Eden Books
TERMS OF SERVICE

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY. THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, AS AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME (“Terms”), ARE A BINDING AGREEMENT (“Agreement”) BETWEEN YOU (“End Users”, “Readers”, “Authors”, “Author Agents”, and “Publishers” as defined below) AND EDEN BOOKS, LLC. (“Eden Books”).

By using the service available at edenbookstore.com and affiliated domains (the “Site”), You agree to the terms governing the applications, features, and functionality available on or through the Site (The “Service”). If you do not agree with the terms contained in this Terms of Service, do not use the service.

About Eden Books – Eden Books operates a self-serve ebook publishing and distribution platform. We also operate the edenbookstore.com store and Eden Books social media platform.  We make it fast, free and easy for authors, publishers, and agents to publish and distribute ebooks.  Although Eden Books provides authors, publishers and agents a platform to publish and distribute ebooks, Eden Books itself is not a publisher, and therefore does not and cannot assume the legal rights, responsibilities or liabilities of a publisher.

Rights and Obligations of Authors, Publishers and Agents – If you upload (publish) a work to Eden Books, you understand and warrant that you are the legal publisher of this work; you control all rights and assume all liabilities associated with the publication of this work; and you warrant and affirm that no aspect of your work infringes or violates the rights of another person, party or entity.   In your role as the author, publisher or agent, you understand you are the publisher of your work, and therefore you or your author are responsible for the writing, editing, formatting and cover design for your book.  As the authorized author, publisher or agent, you are responsible for uploading your book to Eden Books, managing your book’s metadata, and marketing your book.  To the extent, Eden Books provide tools or services to assist in or support any of these publishing activities does not change the fact that you are the legal publisher of this work and Eden Books is acting in the role of publishing platform, retailer, and distributor.

The following describes how users of the Site who review or purchase downloadable digital books (“End Users”) can download material and how they may review or use that work by the person or entity who posted the work (the “Author” or “Publisher”). For the sake of simplicity, this Terms of Service may use the term Author and Publisher interchangeably.    The term “Author’s Agent” refers to the Author’s duly authorized representative, who is fully authorized and empowered to act on behalf of the Author in all matters described in this Agreement, and who may be authorized to collect and receive directly the monies otherwise payable to Author (or “Publisher”).

The following also describes the rights and responsibilities of the Author and Eden Books. Any user of this Site who downloads reads or previews any Work on the Site is referred to as an “End User.”

1.The Grant and the Territory
The Author hereby grants and assigns to Eden Books the non-exclusive worldwide right to digitally publish, distribute, market and sell (“Publish”), the work identified on the front page of your submission (the “Work”). Since the terms of the agreement with Eden Books, herein, is non-exclusive, the Author or Publisher is free to Publish, license, market and sell their work elsewhere so long as the Author or Publisher is not violating someone else’s agreement or violating any laws.

2.Publication.
Eden Books will generally Publish any such submissions which do not violate, or which do not appear to violate the Agreement. Eden Books does not require exclusivity to publish and sell original works, unless an agreement is set between Eden Books and end user (author or publisher). Books enrolled in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program are not allowed to be sold concurrently on Eden Books. Violation of this policy will result in a forfeiture of author revenue from Eden Books and author’s account closed. 

2a. Publication of Work As Is. Generally, Eden Books will Publish Author’s Work as it is delivered to us, and not edit or modify the Work. Certain modifications may occur caused by file or design conversions. Eden Books does not guarantee the accurate preservation of the original Work’s formatting.

2b. Publication at Option of Eden Books. Eden Books may decide not to Publish Author’s work or may decide to discontinue its publication of Author’s work for any reason, and no reason need be provided.  Except in the cases of gross violations of this Terms of Service, Eden Books will make every attempt to provide reasonable notice to the Author via email, up to and including providing instructions on how to remedy potential issues that might prevent Eden Books from listing a title.

2c. How to “Unpublish” Works from Eden Books. Eden Books may Publish the Work until Author of the Work decides to unpublish the work (to unpublish authors MUST complete the “delist book” request form.) If author is unable to access the site, the author may notify Eden Books in writing to remove the Work. After that notice, Eden Books will remove the work from edenbookstore.com within five business days. Please inform Eden Books you have confirmed the book is no longer visible.

2d. Removal of poorly formatted works. It is the Author’s responsibility to upload a fully and properly formatted book. We urge all Eden Books authors not to waste the time of readers or Eden Books with poorly formatted works.

2e. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in published works. Eden Books strongly discourages the use of artificial intelligence in content or cover creation of published works on the site. If AI is used in the creation of said work, the author MUST disclose the percent of the content or cover in which AI was used (from 0.0001% to 100%). This disclosure should take place within the BLURB of the book. Should an author fail to disclose this information, Eden Books reserves the right to remove the published work from our website and close the author account. Additionally, the author will forfeit all profit earned from sales of the published work and will be required to refund Eden Books immediately.

3.Infringement.

