-up form. No reader team, messaging, delivery, review, rating, or reputation is managed on The Story Tavern for a free listing, that all happens off-site, between you and your readers.
Paid plans. Paid plans (Debut and up) run your ARC operation on the site: readers apply here, you approve and manage your reader team, we host and deliver a watermarked copy to each approved reader, and their on-site reviews and the mutual reader/author reputation are recorded here.
Billing & renewals. Paid plans bill in advance for the plan period. If you cancel, you keep paid features until the end of the period you have already paid for and are not charged again. If a renewal payment fails, we retry for a short grace period (currently about 10 days); if it still hasn't cleared after that, the paid features lock.
What "lock" means. When paid features lock (by cancellation or unpaid renewal) your reader-team and hosting tools become read-only, you cannot approve new readers, host new listings, or send new deliveries. Nothing is deleted: your existing team, reviews, files, and reputation are preserved and are restored the moment you re-subscribe.
Readers mid-ARC. Readers already approved on a book's team when it locks keep access to that book, anyone who already downloaded their copy keeps it, and existing team members can finish reading and reviewing through the review deadline. Only new approvals, new listings, and new deliveries stop.
Direct book sales
Authors on the Bestseller plan can sell their books directly on The Story Tavern. Payments are processed by Stripe; the sale proceeds go to the author's own Stripe account minus The Story Tavern's platform fee (currently 10%) and Stripe's card processing fees. The author is the seller of the book; The Story Tavern provides the storefront and delivers the purchased copy (in-browser reading plus a watermarked EPUB/PDF download).
Buyers: a purchase unlocks permanent access to read and download that book on your account. Purchased copies are watermarked with your name and are for your personal use, don't redistribute them. Because delivery is instant and digital, sales are generally final; if something is wrong with your purchase (you were charged but the book didn't unlock, the file is defective, or you bought it twice), contact support and we'll make it right, including a refund where appropriate. A refunded purchase removes access to the book.
Selling authors: you're responsible for having the rights to sell what you upload and for the accuracy of your listing. Stripe (not The Story Tavern) holds and pays out your money and handles your seller tax reporting.
Reviews
Reviews should be honest and your own. We may remove reviews that are fraudulent, abusive, or that violate these terms. The ✅ Verified ARC reader badge appears only on reviews by readers who were approved for that book on the site, which happens on paid plans.
No warranty
The site is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We do our best to keep it running smoothly, but we cannot guarantee it will always be available or error-free.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent allowed by law, The Story Tavern is not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the site.
Termination
You may stop using the site at any time. We may suspend or end accounts that violate these terms.
Changes
We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of the site means you accept the updated terms.
Contact
Questions about these terms? Email michelle@thestorytavern.com or see our Contact page.