Terms and Condition

HQWORDS.COM TERMS OF SERVICE

 

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY.

These terms of service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement (“Agreement”) between the author or the entity identified in your hqwords.com account (“End User”, “Authors”, “Author Agents”, and “Publishers”) and hqwords.com.

Any user of hqwords.com who downloads, reads, or previews any work on this website is referred to as “End User”.

hqwords.com and HQ Words will be used interchangeably as each refers to the service provider.

This Agreement provides the terms and conditions of your participation in the hqwords.com digital self-publication and distribution program (the “Program”) and your distribution of digital content through the Program (all such content, “Digital Books”, “Print Copies”), and consists of the terms set forth below.

By using the service available at hqwords.com, you agree to the terms governing the service. If you do not agree with the terms contained in this Terms of Service, do not use the service.

 

  1. AGREEMENT ACCEPTANCE

You accept this Agreement and agree to be bound by its terms by doing one of the two options below.

  1.  Clicking the agree or accept tab where you are given the option to do so.
  2.  Using the Program, or any part of it.

If you do not accept the terms, you are not entitled to use the Program. If the Publisher is an entity, the person who accepts this Agreement on behalf of the Publisher represents and warrants that he or she is entitled to enter this Agreement as an authorized representative of the Publisher and to bind the Publisher to the terms of this Agreement.

 

  1. AGREEMENT AMENDMENT

The Program will change over time and the terms of this Agreement will need to change over time as well. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Agreement at any time at our sole discretion. We will give you notice of the changes. The new terms and conditions will be (1) posted in place of the old one at http://hqwords.com/terms with a revision date indicated at the top, and (2) We will send an email to the email address then registered for your Program account. If you do not agree to the changes, you must withdraw your Digital Books from further distribution through the Program and terminate your use of the Program.

 

  1. TERM AND TERMINATION

The term of this Agreement will begin upon your acceptance of it and will continue until it is terminated by you or by us. We are entitled to terminate this Agreement and your access to your Program account at any time. We will notify you upon termination. You are entitled to terminate at any time by providing us notice of termination, in which event we will cease selling your Digital Books within seven business days from the date you provide us notice of termination.

We may suspend your Program account at our sole discretion with or without notice to you if reasons arise for such. Following termination or suspension, we may fulfill any customer orders for your Digital Books depending on the date of order and the date of termination or suspension. We may continue to maintain digital copies of your Digital Books to provide continuing access to or re-downloads of your Digital Books or otherwise to support customers who have purchased a Digital Book before termination or suspension.

 

  1. DIGITAL BOOK DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS

 

4.1. DELIVERY, ACCEPTANCE, AND WITHDRAWAL

 

4.1.1 Delivery

You must provide us each Digital Book you desire to distribute through the Program at your own expense. We will not return to you any electronic files, physical content, or media you deliver to us in connection with the Program. You must deliver all electronic files free and clear of viruses, worms, and other potentially harmful or disrupting code.

If you upload (publish) a book to hqwords.com, you understand and warrant that you are the legal publisher of this work. You control all rights to the book and affirm that no part of this book infringes or violates the rights of another person, party, or entity.

You are responsible for uploading your book to hqwords.com, managing your book’s metadata, and opting in or out of the hqwords.com distribution service.

You are responsible for the writing, editing, formatting, and cover design for your book. HQ Words only provides the tools or services to assist in or support these publishing activities. The author services we provide on request at a fee.

If you wish to distribute print copies of your book through hqwords.com, you will contact HQ Words by email to state your interest. You will receive the guidelines for distributing print copies with us.

 

4.1.2 Content Requirements

You must ensure that all Digital Book content is non-offensive at the time you submit it to us. If you discover that the content you have submitted does not follow the stipulated standards, you must withdraw the content by un-publishing it or by re-publishing content that complies. HQ Words is entitled to remove or modify the metadata and product description you provide for your Digital Books for any reason, including if we determine that it does not comply with our content requirements. We may not provide you any reason for such. We may also remove all or any part of your Digital Book or cover art for any reason, including if we determine that it does not comply with our content requirements. You must ensure that all metadata you provide us is current, complete, and accurate. If you discover that any metadata you have provided us for a Digital Book is inaccurate or incomplete, you must promptly submit the corrected metadata.