3a. Removal of Infringing or Defamatory Work of Author. Eden Books takes claims of infringement seriously and may take immediate action upon notice from someone claiming to be an Infringed party. Generally, upon receipt of a written notice from a party infringed or defamed by Author’s material (or someone purporting to be his agent, publisher, attorney in fact or assign), Eden Books will remove the Author’s Work and reserves the right to remove any and all information about the Author, the Author’s Work or the publisher from the Site.

3b. Infringement by Others Upon Author’s Work. If an Author or copyright holder learns that a third party is violating Author’s copyright or pirating or illegally distributing an Eden Books-published work, the Author shall inform Eden Books; however, it is the Author’s responsibility to seek relief from the offending parties. If that work is published on Eden Books, Eden Books will remove it per section 3a above.

3c. Rights Clearances and Other Legal Matters. It is Author’s responsibility to secure permissions to the Work prior to the time Author submits such work if any material from the work belongs to, or has been licensed to, someone else.

4.Copyright. The copyright in the Work shall belong to the Author or the party that Author cites as the copyright holder. The author shall be solely responsible for filing its copyrights and any other intellectual property with the appropriate governmental body. It is the Author’s responsibility to place a copyright notice on the copyright page or some other prominent place in the Work.

5.Formats of Digital Conversions. The author shall submit their Work as an Epub file.

6.Royalties. So long as the proper copyright protection subsists in the Work, no infringement notices have been filed, and revenues directly attributable to the Work are being collected by Eden Books, the Author and/or publishing party shall be entitled to the following payments:

6a. Royalty Rates. For retail sales that originate at edenbookstore.com, Eden Books pays authors/publishers seventy percent (70%) of the net proceeds from all sales (see 6b below for clear definition of “net”).  Authors and publishers can control retail prices from the Eden Books Dashboard.

6b. Electronic Editions. Eden Books agrees to pay the Author or Publisher (whoever uploaded the content) up to seventy percent (70%) of net proceeds received by Eden Books through the sale or licensing of your work (“List Price”). “Net proceeds” shall mean sales price paid , including discounts to Orchard Members, Eden Books representatives, and/or other sales set by Eden Books. Effective December 2022, authors instantly receive 70% of the net commission received from purchases. Authors can monitor their sales, gross sales, and payments via the Author Dashboard. PayPal is the only method available for author payouts. Eden Books will not payout commission payments via direct deposit or paper check.

6c. Free Copies. As administrator of your work, Author may use the Eden Books platform to distribute complimentary copies of the work, or personally email free files to people, even when you are generally charging a fee.

6d. Promotional Rights. Eden Books shall have the right to distribute samples of the Work in any form of media, including printed media, as well as reviews or online comments of the Work, whether such comments are made on the Eden Books platform or via social media, in order to promote (a) the author or author’s Work and/or (b) the Eden Books service. These samples will be licensed for free, non-commercial use, duplication and sharing, and will comply with the sample authorized by the Author.

6e. Crawlable or Other Searchable Rights. Eden Books shall have the right to drive traffic to the Author’s Work on the Eden Books Site through (a) general Search Engine Optimization services (b) crawlable, promotional hypertext links or (c) arrangements with third parties which make searchable certain sample portions of the Work.

6f. Other Subsidiary Rights. Other than stated above, Eden Books, in its current version, shall only Publish electronic versions of the Work, and keeps no other subsidiary rights to the Work including hardcover or paperback editions, audio editions, multimedia editions, theatrical editions, first and second serial rights or media rights other than the electronic version distributed on our Site. Therefore, if another publisher will allow you to keep electronic rights to the Work, you may continue to Publish the Work electronically while publishing a printed version of the Work with a print publisher. These rules are subject to change from time to time, upon electronic or other notice to the End-users and any other users.

7. Author-Controlled Terms. The Site allows Author to control pricing, sampling rights and output formats. Eden Books may extend author control in the future.

8.Statements and Payments of Author Royalties:
Although Eden Books will refer in this agreement to “Royalties” for the sake of simplicity, payments to authors and publishers in the eyes of the IRS are usually considered “other income.”

Effective December 2022, authors instantly receive 70% of the net commission received from purchases. Authors can monitor their sales, gross sales, and payments via the Author Dashboard. PayPal is the only method available for author payouts. Eden Books will not payout commission payments via direct deposit or paper check. Authors opting to delete their accounts MUST contact Eden Books a minimum of FIVE (5) business days prior to deletion. Once an account is removed, all information associated with the account is deleted.

Payment is ONLY PayPal. Eden Books will NOT issue a paper check or via direct deposit. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure their payment settings are complete and accurate, otherwise, payments may be delayed until the issue is resolved and verified.  PayPal users, for example, must open and maintain of their own account at PayPal prior to providing their PayPal address to Eden Books in the Eden Books Payment Settings page.  It is the responsibility of the author to provide a PayPal address that can accept payments.  For example, PayPal will not allow Eden Books to remit payments to PayPal accounts in Nigeria. If accrued author’s, agent’s or publisher’s aggregate earnings are less than the one penny threshold for PayPal, Eden Books will delay payment until the total earnings due meet the threshold. If Eden Books overpays earnings, such as in cases when fraudulent or unauthorized purchases are charged back to Eden Books after earnings payments are made, then Eden Books will invoice author or author representative for amount owed. The author (or agent or publisher) agrees to remit a payment back to Eden Books within 20 days of notification to adjust the over payment. Sales transacted at the edenbookstore.com website are reported in real time. Note that most daily sales reports from sales channels are not yet final and are best utilized for trend analysis purposes only.

