Terms of Service
The Book of Terms
a short novel (of sorts)
Acknowledgements
The Libraro team would like to thank our legal counsel, whose dedicated work, endless redlining, and boring splitting-hairs comments about specific words and Oxford commas, made these terms come to life (after a long time in the process!).
Foreword
Libraro is a platform for discovery where stories come to life, designed in particular to enable unpublished authors to have their work displayed and available.
These terms and conditions of use (Terms) explain how you may use (i) the Libraro website (Libraro.io), including any content therein and (ii) the Libraro platform, being the interactive part of the website whereby you, the user, take(s) a further pro-active step to create a log in, read, like or comment on books, publish a manuscript (thereby becoming an author) or engage in other activities such as promotions etc as may be made available from time to time. In these Terms we will refer to the Libraro website as well make specific reference to the Libraro platform, or we jointly refer to Libaro’s website and platform together as “the Site”.
You should read these Terms carefully before using the Site. By using the Site or otherwise indicating your consent, you agree to be bound by these Terms. In particular, as an author by entering into a subscription and subsequently uploading a manuscript for publication you are entering into a contract that stipulates certain obligations beyond the mere usage of a website. If you do not agree with any of these Terms, you should stop using the Site immediately.
Book I: The Site
Chapter 1 – Basics
These These Terms apply between Libro Publishing Ltd trading as Libraro, (we, us or our) and you, the person accessing or using the Site (you or your).
In these Terms, expressions beginning with a capital letter usually have a specific meaning that is defined.
These Terms apply to any parts of the Site, its functionality and content provided to you free of charge for information purposes only.
If you order any goods, services or digital content from the Site, separate terms and conditions will apply.
Chapter 2 – About us
We are Libro Publishing Ltd (trading as Libraro or Libraro.io), a company registered in England and Wales under company registration number 14602616. Our registered office is at 86-90 Paul Street, London, United Kingdom, EC2A 4NE.
We are registered in the following trade register: England and Wales under registration number: 14602616.
If you have any questions about the Site, please contact us by: sending an email to info@libraro.com. (P.S. this is not an address to send fan mail which you can send to us at support@libraro.com).
For information about how we use your information on and off the Site please see Libraro Privacy Policy and for information about how we use cookies please see Libraro Cookie Policy (both of which are available on the Site).
Chapter 3 – Accessing and using the site
You will need an internet connection and a browser to access the pages on the Site and to use any features we provide. Access to the Site is permitted on a temporary basis, and Libraro reserves the right to withdraw or amend the Site without notice (see below). Libraro will not be liable if for any reason the Site is unavailable at any time or for any period.
You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access the Site through your internet connection are aware of these Terms, and that they comply with them.
If you are a parent or guardian and provide your consent to your child’s use of the Site, you are agreeing to be bound by these Terms in respect of your child’s use of the Site.
Libraro makes no promise that the Site is appropriate or available for use in locations outside of the United Kingdom. If you choose to access the Site from locations outside the UK, you acknowledge you do so at your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws where they apply.
We try to make the Site as accessible as possible. If you have any difficulties using the Site, please contact us using the contact details at the top of this page.
As a condition of your use of the Site, you agree not to:
- misuse or attack our Site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or any other material which is malicious or technologically harmful (such as by way of a denial-of-service attack), or
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to our Site, the server on which our Site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our Site.
We may prevent or suspend your access to the Site if you do not comply with these Terms or any applicable law.
Linking to the Site
You may link to the home page of the Site, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage Libraro reputation or take advantage of any of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement where none exists.
You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.
The homepage must not be framed on any other Site, unless Libraro expressly agrees otherwise. Libraro reserves the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
Links from the Site
Where the Site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Libraro does not review those third party websites, nor does Libraro have any control over the contents of those sites or resources. Libraro does not endorse or make any representations about the third party websites, or any products, services or content found there, or any consequences that may result from using them. Libraro therefore accepts no responsibility for the sites or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of these third party websites, you do so entirely at your own risk.
If you use a linked site, any personal information you give the site Libraro or cookies that you consent to receiving will be dealt with in line with their privacy and cookies policy, not ours, so please ensure that you read their terms and conditions, privacy policy and any cookies policy before you use their site and provide them with any personal information or consent to receiving cookies on their site.
If you are the copyright owner of content hosted on a third party website, and you have not authorised the use of your content, please contact the administrator of the hosting website directly to have the content removed.
Third party software
You acknowledge that you may need to download and activate certain software developed by third parties in order to use certain content provided on the Site.
