Legal

Terms of Service

Effective 2026-05-28. Plain English where possible.

Plain summary: You upload your novel, we read it with a simulated 40+ reader-profile panel and email you a detailed editorial report within 48 hours. You keep all rights to your manuscript. We delete your file 30 days after delivery. We don't process sexual content involving characters under 18, or non-consensual sex involving real identifiable people — everything else (dark, explicit, violent literary work included) is fine. If we can't deliver, we refund.

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you ("you," "the author") and NovelistAlpha ("we," "us," "the Service") governing your use of novelistalpha.com and the manuscript-review service offered there. By submitting a manuscript or paying for a review, you accept these Terms.

2. The Service

NovelistAlpha is a paid, AI-powered editorial review service. When you upload a manuscript and pay the service fee, our system reads your novel using a panel of 40+ simulated reader and industry perspectives, produces an eleven-section editorial verdict and ten supporting documents, and emails the complete report to you within 48 hours of payment.

The Service is provided "as is." We make best efforts to deliver reports within 48 hours but do not guarantee a specific delivery time in any given run.

3. Eligibility

By using the Service you represent that:

You are at least 18 years old.
You have the legal authority to enter into these Terms.
You hold all rights necessary to submit the manuscript you upload, and submitting it does not violate any third party's copyright, contract, or other rights.
Your submission complies with the content rules in Section 5 below.

4. Your manuscript

You retain all copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights in your manuscript. Uploading it grants us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to process the manuscript solely to produce your editorial report. We do not use your manuscript to train AI models, sell it, share it with third parties, or include it in any public corpus.

The editorial report we produce for you is yours to use however you like — share it with agents, editors, beta readers; quote from it; incorporate the recommendations into revisions. We retain copyright in the report's template structure and the underlying panel system, but not in any quotation, analysis, or recommendation specific to your manuscript.

5. Content we do not accept

Two content categories are not accepted, and your submission represents that your manuscript does not contain them:

Sexual content involving characters under 18. This includes explicit sexual depiction of minor characters and sexual scenes between adults and characters described or implied to be under 18.
Non-consensual sexual content involving real, identifiable, named living persons.

Depictions of childhood sexual abuse treated as harm in the narrative — as in canonical literary fiction such as Speak, The Kite Runner, or A Little Life — are not in either prohibited category and are accepted. The distinction is between depicting harm and sexualizing minors as content.

Dark, explicit, or violent material between adult characters — as in published literary fiction, romance, horror, and thriller categories — is accepted. We serve serious authors writing serious work.

If we determine at any point that a submission violates these content rules, we will stop processing, delete the manuscript file from our systems, refund your payment in full, and retain only the metadata necessary for our records and any law enforcement cooperation that may be required.

6. Pricing, payments, and refunds

The service fee is shown at checkout. Payment is processed by Stripe; we do not store payment card information.

You are entitled to a full refund in the following cases:

We cannot deliver your report within 72 hours of payment due to a system failure or substrate outage, and you request a refund in writing.
Your submission is rejected for content policy reasons under Section 5 above (refund is automatic).
A technical error during processing prevents us from producing a complete report.

Refunds for "I didn't like the report" are at our discretion and generally not granted — the report is the product of objective analysis, and we stand behind its conclusions even when they are uncomfortable.

7. Service availability

We use our best efforts to keep the Service available and deliver reports promptly, but we do not guarantee uptime or a specific delivery time in any given case. The Service may be unavailable from time to time for maintenance, upgrades, or due to circumstances outside our control. Where a failure on our end prevents delivery, Section 6 governs your remedy.

8. AI-generated content and limitations

Your editorial report is produced by large language models simulating a panel of reader and industry perspectives. The reader profiles are fictional composites; no real person reads or signs off on your report. Where the report cites the views of specific simulated personas, those personas are clearly identified and their judgments are model-generated.

No editorial review — human or AI — guarantees publication, agent representation, or commercial success. Our report aims to give you the sharpest available read of how your manuscript is likely to land with its intended commercial audience, calibrated against approximately 90 published comparison titles. It is a diagnostic tool, not a guarantee.

9. Privacy

We collect and use personal information as described in our Privacy Policy. In summary: we store your email address, the title and genre you supply, your manuscript file, the report we produce, and the metadata needed to complete and bill the order. We do not share any of this with third parties except as required to deliver the Service (Stripe for payment, Resend for email) or comply with law.

10. Data retention

Your manuscript and intermediate analysis files are deleted from our systems 30 days after your report is delivered. The completed report itself, your account record (email, title, payment receipt), and the metadata necessary for our records and tax accounting are retained longer in accordance with applicable accounting and tax law.

You may request earlier deletion of your manuscript at any time by writing to hello@novelistalpha.com.

11. Your responsibilities

You agree:

To provide accurate information at checkout (email, title, genre).
Not to submit a manuscript you do not have the right to submit.
Not to use the Service to harass, threaten, or defame any person.
Not to attempt to bypass our content rules, interfere with the Service's operation, or circumvent payment.
To accept that automated content review is part of how we deliver the Service.

12. Our intellectual property

The Service, including the website, the panel system, prompt templates, evaluation criteria, scoring rubrics, and report structure, is owned by us. You receive only the rights expressly granted in Section 4. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of our system or methodology to you.

13. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY EDITORIAL CONCLUSION IN A REPORT IS ACCURATE OR USEFUL IN A GIVEN SUBMISSION CONTEXT.

14. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE PARTICULAR REPORT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR LOST OPPORTUNITIES, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless from and against any claim, demand, loss, damage, cost, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from or relating to (a) your breach of these Terms; (b) your violation of any third party's rights, including copyright, trademark, or privacy rights; (c) any unlawful content in your manuscript; or (d) your violation of any law or regulation.

16. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service if you violate these Terms. You may stop using the Service at any time. Sections relating to manuscript ownership, intellectual property, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and governing law survive termination.

17. Changes to these terms

We may modify these Terms by posting an updated version at this URL. Material changes will be flagged with an updated effective date. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.

18. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Operation in which NovelistAlpha is established, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising under these Terms shall be resolved first by good-faith negotiation between the parties; if unresolved within 30 days, the dispute shall be brought in the state or federal courts located in that jurisdiction, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.

19. Severability and entire agreement

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.

20. Contact

Questions about these Terms or our handling of your manuscript: hello@novelistalpha.com.