8a. Tax withholding: The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires Eden Books to collect tax certifications from all authors and publishers and withhold all required taxes. All authors and publishers must complete the online Form W-9, Form W-8BEN or Form W-8BEN-E before royalty payments can be made.  For US residents and US businesses, Eden Books requires a valid SSN or EIN, and US postal mailing address. If US-based authors and publishers do not provide valid tax id information, then the IRS requires Eden Books to withhold 28% of earnings which Eden Books must remit to the IRS within days of transacting the payments to authors/publishers. For authors and publishers outside the US, the automatic withholding rate is 30%. Many countries have tax treaties with the United States that entitle residents and businesses located in these countries to receive either partial or full exemption from the 30% tax withholding. To qualify, authors and publishers should find out if their country has a tax treaty with the US. If a tax treaty is in effect, the author or publisher may be required to provide their US ITIN/EIN or their foreign tax identification number.   For foreign authors and publishers, the Form W-8BEN and Form W-8BEN-E are valid for three (3) years only after which a new form will need to be submitted.   Learn more and find the links to the appropriate tax forms by visiting the “Payment and Tax Information” page found under the “Author Links” tab on the homepage main menu.

8b.  Account security:  As an author, publisher or agent, you are responsible for controlling access to your Eden Books account.  When you sign up for an Eden Books account, you will provide Eden Books an email address and a password as your login credentials.  By publishing with Eden Books, you acknowledge your responsibility to choose a secure email/password combination, and it is your responsibility to keep this email/password combination private and secure and to update your password as needed to maintain account security.  Eden Books cannot be held responsible if authors use insecure email/password combinations that allow cyber criminals to log into their account to steal author earnings. Although Eden Books has implemented multiple security layers to reduce the likelihood of such attacks, such attacks cannot be reliably prevented in the future unless authors use secure email/password combinations. We advise all Eden Books users to follow these best practice precautions to maintain secure control over their Eden Books accounts:  1.  The email/password combination you provide to Eden Books must be unique; do not use the same password at Eden Books that you have ever used at any other website, because if that site was ever hacked you can assume that cyber criminals may decide to use those same login credentials to access your Eden Books account.  2.  In addition to choosing a unique password that you’ve never used elsewhere, choose a password that cannot be guessed.  Avoid using easily guessable phrases, or short passwords that are words only.  Consider using a password management app or tool that can generate and manage unique and robust passwords that are impossible to guess.  3.  Monitor your Eden Books payee settings and alert Eden Books immediately if you detect any unauthorized modifications to your payee name, your payee mailing address or to your PayPal payment address.  4.  If you regularly receive weekly Eden Books payments but then suddenly a payment goes missing, and then upon checking your payment settings you discover your payment was redirected to someone else without your authorization, contact Eden Books immediately so we can try to help you recover the funds.  Although we cannot guarantee recovery once the funds have left Eden Books, we will take all reasonable measures to help you.  5.  To learn if any information such as previously used passwords attached to your email address has been known to be stolen elsewhere on the internet, a good free service (operated by a former Microsoft employee) can be accessed at https://haveibeenpwned.com/.  Most email addresses will turn up in that database, the fact of which underscores the critical importance for Eden Books authors and publishers to choose and use a unique and secure password at Eden Books.  6.  As the author or publisher, your account is tied to your email address.  If you need to change or update your email address, it is your responsibility to contact Eden Books to change the email so that you can maintain control and security over your account.  To contact Eden Books and request an email address change, click on the “contact” link in the footer of the homepage to reach service team and request Eden Books update your email account.  For your security, Eden Books will send an email receipt confirming the change to the new email address and the old email address.

9.Author and Publisher Warranties. The warranties and representations contained in this Agreement extend to the Author and its licensees and successors and assigns. By uploading content to Eden Books, you agree that any violation of the warranties below may result in immediate closure of your account and the forfeiture of accrued earnings.

9a. By submitting Your Work to Eden Books for publication, you, warrant that you are the author or exclusive publisher or designated author or publisher agent and you warrant and represent that the work (the book) is complete and the author:

• is the only author of the Work;
• is the sole owner of the rights herein granted;
• has not assigned, pledged, or encumbered such rights or have not entered into any agreement which would conflict with the rights granted to Eden Books herein; and agrees not to do any of the aforementioned without first unpublishing the work at Eden Books
• has full right, power, and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the rights granted herein.
  the content you are uploading to Eden Books meets the definition of “a book” or a complete short story

