Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what these Terms cover

Pendrilo is made by Pendrilo, LLC (“we”, “us”). These Terms of Service (“Terms”) cover:

• The Pendrilo programs you install on your computer: Pendrilo Studio, Pendrilo Formatter, Pendrilo Maps, Pendrilo Cover Wrap, Panelhouse, Pendrilo Type and Pendrilo Audiobook Studio, with their updates (the “Programs”);
• The Pendrilo website and your Pendrilo account, including Pendrilo Online: publishing chapters from Studio, beta-reader links, readers’ comments, ARC campaigns, author pages and author mailing lists (the “Online Services”).

Together these are the “Service”. By installing or using a Program, creating an account, or using the Online Services, you agree to these Terms. If you don’t agree, don’t use the Service.

We may add, change or remove features. We won’t take away anything you have already paid for, except as these Terms or the law allow.

2. Beta versions

Some Programs are offered as a beta. A beta is a working, unfinished version: it can have mistakes, and features may change before release. Keep your own copies of important work while you use one (see Section 10).

During the beta, the Programs may be free to use with everything unlocked. When a Program leaves the beta, it may need a paid license for some or all of its features. We will say so on our website and in the Program before that happens. Files you made during the beta stay yours and stay on your computer.

If you send us feedback, suggestions or bug reports, we may use them to improve the Service without owing you anything for them. We will not publish your name or your words without asking you first.

3. Your license to use the Programs

The Programs are licensed to you, not sold. Subject to these Terms, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to install and use each Program you are entitled to, on the number of computers your license allows (shown at checkout or in the Program).

You may not:

• copy, sell, rent, share or redistribute a Program or a license key, except as these Terms allow;
• get around, disable or remove license checks, trial limits or watermarks;
• reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble a Program, except where the law allows it despite this restriction;
• use a Program or the Online Services to break the law or someone else’s rights.

The Programs include open-source components and bundled fonts under their own licenses. Each Program lists them under Help → About. Those licenses apply to those components, and nothing in these Terms limits the rights they give you.

4. Free use, trials, licenses and payments

Free and paid Programs. Some Programs are free. Others need a paid license for full use. Without one, a Program may run as a trial: it may add a visible or audible “trial” mark to what you export, limit some features, or stop some features after a trial period. Each Program shows what its trial includes.

Prices can change. Prices are shown on our website and at checkout, never inside the Programs. We may change a price, or make a Program free, at any time. A price change doesn’t affect a license you have already bought. If you have a subscription, we will tell you before a new price applies to it, and you can cancel before it does.

Who processes payment. Licenses are sold through our reseller, Lemon Squeezy, which acts as the merchant of record. It handles checkout, payment, sales tax and VAT, invoices and receipts, and its own terms apply to your purchase as well. Prices are in U.S. dollars unless checkout says otherwise.

One-time purchases and subscriptions. A license may be a one-time purchase or a subscription. Checkout tells you which, what it includes, and for how long. A subscription renews automatically at the price and frequency shown at checkout until you cancel it. You can cancel through the link in your receipt email or by contacting us. Cancelling stops future charges; you keep using the Program until the end of the period you paid for.

Activating a license. When you enter a license key, the Program contacts Lemon Squeezy to activate it on that computer, and checks in now and then while you are online. If you are offline, the license keeps working for 30 days between check-ins. A Program never locks you out in the middle of a session. To move a license to another computer, deactivate it on the old one, or contact us.

Other license keys. We sometimes issue license files to testers, reviewers and contest winners. These may be limited to certain Programs, a date or one computer, and they can’t be sold or transferred.

30-day money-back guarantee. If you are not happy with a purchase, contact us within 30 days of your first payment for a Program and we will refund it in full. Subscription renewals are not covered. Outside the guarantee, payments are not refundable unless the law requires it. A refunded license stops working.

Revoked keys. If a license key is refunded, charged back, shared publicly or obtained by fraud, we may cancel it. The Programs learn about cancelled keys when they check for updates.

Nothing in this section limits refund, cancellation or other consumer rights that the law doesn’t allow us to exclude.

5. Updates

Each Program checks our website for a newer version when it starts, at most once a day, and when you choose Help → Check for Updates. It shows you what’s new and only downloads and installs an update when you click Update. You can keep using your current version.

Updates may fix problems, add or change features, or apply changes to licensing described in Section 4 (for example, making a Program free).

6. Your work

Everything you make with the Service is yours: manuscripts, chapters, notes, maps, covers, comics, fonts, recordings, audiobooks, and the files you export (“Your Content”). We claim no ownership of it.

On your computer. The Programs save Your Content as files on your own computer. We don’t see them and don’t receive them, unless you choose to send something to us: by publishing through Pendrilo Online, or by attaching a screenshot or crash report to feedback.

