Terms of Service

1. Acceptance & Eligibility

By creating a PenCanvas account, accessing our manuscript editor, or deploying an author website, you enter into a binding agreement with PenCanvas ("Company," "we," "us").

You must be at least 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction) to enter into contracts and utilize our billing features.

2. Author Intellectual Property Rights & Limited License

Your creative writing is your property. PenCanvas claims zero intellectual property rights over any text, cover images, world-building lore, or reader correspondence you process through the platform.

To deliver our services, you grant PenCanvas a strictly limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license solely to host, back up, transmit, and display your content as instructed by you (e.g. rendering your public website or delivering purchased e-books to your readers). This limited license terminates immediately when you remove your content or delete your account.

3. Subscription Plans & Transparent Billing

PenCanvas offers the Starter ($5/mo or $49/yr), Creator ($15/mo or $149/yr), and Studio ($35/mo or $349/yr) plans. Every person gets one 14-day free trial, with no card required, before choosing a plan.

• Subscriptions renew automatically at the beginning of each monthly or annual billing cycle.
• You may cancel your subscription at any time from Billing in your dashboard, which opens the payment provider's portal, with zero penalty fees. Upon cancellation, your workspace retains active access until the end of your prepaid period.
• We offer a 14-day money-back satisfaction guarantee on all initial paid subscriptions.

4. Direct Book Sales

PenCanvas does not take a commission on direct book sales generated through your author website.

Payments are processed through the Stripe, PayPal or Lemon Squeezy account that you connect. That provider’s fees and its tax handling apply. PenCanvas does not add a surcharge.

5. Author Websites & Custom Domains

When publishing an author website through PenCanvas:

• You may connect custom domain names registered through any registrar.
• Once the DNS records we show you resolve, SSL certificates are issued through Cloudflare.
• You are responsible for ensuring you possess the legal trademark rights to any domain name or author branding you link to our platform.

6. Beta Reader Portal & Confidentiality

Our Beta Reader Hub shares manuscripts through private reading links and shows each reader's email address as a faint watermark on the reading page to discourage leaks. While PenCanvas provides technical security deterrents, the legal enforcement of confidentiality agreements remains between the author and the beta reader.

7. Acceptable Use Standards

We champion artistic freedom and fiction storytelling in all genres, including horror, romance, thriller, fantasy, and sci-fi. However, you agree not to use the platform to:

• Upload malware, trojans, or execute denial-of-service attacks against our edge network.
• Send unsolicited spam emails via the integrated newsletter engine.
• Infringe on third-party copyrights or distribute pirated literary works.
• Publish content that depicts or promotes non-consensual sexual abuse or real-world physical violence against individuals.

8. Portability & Account Closure

You may export your manuscripts (DOCX, EPUB, HTML, and chapters as Markdown or text) and your newsletter subscriber list (CSV) at any time. When you delete your account, your workspace and its content are deleted.

9. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

The platform is provided "as is" and "as available." While PenCanvas keeps revision histories for your chapters, we do not promise uninterrupted availability and we advise authors to retain offline backup exports of milestone drafts. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, PenCanvas shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, or punitive damages arising from platform downtime.

10. Changes & Contact

If we make material changes to these Terms, we will notify registered authors via email at least 30 days prior to the effective date.