 

4.1.3 Publication of work as-is.

HQ Words will publish your content as it is delivered to us. We will not edit or modify your content (except in cases where it violates our terms of service). Authors are responsible for formatting their work to meet our design requirements. Authors who need assistance may use our author services which we provide our authors at subsidized prices.

 

4.1.4 Author rights and verification

We are entitled to determine what content we accept and distribute through the Program at our sole discretion. If we request that you provide additional information relating to your rights to permit our distribution of the Digital Books, you will promptly provide the information requested. You also attest that any information and documentation you provide us in response to such a request will be current, complete, and accurate. By using our service, you authorize us, directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider appropriate to verify your rights to permit our distribution of the Digital Books and the accuracy of the information or documentation you provide to us concerning those rights.

 

4.1.5 Withdrawal

You may withdraw your Digital Books from further sale in the Program at any time. We may fulfill any customer orders completed through the date the Digital Books are available for sale. All withdrawals of Digital Books will apply prospectively only and not to any customers who purchased the Digital Books before the date of removal.

 

4.2. MARKETING AND PROMOTION

You are responsible for marketing and promoting your published work. HQ Words reserve the right to distribute samples of published Digital Book in any form of media to promote the author, author’s work, and/or HQ Words services. These samples will be licensed free, non-commercial use, duplication, and sharing, and will comply with the sample percentage assigned by the Author. We may also use small parts of your work in promotional materials, including printed media. We will not provide you any prior information as regards this.

 

4.3 PRICING

4.3.1 Providing Your List Price

You will provide list prices that do not exceed N10,000 through the hqwords.com website for each Digital Book you submit to us. You may change your List Price through the hqwords.com website, and your change will be effective within 5 business days.

 

4.3.2 Currency Conversion

We may sell your Digital Book in other countries using foreign currencies. When we do, we will convert the List Price you submit to other currencies (each, a “Sale Currency”) at an exchange rate we determine. We may periodically update the converted List Price to reflect current exchange rates. The converted List Price in the Sale Currency will be your List Price as at when we offer and sell your Digital Book in the Sale Currency. Your Royalties will be calculated based on the converted List Price in the Sale Currency.

 

4.4. ROYALTIES AND PAYMENTS

 

4.4.1 Royalties

The Author or publishing party shall be entitled to royalty payments based on our royalty rate. This payment is made so long as the proper copyright protection subsists in a work, no infringement notices have been filed, and revenues directly attributed to the work are being collected by HQ Words. HQ Words pays authors and publishers 75% of the net proceeds from all sales.

 

4.4.2 When We Pay You

hqwords.com will pay Royalties due on Digital Book sales upon request provided the amount requested is at least N10,000. We will also make available to you a monthly online report detailing sales of Digital Books and corresponding Royalties.

You can also view your account on your dashboard.

 

4.4.3 Payment Currencies

If you change your payment currency, the change will be effective on the first day of the following calendar month (unless we make an earlier period available). If we pay you in a currency other than the Sale Currency, we will convert the Royalties due from the Sale Currency to the payment currency at an exchange rate we determine, which will be inclusive of all fees for the conversion.

 

4.4.5 Payment Policies

We may require you to provide certain information or to register a valid bank account in your okadabooks.com account to receive Royalty payments, in which case we will not be obligated to make Royalty payments to you unless you do so. We may establish other payment policies from time to time, such as minimum payment amounts for different payment methods and check fees. You acknowledge that incorrect information may prevent or delay royalty payments.

 

4.4.6 Payment Disputes

You may not bring a suit or other legal proceeding against us about any statement unless you bring it within six months after the date the statement is available. Any such proceeding will be limited to a determination of the amount if any, payable by us to you for the accounting periods in question, and your sole remedy will be the recovery of those monies with no interest.