9b. You further warrant that the Work contains no materials which:
• violate any right of privacy which is libelous or violate any personal right or other right of any kind of any person or entity (this includes publishing a person’s private email address without their permission);
• would violate any of Your contracts or would disclose any information given to You on the understanding that it would not be published or disclosed;
• plagiarize or pirate any other work or infringe upon any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right;
• Are injurious to End-Users or others including but not limited to recipes, formulae or instructions
• are defamatory to any person or entity
• violate the publicity rights of another person or entity
• violate state and federal laws.
• advocates hateful, discriminatory or racist views or actions toward others
• advocates or condones violence against another person, whether or not the other party is a willing participant
• advocate illegal activities
• advocates the use of Private Label Rights (PLR) content to make money on the Internet, or the modification of such content for the creation of Internet content
• contain images or illustrations depicting individuals perpetrating graphic violence upon another individual or individuals
• contain hyperlinks to affiliate marketing pages, especially if the ebook is published for the sole intent of publishing hyperlinked content that directs readers to affiliate marketing pages
• advocate or promote “systems” about how to make money on the Internet by publishing ebooks
• advocate or promote “get-rich-quick” schemes and systems
• contains SEO keyword spam, either in your manuscript or your metadata tags
• contains advertisements for products or services, or is intended to act as an advertising or upselling vehicle for products or services
• contains incomplete information and prompts the reader to access external resources or services that require registration or payment
• is an incomplete book for the purpose of promoting the purchase of the complete book elsewhere or on Eden Books.  Books priced at FREE are held to this same standard.
• makes false, misleading or inaccurate claims or promises in the book or book description
• is not the same book you previously published at Eden Books, then republished as a new book for the sole purpose of having it appear as a new book again. You must upload all new versions of previously published Eden Books books via the Dashboard’s “add new product”.
• use deceptive metadata designed to trick customers to think they’re purchasing one author’s book when they’re actually purchasing another.  For example, creating and using a pen name such as, “Twains Mark” in an attempt to mislead readers searching for books from “Mark Twain.”

9c. You further warrant the book meets the following standards for originality:
• this is not a public domain work;
• the book does not include word-for-word scrapes – or is not a compilation –  from Wikipedia or other public domain, government or commercial services;
• your books do not and will not appear elsewhere on the Internet authored by people other than yourself or by pen names (pseudonyms) different from your pen name at Eden Books;
• none of your book content, either in part or in its entirety, is sourced from “Private Label Rights” articles (a.k.a. “PLR“), article “spinners,” books rewritten from PLR, or ebooks or information sources which license the same content to other people;
• you’re not uploading generic, undifferentiated works (such as “101 Household Cleaning Tips”).  If it’s not 100% original, or if it looks like PLR, it’s not allowed on Eden Books.
• does not contain or comprise machine-generated language translations (all translated books must be human-translated and edited, not translated by language translation software such as Google Translate).

9d. You further warrant the book represents a complete work:
• this is not an unfinished work-in-progress;
• the uploaded file is not a partial sample or sample chapter, or is not a collection of sample chapters, or not simply a catalog advertising other books or products
• the work is complete and self-contained, and does not try to upsell the user to purchase, or register for, access to information that should have been contained in the book;
• the title meets the definition of “book” or “story.”  Short incomplete ramblings or works that read more like brochures than books are not allowed.
• the uploaded book represents a complete story with a beginning, middle and end.  Exception: Serials are allowed.  Each serial cover image should be different, even if the only difference is a notation on the cover image about the serial’s position or episode number in the series.  To avoid customer confusion, we recommend it should be clearly identified as a serial in the book description and the serial episodes should be tagged during upload.

9e. Accuracy of Payment Settings page information
When you establish your account at Eden Books, you will complete the payment information section which collects information to satisfy IRS-mandated tax compliance requirements.

• You acknowledge it is your responsibility to keep your payment information section updated with accurate information.
• You acknowledge that incorrect information may prevent or delay royalty payments.
• You acknowledge it is strictly prohibited to knowingly enter false information when certifying your tax status.  Deliberate attempts to subvert IRS rules and regulations – by entering false information to gain preferential tax treaty status or reduced tax withholdings – may lead to immediate account closure and forfeiture of earnings.

9f. Special guidelines for erotic literature:
Eden Books always allows a wide range of erotic literature and is a strong industry advocate to protect the ability of authors and publishers to publish legal erotica, and for readers to enjoy it. Erotic literature authors and publishers are held to all the requirements listed above and below in the Eden Books Terms of Service.  For the benefit of our erotica authors and publishers, we’ve created this special breakout section in the ToS to provide additional guidance unique to erotic literature.  We understand that there are many gray areas when it comes to erotic content, so any attempt to define black and white policy is fraught with risk that our policies might be unevenly or inconsistently applied.  In the spirit of providing the greatest possible transparency, we define what we can define.  These extra guidelines below are intended to help authors and publishers maximize the distribution of their erotic content; help avoid crossing lines that would be detrimental to their publishing and/or detrimental to their fellow community of professional erotic writers; and avoid publishing content that would be detrimental to their relationship with retailers, library partners and Eden Books.  These guidelines are subject to change.  As you’ll see below, a few taboo categories have been identified as allowed at this time.  These categories should be considered “under watch” and subject to additional review scrutiny or removal, and subject to future policy changes due to legal or business considerations, or subject to policy change if too many of the publishers in these discouraged categories push the limits of acceptability, or subject to individual title or publisher removal if an individual publisher publishes high volumes of this discouraged content or pushes other limits of acceptability.  If you believe your titles were removed in error, please contact the Eden Books Support team by emailing the support team address below and request a reevaluation.  These guidelines will be enforced at the sole discretion of Eden Books.  Thank you for your understanding as we work to preserve the greatest level of publishing freedom for our professional erotic writers and publishers.

