These terms apply once you become an author on Candlelit Stories. They add to the reader terms.
Who can be an author. You must be at least 18. You must give accurate personal details to us and to Stripe, our payment provider, even though readers see only your pen name.
Your work stays yours. You keep the copyright in everything you write. By publishing a novel you give Candlelit Stories a licence to host it, show it to readers, sell access to it, show extracts and the cover for promotion on the platform, and make the technical copies needed to run the service. The licence lasts while the novel is published and for a short period afterwards for backups. Unless you choose exclusivity for a novel, you may publish it elsewhere too. If you choose an exclusive window for a novel (up to 12 months in which it is sold only on Candlelit Stories), the choice is recorded with its date and is locked until the window ends. You may extend it, but you cannot shorten or end it early. After it ends you may sell the novel elsewhere again.
No AI training. We never use your manuscripts, drafts, chapters, notes, covers or any other writing you put on Candlelit Stories to train, fine-tune or test AI models. We do not sell, license or give your writing to anyone for that purpose, and the licence you give us above does not include it. We do not allow others to do it either: our reader terms forbid readers from using the text to train or test AI systems, and the copyright page of every novel reserves the work from AI training and from text and data mining. This promise applies whether or not you use any AI feature, and it stays in force after you unpublish a novel or close your account.
Your promises. You promise that you wrote the novel or hold all rights needed, that it does not infringe anyone's rights, that you have declared the rights status of each novel truthfully, and that it follows the publishing rules. You are responsible for your text, your cover and your pen name.
Review. Every novel is reviewed before it goes live. We may return it with reasons or refuse it. Once approved, we may remove or suspend a novel that breaks these terms or the law.
Publishing fee. A one-time publishing fee per novel is shown before you pay. It covers review and setup and is not refundable.
Prices. Reader prices are set by the platform from the length of the novel, using the price tiers shown on the site. You do not set prices yourself.
Your share. From each sale we take off sales tax and the card processing fee, and then split what remains. Currently you receive 55 percent without a publishing plan and 70 percent with one. The share in force on the day of a sale applies to that sale. Changes apply to later sales, and we will announce them in advance.
Refunds and chargebacks. If a sale is refunded or reversed, your share of it is taken back, including after it has been paid out.
Holding period and payouts. Each sale is held for a short period before it becomes available, to cover refunds and disputes. Payouts are made to your own account through Stripe Connect once your balance reaches the minimum shown in your earnings page. You must finish Stripe's identity and bank checks to be paid. Where we pay automatically, we do so on the weekly payout day to authors who pass the threshold for their plan. Stripe's terms apply to your payout account.
Taxes. You are responsible for declaring and paying the taxes on your income. We report information to tax authorities where the law requires it, for example under the EU rules for digital platforms (DAC7), and we may ask you for tax details.
Referral reward. If the referral programme is switched on, you may receive a reward when an author you referred pays their publishing fee. The reward is a percentage of that fee, becomes available after a waiting period, and is cancelled if the fee is refunded or reversed. We may end the programme, and we may refuse rewards for abuse such as self-referral or fake accounts.
Beta readers. You may share private links to chapters of your own unpublished novel. You decide who gets a link, you can revoke it, and links expire. You are responsible for who you share with. Comments from beta readers are visible only to you.
Comments on your novels. You can hide comments on your own novels. You cannot undo a hide that an administrator has applied.
AI helper. The writing helper is optional and off until you switch it on. If you switch it on, you agree that the text you select for each request is sent to our AI provider to produce suggestions, and only when you press the button. Suggestions are never added to your chapters unless you press Insert. Our provider is not allowed to train its models on this text under its business terms, and we do not use it for training either, as set out in "No AI training" above. You can switch the helper off at any time. Your consent and its date are recorded.
Proof of authorship. When you save a chapter, we record a fingerprint of the text with a date. A fingerprint is a short code, not the text. Fingerprints are kept even if you delete the chapter or your account, so that authorship can be shown later. They cannot be used to read your text.
Leaving. You may unpublish a novel or close your account. Readers who already bought a novel will keep access where possible, unless the novel was removed because of a breach or a legal requirement. Amounts you have earned stay payable to you.
Ending these terms. We may suspend or close an author account for serious or repeated breaches, with a reason, and we will pay what is due unless it is withheld to cover refunds or legal claims.
Changes. If we change these terms, you will be asked to accept the new version before you continue as an author.
Law. Portuguese law applies.