1. Purpose of Membership
Echo Ink Books is building a collaborative literary platform where independent authors can gain visibility, connect with readers, and participate in a larger community of books and storytellers.
A central idea behind the community is the Echo Effect: stories can travel farther when authors and books are discovered through a shared platform rather than promoted entirely in isolation.
2. Approval Required
Submitting author information or an application does not create a membership or guarantee acceptance. Echo Ink Books reviews prospective members and may approve or decline an application based on the fit and needs of the community.
After approval, Echo Ink Books will send payment instructions through Square. Membership begins once the required annual membership payment has been successfully processed, unless otherwise stated in the approval communication.
3. Annual Membership and Automatic Renewal
Echo Ink Books membership is annual. The applicable membership price is disclosed during enrollment or before payment and is not fixed by these Terms.
Unless canceled before the renewal date, membership automatically renews each year at the then-current membership rate. By enrolling, you authorize the annual renewal arrangement disclosed to you during the payment process.
4. Membership Is Not a Publishing Contract
Unless Echo Ink Books and an author enter into a separate written publishing agreement, participation in the membership program does not make Echo Ink Books the publisher of the author’s book.
Authors retain their copyrights, publishing rights, royalties, distribution rights, and ownership of their work.
5. Membership Features
Depending on the membership or service offered, Echo Ink Books may provide features such as an author profile, book listings, book cover display, descriptions and theme information, links to the author’s chosen retailer or sales page, inclusion in website discovery tools, author spotlights, new-release content, themed reading lists, or other community promotional opportunities.
Features may evolve as the Echo Ink platform grows.
6. Author Responsibilities
Authors are responsible for providing accurate information and for maintaining the rights necessary to use all materials submitted to Echo Ink Books, including book titles, descriptions, covers, photographs, biographies, retailer links, publisher information, copyrighted illustrations, trademarks, excerpts, and promotional materials.
Authors should notify Echo Ink Books when important listing information changes.
7. License to Display and Promote Materials
Authors retain ownership of submitted materials. By submitting materials for an Echo Ink Books listing or promotional service, the author grants Echo Ink Books a non-exclusive, worldwide license to display, reproduce, resize, format, excerpt, and promote those materials as reasonably necessary to provide the service.
When membership ends, active membership benefits and listings may be removed. Previously published editorial, social, newsletter, promotional, archival, or historical content may remain available after membership ends. Echo Ink Books is not required to remove previously published content solely because a membership has ended, unless removal is legally required or separately agreed in writing.
8. The Echo Effect and Community Promotion
Echo Ink Books encourages participating authors to support the broader literary community through appropriate sharing, engagement, collaboration, and promotion. Community participation is intended to create opportunities for books to benefit from collective visibility.
Echo Ink Books does not guarantee that any particular author, member, influencer, reader, or community participant will promote another member’s book, nor do we guarantee a specific number of shares, impressions, clicks, followers, reviews, or sales.
9. Sales and Retail Transactions
Unless expressly stated otherwise, Echo Ink Books author listings may direct readers to an author’s designated retailer, distributor, website, or sales platform. When a customer completes a transaction on an external platform, that transaction is governed by the applicable seller or retailer.
10. Optional and Future Services
Echo Ink Books may offer additional services separately from basic membership, including educational programs, self-publishing guidance, promotional services, website services, or other author-support offerings. Additional services may have separate scopes, fees, deliverables, and terms.
11. General Announcements
General Echo Ink Books announcements are separate from required membership communications. Members may affirmatively elect to receive general announcements, which may include author announcements, new books, new articles, new resources, features, and other site additions. General announcements are sent no more than biweekly and may be unsubscribed from at any time.
Ending membership does not automatically unsubscribe a member from general announcements the member previously elected to receive.
12. Cancellation
To cancel an annual membership, email books@echoinkbooks.com with the subject Membership Cancellation.
Cancellation stops the next annual renewal. Unless a refund applies under the Refund Policy, membership benefits continue through the end of the already-paid membership term.
13. Refunds
Initial membership payments and annual renewal payments are eligible for refund requests within 30 days of the applicable payment date, subject to the Refund Policy.
14. No Guarantee of Results
Membership does not guarantee book sales, royalties, reviews, media coverage, retail placement, social media reach, website traffic, search engine placement, publishing contracts, awards, or commercial success.
15. Content Standards
Echo Ink Books reserves the right to decline, suspend, or remove content that violates applicable law, infringes intellectual property rights, contains malicious or deceptive material, or creates significant legal, safety, or operational risk for the platform or community.
16. Suspension or Termination
Echo Ink Books may suspend or terminate membership for material violations of these Terms, fraudulent activity, nonpayment, intellectual property violations, abuse of the platform, or conduct that creates significant legal or operational risk. When reasonable, Echo Ink Books will attempt to communicate with the member before termination.
17. Independent Relationship
Membership does not create an employment relationship, partnership, joint venture, agency relationship, or fiduciary relationship between Echo Ink Books and a participating author. Each author remains responsible for their own business, taxes, publishing arrangements, legal obligations, and intellectual property.
18. Changes to Membership Terms
As Echo Ink Books develops new author services and membership levels, these Terms may be updated. Material changes affecting an existing paid membership will be communicated when appropriate.