On our website. When you publish chapters, book details or a cover through Pendrilo Online, or add content to an author page, ARC campaign or mailing list, you give us a limited license to store, process and show that content only to run the features you chose. That includes showing it to the readers you share it with, and to anyone, for public pages like your author page. The license ends when you remove the content or close your account, except for limited backup copies kept for the time described in our Privacy Policy.

No AI training, no selling. We do not use Your Content to train artificial-intelligence models, and we do not sell it.

Your responsibility. You are responsible for Your Content and for having the rights to use what you put into it, including text, images, music, recordings and fonts that belong to other people.

7. Fonts, samples and print or audio checks

Bundled fonts. The fonts included in the Programs are open-source (mostly the SIL Open Font License). You may use them in books, covers, comics, maps and other work you sell. Their licenses are listed in each Program.

Fonts you make in Pendrilo Type. A font you create from your own handwriting or drawings is yours, and you choose the license written into it. If you start from someone else’s font or lettering, follow that font’s license; Pendrilo Type shows it to you when it can.

Optional downloads. Some features download extra files only when you ask for them, such as the natural voices for Read Aloud in Studio. They come from third parties under their own licenses, which the Program shows you.

Checks and presets are guides. The Programs include tools such as KDP and IngramSpark print presets, spine and bleed calculators, EPUB checks, and ACX checks for audiobooks. They are designed to help your files meet those requirements, but each retailer and distributor decides for itself what it accepts, and its rules can change. We can’t promise that any file will be accepted. Check your proof before you publish.

8. Accounts and the Online Services

You don’t need an account to use the Programs. You do need one for the Online Services.

You must give a real email address you can receive messages at, keep your password private, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what happens through your account and the computers you connect to it. You can disconnect a computer from your account page at any time.

You must be at least 13 to use the Service. If you are under the age of adulthood where you live, you need permission from a parent or guardian. Purchases must be made by someone legally able to pay.

9. Sharing with readers

Beta-reader and ARC links. You can share chapters and books through private links. Anyone who has a link can open it, and readers may pass links on, so share them with care. You can turn a link off or set it to expire.

Your readers. We aren’t part of the relationship between you and your readers. You are responsible for what you share, for answering readers’ comments, and for how you use readers’ information.

ARC campaigns. Advance copies must not be offered in exchange for a review or a rating, and must not ask for a positive one. Follow the review rules of the stores your readers review on.

Mailing lists. Only add readers who signed up to hear from you. Follow the email laws that apply to you, including showing your postal address and honoring unsubscribe requests, which we include for you.

Acceptable use. Don’t use the Online Services to:

• post or share anything unlawful or infringing, or anything that violates someone else’s privacy or rights;
• send spam or messages people didn’t ask for;
• try to get into accounts, data or systems that aren’t yours, or interfere with the Service;
• spread malware or overload the Service with automated access;
• resell access to the Online Services without our written permission.

Writing lawful fiction about mature or difficult subjects is fine.

10. Backups

The Programs autosave and keep earlier versions of your work, and can make backup copies. These are conveniences, not a guarantee. Your files live on your computer, so keep your own backups of important work, for example on a second drive or cloud storage you trust. We can’t recover files that are lost or deleted from your computer.

11. Closing your account, suspension and termination

You can close your account at any time by contacting us. Closing it removes what you published to the Online Services, such as shared chapters and your author page. It does not touch the files on your computer, and it doesn’t cancel a subscription: cancel that separately (Section 4).

We may suspend or close an account, or cancel a license, for a serious breach of these Terms, unlawful activity, fraud, or conduct that harms other people or the Service. When it’s practical and safe, we will tell you first and give you a chance to fix the problem or save your content. Closing an account for a breach does not entitle you to a refund beyond Section 4 or the law.

12. The Service is provided “as is”

We work hard to make the Service reliable, but we can’t promise it will be free of mistakes or always available. The Online Services may be interrupted for maintenance, updates or outages.

To the extent the law allows, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or rights that the law doesn’t allow us to exclude.

13. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Pendrilo, LLC is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, files or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service.

Our total liability for any claim about the Service is limited to the greater of what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

These limits don’t apply where the law doesn’t allow them.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. We will tell you about important changes through the website, the Programs or email before they take effect. Changes don’t take away rights you already paid for, and don’t on their own start a subscription or a charge. If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, the updated Terms apply.

15. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oklahoma, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes will be resolved in the courts there, except where the law gives you the right to bring a claim where you live or gives you other protections that can’t be waived.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms, a license, a refund or Your Content? Use our contact form or email support@pendrilo.com.

Pendrilo, LLC