• Neither the book cover nor the book interior of erotic content may contain graphic images of nudity (either photographic or illustrated; no genitalia or female bare breasts with nipples; or persons involved in sexual acts (oral or penetrative intercourse)
• Erotica authors and publishers must categorize their books under erotica. Failure to do so may face book removal and/or account termination at the sole discretion of Eden Books.
  
• Authors who publish erotica and romance categorized under “erotica and taboo” are required to provide supplemental categorization information related to certain taboo themes.  Authors and publishers who fail to provide this information, or who knowingly and/or deliberately miscategorize their works in an effort to subvert the collection of this information, may face book removal and/or account termination at the sole discretion of Eden Books.
• Eden Books recommends that book descriptions and titles for erotic literature should be kept to a rating of “R.”  Excessive profanity in book descriptions may lead to further scrutiny and review, or blocked distribution or removal from Eden .
• Eden Books has a zero-tolerance policy for underage erotica (characters under age 18).   Underage erotica is strictly forbidden, and the upload of such will lead to immediate account termination.  In erotic literature, children or underage minors cannot be engaged in sexual acts or situations, bear witness to such situations, be shown considering sexual acts, or be shown thinking about sexual acts.
• “Barely legal” erotica is strongly discouraged, and is subject to additional review and may be removed without notice at the sole determination of Eden Books, especially if characters are in situations – or have mannerisms – that suggest that the characters are actually underage.
• Rape erotica and sexual slavery erotica, where the predominant theme is rape violence for titillation, is strongly discouraged, and is subject to additional review and may be removed at the sole determination of Eden Books. Note that erotic BDSM fiction that adheres to BDSM best practices, where all role-playing is consensual with safe words, is allowed and not to be confused with rape or sexual slavery erotica.
• Scat, snuff and necrophilia erotica is prohibited.
• Bestiality erotica is prohibited.
• Incest and pseudo-incest (sexual relations among non-biologically related relatives and siblings) erotica is allowed. Books with incestuous relationships MUST be categorized in erotica.
• Authors are encouraged to contact Eden Books for clarification as needed because failure to comply shall result in the removal of the book and/or account from Eden Books

9g. Special guidelines for Dubious Consent, Non Consent, Graphic Violence, or Sexual Assault:
Books and stories that contain dubious consent, non consent, graphic violence, or sexual assault must be listed in the TRIGGER WARNING field and tagged accordingly. Additionally it is strongly encouraged that the words “dubious consent, non consent, graphic violence, or sexual assault ” be posted in the blurb, description, and/or other areas on the product page that amply alerts readers to the content within. Authors are encouraged to contact Eden Books for clarification as needed as failure to comply shall result in the removal of the book and/or account from Eden Books.

10. End Users. “End-Users” include authors, publishers, and customers. Customers are those who pay whichever fee is set by the Author to purchase or download a Work. Customers are allowed to use each copy of the Work for their personal enjoyment in any reasonable non-commercial manner in compliance with copyright law and pursuant to this Agreement.

10a. Rights of Use. 
1. Purchased works: As End User, you acknowledge that all Work furnished by Eden Books is licensed for the use of the End Users of the Site and may not be sub-licensed or resold. If you purchase a work, you hold a non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-distributable right of use. In other words, you are free to enjoy it for your own use, but you are not authorized to share, sell, or distribute the work to others.

2. End User (“Customer” or “Reader”)Technology: It is the responsibility of the End User aka Reader to understand the technology (mobile e-reader devices and apps) they chose to use to read published works. It is also the Reader’s responsibility to keep technology current and updated. Eden Books will assist the reader to the best of our ability to access the purchased material(s). Eden Books is not responsible for readers unable to load books to technology. As such, Eden Books will not refund purchased materials due to readers inability to work their chosen technology (mobile e-reader devices and apps). 

3. Free works including sample works: Free works and sample works published at Eden Books are the copyrighted material of the author or publisher, and therefore are not authorized for redistribution without prior written consent from Eden Books.  Third parties are not authorized to download, host and otherwise redistribute Eden Books books without prior written agreement from Eden Books.  Directory services and affiliate marketers may reproduce the metadata information found on each book’s book page (cover image, book description, price, etc.) provided hyperlinks direct visitors to the Eden Books book page, and provided users are not charged for access to these listings, and are not required to register their personal information to gain access to these listings.