In order to use such third party software or technology you may have to accept the terms of a licence agreement with that third party. You acknowledge that Libraro has no responsibility or control over such third-party software, and make no representation, warranty or guarantee regarding the installation, use, availability or effectiveness of such software.
Chapter 4 – Registration and password security
Use of the Site may require registration, particularly in order to access restricted areas of the Site.
We are not obliged to permit anyone to register with the Site and we may refuse, terminate or suspend registration to anyone at any time at our sole discretion.
You are responsible for making sure that your password and any other account details are kept secure and confidential.
If we have reason to believe there is likely to be a breach of security or misuse of the Site through your account or the use of your password, we may notify you and require you to change your password, or we may suspend or terminate your account.
Any personal information you provide to us as part of the registration process will be processed in accordance with Libraro Privacy Policy available at: libraro.com/privacy-policy
Other than any personal information which will be dealt with in accordance with our Privacy Policy, we do not guarantee that information supplied to us through the Site will be kept confidential and we may use it on an unrestricted and free-of-charge basis as we reasonably see fit or as otherwise set out in our agreement with you in relation to the manuscripts.
Book II: The Scary Stuff begins
Chapter 5 – Intellectual Property Rights
Libraro is the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in the Site, and in the content published on it. Those works are protected by UK and international copyright and other intellectual property laws. All such rights are reserved.
For all content on the Site, in general, you are not permitted to reproduce or publish in any way any of the content that appears on the Site unless you have first obtained Libraro’s written permission to do so but you may share links for personal, non-commercial purposes, but always in accordance with these Terms. In some limited circumstances, Libraro may choose to permit the reproduction or publication of content. Apart from that, none of the content on the Site may be republished, posted, transmitted, stored, sold, distributed or modified without Libraro’s prior written consent and any use without consent may constitute an infringement of the holder’s rights. In any case, you are not in any circumstances permitted to:
- make commercial use of any such content;
- edit any such content; or
- remove, obscure or otherwise tamper with any copyright and proprietary notices that relate to or are contained within the content.
Where permitted authorised to share, Libraro and, if relevant the author, must always be acknowledged.
The intellectual property rights in the manuscripts and other works submitted by you to the Site (“manuscripts”) remain property of their owners at all times. By submitting a manuscript to the site and or maintaining it on the Site by not deleting it, you represent and warrant to us that you are the owner, or have full and continuing permission or licence from the owner to submit it to the Site.
The name “Libraro”, our domain Libraro.io (including other variations), the Libraro logo and other materials from time to time are our intellectual property and may be subject to trade marks owned by us. Other trade marks and trade names may also be used on the Site or in the Content. Use by you of any trade marks on the Site or in the Content is strictly prohibited unless you have our prior written permission.
Chapter 6 – Community guidelines
The Libraro platform is a place where book enthusiasts such as authors, readers, and professionals from the publishing ecosystem congregate. It is a platform for discovery, a platform where stories come to life, designed in particular to enable unpublished authors to have their work displayed and available.
To enable discovery, Libraro platform enables users (whether authors or readers) to interact with each other in a social media format. You can comment, like, follow etc. Libraro platform is in its early stages of development and more functionality is being added with time to enrich the user’s discovery of new literary works.
For this reason, freedom of speech is a cornerstone value for us. We will not tolerate any hate speech, harassing, defamatory language or similar language. Any comment or interaction that violates this simple rule will be removed and the person may be blocked from Libraro platform. We also reserve the right to take further action against such individuals in line with applicable law and regulation.
Whilst adult content is allowed to be published on the platform, Libraro draws the line at obscene, offensive, and content that offends moral principles. In particular, we will not allow manuscripts with obscene or pornographic images or illustrations – unless these are in the context of providing educational, historical or documentary evidence, e.g. work on crime investigations etc. In all cases Libraro reserves the right in its sole discretion to not allow or remove a published piece, including banning the author(s), where they cross the line from acceptable adult content into the obscene.
Any commentary and other content posted on Libraro platform or the Site, including for the avoidance of doubt published manuscripts, are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. Libraro therefore disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such content by any visitor to the Site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.
If you believe that any content which is distributed or published by the Site is inappropriate, defamatory or infringing on intellectual property rights, you should contact us immediately using the contact details at the top of this page.
Chapter 7 – Guidelines and rules for publication on Libraro platform
Whilst Libraro platform is intended for discovery of literary talent, the platform is open to any kind of written works. For instance Libraro platform will accept a novel but also a blog, or a scientific paper.
Whilst the main goal is to publish manuscripts, it is acceptable to publish a single poem.