 

4.5 ACCOUNT SECURITY

You are responsible for controlling access to your HQ Words account. When you sign up for a HQ Words account, you will provide us an email address and a password as your login credentials. By using HQ Words Self-Publishing service, you acknowledge your responsibility to choose a secure email/password combination. You consent to keep your login details private and secure. HQ Words will not be held responsible if you use insecure email/password combinations that allow cybercriminals login to your account and steal author earnings

 

4.6. DRM AND GEOFILTERING TECHNOLOGY

We may (but are not obligated to) provide you the option to apply DRM technology in connection with the distribution of your Digital Books. If we provide you the option to apply DRM technology, you acknowledge that we make no representations as to the efficacy of the DRM and will not be responsible for any failure of the DRM. We also may (but are not obligated to) use geo-filtering technology as a way of determining which customers are entitled to purchase Digital Books. For example, where you indicate that you do not have worldwide distribution rights to a Digital Book through the procedure we provide to you for that purpose. If we use geo-filtering technology when distributing your Digital Books, distribution will be deemed to have taken place within the permitted distribution territories for the Digital Books, even though customers may be located outside those territories.

 

4.7. REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, AND INDEMNITIES

 

You represent and warrant that:

  1. You have the full right, power, and authority to enter into and fully perform this Agreement and will comply with the terms of this Agreement.
  2. Before your delivery of any content, you will have obtained all the rights that are necessary for the exercise of the rights granted under this Agreement.
  3. Neither the exercise of the rights authorized under this Agreement nor any materials embodied in the content nor its sale or distribution as authorized in this Agreement will violate or infringe upon the intellectual property, proprietary, or other rights of any person or entity including, without limitation, contractual rights, copyrights, trademarks, common law rights, rights of publicity, privacy, moral rights, or contain defamatory material or violate any laws or regulations of any jurisdiction.
  4. You will ensure that all Digital Books delivered under the Program comply with the technical delivery specifications provided by us.
  5. You will be solely responsible for accounting and paying any co-owners or co-administrators of any Digital Book or portion thereof any royalties for the uses of the content and their respective shares if any.
  6.  To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend and hold hqwords.com, its officers, directors, employees, affiliates, subcontractors, and assigns harmless from and against any loss, claim, liability, damage, action, or cause of action (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) that arises from any breach of your representations, warranties or obligations outlined in this Agreement. We will be entitled, at our expense, to participate in the defense and settlement of the claim or action with counsel of our choosing.

 

  1. FORCE MAJEURE

HQ Words will not be liable for any failure or delay in the performance of its obligations under this Agreement caused by any event or circumstance beyond its control. Such events include but are not limited to denial-of-service, attacks, insurrection, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, terrorism, and labour conditions.

 

  1. GOVERNING LAW

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed following the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 

  1. FREE BOOKS INCLUDING SAMPLE WORKS

Free books and sample works published at hqwords.com belong to the Author or Publisher. The Author or Publisher retains copyright for their published works.

 

  1. BOOK PURCHASE, SHIPPING, AND DELIVERY

8.1 Fees and services

By using the hqwords.com website, the End-User – digital book customer agrees to pay the fees as presented by hqwords.com and set by the Author or Publisher at the time of purchase. The End-User will have an opportunity to review and accept the fee for the purchase End-User is requesting before payment. All purchases are final and non-refundable.

We may change pricing policies and fees for the services we provide at any time and from time to time. All changes shall be effective immediately. Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in NGN. You are responsible for paying all fees and applicable taxes associated with your use of this service.

 

8.2 Delivery

End-Users can download a Digital Book they purchased by logging into their account. As End-User, you hold a non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-distributable right of use.

 

If you have purchased a print copy, you must provide a relevant address for delivery. You are also responsible for the shipping bills. This payment will be received with the payment of the book copies.

You will receive your order within two weeks from the date of purchase.

 

8.3 Shipping

End-Users will receive their order of print copies through door delivery, postal service, or pick-up location. Prices vary for each shipping method. You will pay for shipping at the same time you pay for the print copies. By completing your order, you attest that the address you provided at the checkout point is valid and current. Your order will be sent to this address.

 

8.4 Return

You may return print copies if the books were damaged and the damage identified at the point of receipt. There is no other condition for the return of products. The return must occur within three days from the date of delivery.