10b. Fees and Services. By using the Site the End User ebook customer is agreeing to pay the fees as presented by Eden Books and set by the Author or Publisher at the time of purchase. The Author sets the price for their individual Works. End User will have an opportunity to review and accept the fees for the purchase End User is requesting prior to payment. All purchases are final and non-refundable. The Site may change pricing policies and fees for services we provide at any time from time to time and changes shall be effective immediately. Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in U.S. Dollars. You are responsible for paying all fees and applicable taxes associated with your use of the Site.

10c. Author, Publisher and Customer Conduct. Eden Books and its users work together to keep the Site working properly. Please report problems and policy violations to Eden Books. The warranties and representations contained in this Agreement extend to End Users and other licensees and successors and assigns of Eden Books. While using the Site, Services or Work, End Users agree to not:
• violate any laws, third party rights, or any policies which we have posted on the Site from time to time;
• upload any material which violates this Terms of Service;
• use the Site, Service or Work if you are not able to form legally binding contracts, are under the age of 18, or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from our Site;
• circumvent or manipulate our fee structure or the billing process;
• use robots, spiders, shills or other methods in an attempt to unfairly game the site’s ranking systems for downloads, reviews, and sales, or hire others to do the same
• engage in advertising, marketing, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes or money laundering involving or using the Work from the Site;
• use Eden Books book reviews for any other purpose other than to leave a legitimate book review, i.e. marketing or advertising other products or services, or using reviews as a method of contacting authors
• distribute viruses, malware or any other technologies that may harm Eden Books or the interests or property of Eden Books users;
• copy, modify, or distribute content from the Site, or Eden Books’ copyrights and trademarks;
• engage in abusive or profane behavior toward Eden Books, its employees, its authors, fellow users or retail partners; or
• threaten Eden Books or Eden Books retail partners with legal action due to inaccurate book listings or failure to remove books in a timely manner.

Without limiting other remedies, we may limit, suspend, or terminate the Eden Books member accounts, revoke earnings, prohibit access to our Site, demand return or destruction of any Work improperly taken or used from the Site or Service and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the Site if we think that they are creating problems or legal liabilities, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies.

Eden Books reserves the right to allow or deny any user (author or end user) or publication on the site for any reason, at any time, without notification or justification.

11.You acknowledge and agree that the Eden Books Site and Service are proprietary to Eden Books and that the Work is proprietary to the Author; that none are proprietary to End User.

12. Termination. Either party may terminate this Agreement at any time without notice. Registered Eden Books members may cancel their membership at any time, and published Eden Books authors may unpublish their book listings at any time.  However, purchased books will not be removed from customers’ accounts.

13. Indemnification.

13a. General. You (Author, Publisher or End User) agree to indemnify and hold Eden Books and its licensees, successors and assigns, and its and their distributors, customers, officers, directors, members, employees and agents, harmless against any expense (including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys’ fees and disbursements) or judgment, settlement or other liability arising out of any claim or legal proceeding asserting claims contrary to any warranty or representation made by You in this Agreement.

13b. Notice of Claim. Upon receiving notice of any claim, demand, action or suit or other legal proceeding alleging facts inconsistent with or contrary to any of the warranties or representations contained in paragraph 10, Eden Books shall have the right to withhold any sums payable to the Author in reasonable amounts as security for the payment of the Author’s potential obligations pursuant to the indemnity contained in this paragraph 13. It is intended that the right granted by this subparagraph 13b shall not be unreasonably or frivolously exercised by the Eden Books.

14.Disclaimer of Publisher’s Warranties.

14a. DRM, Piracy and the “Trust” System. Eden Books is a strong proponent of author’s rights, and the right of authors and copyright owners to receive compensation for their digitally published Works. Therefore, Eden Books strongly discourages infringement of Author Work and encourages customers to purchase licensed copies. However, Eden Books does not publish works containing digital rights management schemes that limit the customer’s ability to consume Author’s Work as they see fit. Therefore, Eden Books cannot completely prevent piracy/infringement of Author’s Work (the reality of the matter is that even DRMed content can be reproduced and pirated, just as easily as a printed book can be scanned and digitized). When Author lists the Work on Eden Books you are trusting the consumer to honor your legal copyright and abide by the licensing terms you set. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that DRMed Works do not sell as well as non-DRMed Work because customers resent limitations and don’t appreciate being mistrusted. Non-DRMed Works often outsell DRMed Works by leveraging the viral nature of uninhibited sampling and sharing which can dramatically increase your total audience and sales opportunities. There is also evidence that by pricing your Works for less than printed equivalents, you can further decrease piracy and increase sales volume. You understand that Eden Books is distributing the Works according to this so described Trust system.

14b. Events Voiding Warranty. Eden Books does not warrant the (a) defects caused by failure to provide a suitable installation environment for the Product, (b) damage caused by disasters such as acts of God, wars, riots, strikes, terrorism, governmental restrictions, fire, flood, wind, and lightning, (c) damage caused by unauthorized attachments, modifications or mis-configurations to the Eden Books Environment, or (e) any other abuse or misuse by Author or the End-Users. Any breach of the End-User License Agreement by or on behalf of an End-User, including, without limitation, unauthorized modification or distribution of the Product or any portion thereof, will void any and all warranties.

