What we owe each other.

Direct Press is operated by GenerationIX LLC. “We” and “us” mean that company. “You” means the person using the platform, whether to publish or to read.

You need an account to publish or to buy. You must be old enough to enter a contract where you live, and the details you give us must be accurate. You are responsible for what happens under your account, so keep your password to yourself.

One account covers both reading and publishing. You can close it at any time; see section 10 for what happens to your books and your balance.

You keep the copyright in everything you publish. We do not acquire ownership of your book, and publishing here is not exclusive — you are free to sell the same work anywhere else, at any price, at the same time.

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide licence to store, convert, display, market, and sell your book while it is published here. That licence exists so we can operate the store, and it ends when you unpublish, except for copies already sold and records we must keep for tax and accounting.

By publishing, you confirm that you hold the rights to the work, including any text, images, and translations it contains.

Our content policy is part of these terms. It is drawn around harm to readers, not around opinions: political and religious argument, difficult history, and heterodox positions are welcome. Sexual content, graphic violence, incitement, dangerous instructions, harmful medical falsehoods, and harassment are not.

Every manuscript is screened automatically when submitted. If a book is declined you are told which passages triggered it, and a person will review it on request. Automated screening makes publishing fast; it does not get the last word.

Books written with AI assistance are welcome and carry no penalty. We ask you to disclose it so we can label it for readers.

You set your own list price, subject to a minimum of $2.99. Below that, card processing costs more than the royalty is worth.

You receive 90% of net receipts. Net receipts means your list price less the card processing cost on that sale. Because processing has a fixed component, your share of the list price is typically 85–88% rather than 90% — the exact split is shown on every sale, before you publish and afterwards in your dashboard. We keep 10% of net.

You may change your price at any time. A change applies to future sales only; a book already bought is not repriced.

Royalties accrue to your balance as sales settle. We pay out on the 15th of each month for balances above $25, to the payout method on your account. Balances below the threshold roll forward.

We may need to verify your identity before your first payout. You are responsible for income tax on what you earn; we are not your employer.

We are the merchant of record. Readers buy from us, and we owe you your royalty. That means sales tax, VAT, and GST on the purchase are our obligation rather than yours, and it means your royalty is a debt we owe you rather than money we merely forward.

Readers may request a refund within 14 days, if less than 20% of the book has been read.

When a sale is refunded, the royalty for it is reversed from your balance, along with the card processing fee on that sale. The processor keeps that fee whether or not the sale stands, so a refunded sale costs you slightly more than it earned you — on a $9.99 book you would have received $8.48 and would repay $9.05. Both amounts appear as separate lines in your ledger, so you can always see which is which.

Your balance can never go below zero. If you do not hold enough to cover the fee, we carry the difference. That means a run of refunds cannot leave you owing us money — which matters, because refunds are the one thing on this platform someone else can trigger against your book.

We count refunds per buyer and pause purchasing on an account with an unusual pattern while we look into it.

If a card is charged back, we may reverse the royalty in the same way and may suspend payouts on an account with an unusual pattern of chargebacks while we look into it.

Books are sold DRM-free. When you buy one you may download it, keep it, convert it, and read it on any device you own. You may not redistribute it, resell it, or publish it elsewhere.

We aim to keep your library available indefinitely, but a book may be withdrawn by its author or removed for a policy breach. Download anything you want to be certain of keeping.

We may decline or remove a book that breaks the content policy or infringes someone else’s rights, and we may suspend an account used for fraud or abuse. Where we act, we will tell you why and you may appeal.

We may change these terms. If a change materially affects your rights or your money, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice before it takes effect.

You may unpublish any book at once, from your dashboard. It stops being sold immediately. Readers who already bought it keep their copies, and any royalties you have earned remain payable.

You may close your account entirely. We will pay out any remaining balance on the next cycle and delete your personal data as described in the privacy policy, retaining only what tax and accounting law requires.

The platform is provided as it is. We work to keep it available and correct, but we do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error-free.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, death, or personal injury caused by negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited. Subject to that, our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the greater of the amount we have paid or owe you in the past 12 months and $100.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA, and the state and federal courts located there have non-exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, this does not deprive you of protections you have where you live — including, for readers in the UK or EU, the right to bring a claim in your own country.

Questions about these terms, and copyright complaints including takedown notices: ov@generationix.net.