Manuscripts do not have to be complete, for instance it is acceptable to publish one single chapter from a novel. In fact the Libraro platform is designed for such use to enable an author to test reader engagement before publishing the full manuscript and this is a novelty for which the Libraro team is particularly proud of.
Original works
Plagiarists will be banned. Any written works you submit on the Libraro platform must be original. This includes content such as illustrations, pictures, diagrams etc. Where you are not the original author, you must obtain the permission of the person who owns the rights to that original work. For instance, if your manuscript includes pictures (even your own picture), you should obtain the permission of the photographer prior to submitting the manuscript.
Libraro does not accept any works that are the product of, or derived from use of artificial intelligence. This includes, without limitation, text, ideas, characters or specific images generated by or derived from artificial intelligence.
You are responsible that all your work is original and you warrant and undertake to indemnify Libraro if the work you upload infringes the rights of a third party or is the work output of artificial intelligence.
Any submission, permission request and other communication you upload on Libraro platform is at your own risk and Libraro reserves the right to (at its own discretion) retain your submission, permission request and other communication for its records.
Co-authors
Where there is more than one author responsible for the manuscript, the person uploading the manuscript warrants that they have the permission of all related authors to publish the work on Libraro. In such case, the person uploading the manuscript shall be deemed for legal purposes as acting under a full power of attorney to make the upload and enter into a contractual agreement with Libraro on behalf of the other author(s). Subsequently, each of the authors is deemed to be under a contractual agreement with Libraro as if they were the party making the upload and must abide by these Terms.
Content you upload
Whilst we respect free speech, we draw a line when it comes to hate speech, derisive or defamatory content.
Our promise in respect of artificial intelligence
Libraro will not i) use or grant others the right to use the author’s name, voice, likeness, or any other identifying data, or any part of their work in any manner which could help the machine-learning or training, development or operation of generative artificial intelligence technologies and ii) knowingly – without the author’s consent – use or allow the use of generative artificial intelligence in association with the production of the work – for example for purposes of narrating, translating, images, cover design.
Chapter 8 – Author(s) full rights in the manuscript
The author(s) of the original manuscript uploaded retain all the rights in the published work. No ifs no buts. No geographical or language restriction, no ties to a specific agent or a publishing house.
The author(s) are free to remove the manuscript at any time from the Libraro platform or proceed to publish through another digital platform or a traditional publisher at any time without any obligation.
It is not an obligation but in order for the Libraro platform to work at its best, it is best if your work was not published elsewhere prior.
As the Libraro platform is enabled by powerful blockchain technology, at the time a work is published it is recorded on the distributed ledger. This enables third parties such as future agents or publishers (or members of the public) to see the priority of publication.
Author(s) acknowledge(s) and agree(s) that Libraro does not offer editorial services.
Chapter 9 – Author(s) commitment to Libraro
The Libraro platform is customised in such a way that the books with which users engage the most are discovered. We are revolutionary in this sense: the users are the new publishing editors, we have democratised the publishing process by giving a chance to so many amazing authors whose work was previously not paid the right attention by busy publishing editors.
Libraro has well established relationships with top publishers and because Libraro saves such publishers the hassle of filtering through thousands of lengthy manuscripts, those publishers will prioritise any recommendations for publication that Libraro makes.
By uploading a manuscript into the Libraro platform, authors are deemed to enter into a pre-agreement with Libraro for Libraro to act as their non-exclusive publishing agent. By pre-agreement we have in mind a light form agreement such as a “letter of intent” or “memorandum of understanding” which is not obligatory in nature.
Through the pre-agreement in these Terms author(s) grant the right to Libraro to contact publishers on their behalf if we see that your work is engaging readers and shows the right potential for traditional publishing or derivative works such as film, theatre, musical, merchandise etc. This also means that we have the right to contact the author(s) with a subsequent quote.
Beyond that there are no obligations between the parties. If the author(s) are in agreement with quotations or proposals made by Libraro, the parties will enter into a further agreement whereby Libraro shall act as the agent of the author(s), such agreement to be negotiated in good faith.
Chapter 10 – Subscriptions and rewards
Fees
There are no fees for users / readers.
Modest fees apply for the authors to publish in consideration for Libraro to publish their works. Those fees are set out in the Site and are subject to change from time to time.
Tokens
Users will receive tokens when they interact with the Libraro platform, whether as a reader or as an author. Such tokens do not have any face value and cannot be exchanged for cash or traded for other tokens.