14c. WARRANTY DISCLAIMER. All Works and the Service is provided to End Users “AS IS” and “WITH ALL FAULTS.” THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE SELECTION AND USE OF THE EDEN BOOKS SERVICE OR ANY MODIFICATIONS THERETO OR THE WORK IS WITH AUTHOR AND END-USERS. EDEN BOOKS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE PRODUCT OR MODIFICATIONS WILL MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF END-USERS. TO THE EXTENT THAT EDEN BOOKS MAY NOT, AS A MATTER OF APPLICABLE LAW, DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, THE SCOPE, AND DURATION OF SUCH WARRANTY SHALL BE THE MINIMUM PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.

14d. LIMITATION ON DAMAGES. IN NO CASE SHALL EDEN BOOKS BE LIABLE TO AUTHOR OR END-USERS, OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY, FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND. IN NO CASE SHALL EDEN BOOKS BE LIABLE FOR ERRORS OF ANY KIND THAT RESULT IN SHIPMENT OR AVAILABILITY DELAYS, MISPRICINGS, OR INACCURATE OR INCOMPLETE PRODUCT LISTINGS.  It is the Author/Publisher’s responsibility to monitor retailer listings and report errors to Eden Books, in which case Eden Books on a best efforts basis will strive to work with the retailer to correct the error.  In the event that Eden Books is found liable for any damages related to retailer listings, for any reason whatsoever, Author hereby expressly agrees that in no event will Eden Books’ liability to Author exceed the amounts collected by Eden Books for the Author’s book in question.  Furthermore, as outlined in section 8b above, in no event can Eden Books be held liable for damages or lost earnings caused by the author/publisher’s failure to maintain robust and secure account login credentials.

15. MISCELLANEOUS.

15a Entire Agreement. This Agreement is the entire agreement between the parties concerning the subject matter hereof.

15b Governing Law; Severability. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the substantive laws of the State of Florida. If any portion of this Agreement is held invalid, the parties agree that such invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Agreement.

15c No Agency. No agency, partnership, joint venture or other joint relationship is created hereby.

15d Legal Action. The venue for all purposes hereunder shall be in Alachua County, Florida, and the parties hereto hereby consent to such jurisdiction and venue. If any action or other legal proceeding relating to this Agreement or the enforcement of any provision of this Agreement is brought against any party hereto, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs, and disbursements (in addition to any other relief to which the prevailing party may be entitled).

15e Acknowledgement. By using the Service you acknowledge that you have read this Agreement, understand it and will be bound by its terms and conditions.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have executed this Agreement as of the date and the year upon which the Author first approved such Terms of Service.

Spam Policy and Enforcement
Eden Books authors are prohibited from promoting their works via spam email (sure signs of spam: false “senders” or “reply to” addresses, inoperable or nonexistent unsubscribe/remove options, multiple receipts of the same email, superfluous text designed to confuse spam filters, and misleading subject lines). Eden Books authors who are found to be spamming will risk termination of their account, removal of their works and forfeiture of accrued earnings. If you believe you have been the recipient of a spam email from an Eden Books author, please forward the entire email message, with full headers on, to Robyn Crawford of Eden Books at robyn at edenbooks dot org.

Eden Books Email Policy
Eden Books does not engage in spam, nor does it share, rent or sell the personal contact information of its members with third parties.

As part of the signup process for Eden Books, you must give Eden Books permission to contact you via email. This is necessary for us to perform our service for you.  For example, if you purchase an ebook, we need to email you a receipt. If you publish a book, we need to inform you of your book’s status and of new marketing opportunities.

Eden Books is committed to honoring your trust, your time and your interests by limiting the frequency of communications to a reasonable level, ensuring that communications are relevant to your expressed interests, and ensuring you always have the ability to opt out of communications.

Eden Books sends various email communications to authors and publishers who publish books and to customers who purchase books. These email alerts may include purchase confirmations; review reminders; occasional service updates; book status updates; notifications of merchandising and promotional opportunities for authors, and alerts which provide readers opt-in notification of new book releases from their favorite authors; or other forms of email communications. Eden Books may introduce new categories of alerts or discontinue prior alert categories without advance notice.

In all cases, Eden Books will endeavor to honor the time and interests of our members.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Notice Policy
Eden Books is a retailer and does not own the works uploaded to Eden Books. When authors, agents or publishers upload material to Eden Books, they certify to Eden Books their agreement to this Terms of Service, in which they certify they are legally permitted to upload such works. Allegations of copyright violations against Eden Books authors, agents and publishers are extremely rare. Nevertheless, Eden Books maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding copyright infringement and we welcome infringed parties to notify us if they believe their material is being distributed by Eden Books.

If you feel that content posted on the Eden Books Site infringes on your copyright(s), please immediately contact the Eden Books support team by emailing support at edenbooks dot org.

If Eden Books takes action in response to an infringement notice, it will make a good faith attempt to contact the party that made such content available by means of the most recent known email address.

To help us help you, infringement notices should include; (1) An electronic signature and full name, address, phone number and email address of the copyright owner and the person authorized to act on their behalf; (2) An identification of the copyright claimed to have been infringed; (3) the location and nature of the content that Infringed party claims to have infringed upon its copyright, in sufficient detail to permit Eden Books to identify that content, such as a direct hyperlink to the infringing book listed at Eden Books; (4) hyperlinks, if available, to the original author’s (the infringed party) work to help Eden Books investigate and support your case; (5) and a statement by the Infringed: (a) that you believe in good faith that the use of the content that you claim to infringe your copyright is not authorized by law, or by the copyright owner or such owner’s agent; (b) under penalty of perjury, that all of the information contained in your Infringement Notice is accurate, and (c) a statement that you are either the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.

Upon receipt of a written notice from a party infringed or defamed by Author’s material (or someone purporting to be his agent, publisher, attorney in fact or assign), Eden Books may remove the Author’s Work and reserves the right to remove any and all information about the Author, the Author’s Work or the Publisher from the Site. Eden Books may allow corrected or legally vetted versions of the purportedly infringing or defamatory Work to be posted again, (1) with a stipulation between the parties that they have resolved their dispute, (2) a court order or (3) a certification by an independent attorney in whose professional opinion states that in the current version, the infringing material of which the purportedly infringed party has complained has been removed from the Work.

Privacy Policy
Eden Books has strict policies to protect the privacy of Eden Books authors, publishers, and customers.  By using Eden Books, you agree to the collection and use of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.  This Privacy Policy informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of information including personal data and other information that is collected from or provided by our users. The privacy policy is clearly linked at the bottom of every Eden Books web site page. Click here to read the policy.

Thank you for reading. Contact Eden Books  if you have questions or comments.

Eden Books Corporate Office Address:
Eden Books, LLC
19514 NW 78 Avenue
Alachua, Florida 32615

Vendor and Non-Book Products Policy 

By uploading your products to Eden Books for publication, you (“Vendor”), warrant that you are the sole owner of the rights herein granted.  Moreover, Vendor represents and warrants the following to be true and accurate:

• Vendor has not assigned, pledged, or encumbered such rights or have not entered into any agreement which would conflict with the rights granted to Eden Books herein; and agrees not to do any of the aforementioned without first removing the listing for the product at Eden Books
• Vendor has full right, power, and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the rights granted herein.
• The product(s) or listing does not violate any right of privacy which is libelous or violate any personal right or other right of any kind of any person or entity (this includes publishing a person’s private email address without their permission);
• The product(s) or listing does not plagiarize or pirate any other work or infringe upon any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right;
• The product(s) is not injurious to End-Users or others including but not limited to recipes, formulae or instructions;
• The product(s) or listing is not defamatory to any person or entity;
• The product(s) or listing does not violate the publicity rights of another person or entity
• The product(s) or listing does not violate state and federal laws;
• The product(s) or listing does not advocate hateful, discriminatory or racist views or actions toward others
• The product(s) or listing does not advocate or condone violence against another person, whether or not the other party is a willing participant;
• The product(s) or listing does not advocate illegal activities;
• The product(s) or listing does not advocates the use of Private Label Rights (PLR) content to make money on the Internet, or the modification of such content for the creation of Internet content;
• The product(s) or listing does not contain images or illustrations depicting individuals perpetrating graphic violence upon another individual or individuals;
• The product(s) or listing does not contain hyperlinks to affiliate marketing pages;
• The product(s) or listing does not advocate or promote “systems” about how to make money on the Internet by publishing ebooks;
• The product(s) or listing does not advocate or promote “get-rich-quick” schemes and systems;
• The product(s) or listing does not contains SEO keyword spam, either in your manuscript or your metadata tags;
• The product(s) or listing does not contains incomplete information and prompts the purchaser to access external resources or services that require registration or payment;
• The product(s) or listing does not makes false, misleading or inaccurate claims or promises of the product(s);
• The product(s) or listing does not use deceptive metadata designed to trick customers to think they’re purchasing one author’s book when they’re actually purchasing another.  For example, creating and using a pen name such as, “Twains Mark” in an attempt to mislead readers searching for books from “Mark Twain.”

As many of our books are shipped directly from our distributor warehouse, Eden Books can not be held responsible for damaged or missing items. If an order is received damaged, Eden Books will do our utmost to replace the item once proof of damage is received. Please send an email with photographs to our support team.  Replacements or refunds on damaged items will only be considered if proof is received within one week of item being received. In the event we are unable to replace the item, a refund to the original payment method will be issued.

Neither a refund nor a replacement are allowed on “missing” items if the item is shown as delivered.

Refunds will never be issued in the form of a money order or check.

Refund on pre-ordered items

Refunds on pre-ordered e-books are not allowed. Refunds on pre-ordered physical items will only be issued if the request to cancel the pre-order is received within 24 hours of purchase. Pre-ordered items will be automatically refunded in the event our distributor is no longer able to supply the books or if the author cancels the release of the book completely. Please contact our support team for further assistance.

Refund on gift cards

Gift cards are non-returnable and non-refundable for any reason.

Terms of Service updated November 14, 2023