Where a work becomes published, the publishing house may agree at their discretion to reward readers and in exchange for tokens provide vouchers, a donation to charity or another form of reward. Such rewards will be totally at the discretion of the publisher and we cannot take any responsibility.
Libraro may wish from time to time to reward top readers and in exchange for tokens provide vouchers, a donation to charity or another form of reward. Such rewards will be totally at our discretion and subject to availability.
After publication of a manuscript, an author may decide to donate tokens their top fan(s). Again this is wholly at the discretion of the authors.
More options with tokens will be added with time as Libraro enhances the platform.
Chapter 11 – Libraro’s liability
The content displayed on the Site and the Platform is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy.
In particular, given that the Libraro platform is open to submissions from anyone in the world and in any languages, we cannot accept responsibility for the contents of the works. We will do our best to ensure that broadly any submissions are original, not done through artificial intelligence and that they are not derisive, defamatory or hate speech and generally will make reasonable commercial efforts to ensure no submissions are in breach of applicable laws. But despite our best efforts, monitoring such a large database will not be possible at all time therefore we disclaim our liability. If for instance you think a work is defamatory or hate speech, please report it to us in the first place via the email address above.
To the extent permitted by law, Libraro and third parties connected to it hereby expressly exclude:
- all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.
- any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with the Site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of the Site, any websites linked to it and any content posted on it, including:
- loss of income or revenue;
- loss of reputation;
- loss of business;
- loss of profits or contracts;
- loss of anticipated savings;
- loss of data;
- loss of goodwill; and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.
This does not affect Libraro’s liability for matters which cannot be excluded or limited such as death or personal injury arising from its negligence, or liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation.
Chapter 12 – Indemnity
You warrant that 1) your work is an original; 2) you have the permission, authorisation or licence from other rights holders, including if applicable any co-author(s), about use of any of their works in conjunction with yours; 3) that none of the work submitted is derived from artificial intelligence or generative tool, and shall fully indemnify and hold harmless Libraro for any losses as a result of breach of these Terms. Where co-authors are involved, each of authors makes the warranty and indemnifies as per this clause.
You agree only to use the Site and Libraro platform in accordance with these Terms. You agree that you will compensate Libraro in full for any damages, losses, costs and expenses, including reasonable legal fees Libraro incurs that arise out of any breach by you of these Terms or any liability Libraro incurs as a result of your use of the Site and Libraro platform.
Book III – the Boring Stuff (which our legal counsel calls boilerplate!)
Chapter 13 – Changes to Libraro platform and Terms
We reserve the right to update Libraro platform regularly. If needed, or required by applicable law and regulation, Libraro may suspend access to the Site and Libraro platform or close it indefinitely. Any of the content on the Site may be out of date at any given time, and Libraro is under no obligation to update such content.
We reserve the right to update these Terms from time to time. Such changes will take effect when published online. Where there are any material changes to the rules and/or the way Libraro platform operates, we may notify you by email.
Chapter 14 – General provisions
Severability
If any part of these Terms is found to be unenforceable as a matter of law, all other parts of these Terms shall not be affected and shall remain in force. For the avoidance of doubt, should these Terms or any part of them be deemed void or voidable, this shall not affect the validity of any licence provided under these Terms.
Entire agreement
These Terms govern our relationship with you and represent Libraro’s entire agreement with you.
Subject to the above, Libraro and you each acknowledge that, in entering into an agreement under these Terms, neither you nor Libraro have relied on any representation, undertaking or promise given by the other or implied from anything said or written in negotiations between you and Libraro prior to such agreement except as expressly stated in these Terms.
Assignment
Libraro may assign any of its rights under these Terms at any time. You may not assign, transfer, sub-license or otherwise dispose of any of your rights under these Terms.
Waiver
If you breach these Terms and Libraro chooses to ignore your breach, Libraro will still be entitled to exercise their rights and remedies at a later date or in any other situation where you breach these Terms again.
Exclusion of third–party rights
These Terms of Use do not create any right enforceable by any person who is not a party to the agreement created by these Terms.
Events beyond our control
We are not liable to you if we fail to comply with these Terms because of circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
Chapter 15 – The Final Chapter (which we hope we never have to make use of)
These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.
The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute in relation to these Terms.
Where consumer law in your jurisdiction provides for the right to bring or defend proceedings in your home state, then such rules may take priority.
Libraro reserves the right to commence legal action against you in the country in which you live or are resident.
Epilogue
We will try to resolve any disputes or complaints with you quickly and efficiently. If you are unhappy with us, please contact us as soon as possible using the contact details set out at the top of this page.
version 1.1 (updated 15 January 2025)
