Effective date: 6 August 2026 Last updated: 6 August 2026
These terms cover our author website service only. Our main Terms of Service cover book formatting and everything else, and apply here too wherever these terms are silent.
We have written these in plain English on purpose. If anything below is unclear, email hello@publishing.co.uk and we will explain it before you buy — not after.
1. What you are buying
Two separate things:
- The build — a one-off fee of £199 on the Author plan, or £449 on Author Pro. We design and build your website, you approve it, and it goes live.
- The care plan — £15 a month, and it does not start until your site goes live. We send you the link to set it up on the day it launches, so you are never paying for a site you cannot see yet. It keeps your site online, keeps the editor working, keeps everything up to date and secure, and gives you support.
Both prices include VAT. They are the only two website charges we publish, and we will confirm your price in writing before you pay anything.
What the build includes
- A website designed from scratch for your books — its own colours, type and atmosphere — with a home page, a books page, an about page and a contact page. This is the same on every plan.
- Up to 6 books on Author, or 30 on Author Pro, each with its cover, description and links to wherever readers can buy it. Extra books are £5 each.
- Your own web address connected to the site.
- The editor, so you can keep the site current yourself.
- One round of changes before the site goes live (see section 3).
Larger catalogues and extra pages
Every plan is designed to the same standard. The difference between Author and Author Pro is how much site you get — how many books, how many series, how many pages built around a single book — never how good it looks. A page designed around one book is £49 on any plan, because your site’s own look already exists and the page steps into it; Author Pro includes three. Anything larger is bespoke work from £2,000, quoted before it starts. Nothing is ever added to your bill without you agreeing to it first.
2. Getting started
You give us your books and a photograph. We do the rest. We will ask you to confirm the details we have gathered are correct — you are responsible for the accuracy of what you confirm.
We aim to show you a first version within 7 days of receiving what we need from you. That is a target, not a guarantee: if we are going to be slower, we will tell you rather than go quiet.
3. What “one round of changes” means
You get one round. In practice that means: you look at your site, you send us your list of changes in one go, and we make them.
- It is one list, not one change — send everything you have noticed.
- It covers wording, photographs, book details, ordering, and reasonable adjustments to the design.
- It does not cover starting the design again from scratch, or a change of direction after you have approved something.
If you want more rounds than that, we will happily do them, and we will tell you the cost before we start. We would rather quote you than surprise you.
4. Your web address
Your web address is registered to you, not to us. If you already own one, it stays yours and we simply point it at your site. If you need one, we can arrange it, and it is still registered in your name.
This matters, so to be explicit: we never hold your web address, and you never need our permission to take it elsewhere. If you ever move away from us, it goes with you.
5. The editor, and what you can change
Your site has a private editor. Through it you can change your photograph, your biography, your books and their details, your covers, your links, the wording on your pages, and the announcement bar.
You cannot change the layout, fonts, colours, motion, or page structure. That is deliberate — it is what keeps the site looking designed and stops it being broken by accident. If you want something the editor does not cover, ask us; we will either do it as part of your care plan if it is small, or quote you if it is not.
You are responsible for keeping your editor passcode private. Anyone who has it can change your site.
6. What the service deliberately does not include
So there is no misunderstanding later, your site does not include:
- a blog, or anywhere to write posts
- a shop, basket or checkout — your buy buttons send readers wherever you sell: Amazon, Waterstones, Kobo, Apple Books, or your own shop
- running your mailing list. If you already use an email service, your sign-up button sends readers straight to it. If you don’t, your site collects the addresses and holds them for you to download — but nothing is ever sent from here, by us or by you
- a page builder, theme picker or plugin system
These are left out on purpose. They are the things that make author websites slow, fragile and a chore to run.
7. The care plan
£15 a month, paid monthly in advance, starting the day your site goes live. It covers:
- keeping your site online
- keeping the editor working
- keeping everything behind your site up to date, including security updates
- support by email on anything to do with your site being up or your editor working
- small content fixes if you get stuck
It does not cover new design work, new pages, new features, or work on anything that is not your site.
We aim to answer support email within one working day. That is our target and we will tell you if we cannot meet it.
If your site ever goes down. Your site is built in a way that is very hard to break, and we keep it online for you. We do not promise a particular percentage of the year, and we do not pay compensation if it is down. What we will do is tell you honestly when something has gone wrong.
8. Cancelling, and refunds
Before your site goes live
You can cancel at any point before your site goes live and we will refund your build fee in full, no questions and no deductions — even if we have already done the work. If you have seen a draft and it is not for you, that is exactly the situation this is for.
After your site goes live
- The care plan is monthly and rolling. You can cancel any time, and there is no notice period. Email us and it stops at the end of the month you have already paid for. We do not refund part months, and we do not charge you again.
- The build fee is not refundable once your site is live, because the work is done and delivered.
Your statutory rights
Nothing in these terms reduces your legal rights as a consumer under UK law, including any right you have to cancel a contract made at a distance. Where the law gives you more than these terms do, the law wins. We have deliberately written the refund position above to be at least as generous as we believe the law requires — if you think we have got that wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
If we cancel
We may end the service if a payment fails repeatedly and is not resolved, or if the site is used for something unlawful. We will give you 30 days’ written notice except where the law requires us to act immediately, and section 9 still applies — you still get everything.
9. What you take with you if you leave
This is the part we would want to read first, so here it is plainly.
Your site is yours. Within 30 days of cancelling, at no charge, we will give you:
- your whole website as a set of files, which you or anyone you hire can put online elsewhere, for as long as you like
- everything you wrote, in one file — every word, book, description and link
- all your images, including your covers and your photograph, in their original quality
What you lose is the editor. The site keeps working and keeps looking the same, but it becomes fixed: changing it afterwards needs someone technical. That is the honest trade, and it is the reason the care plan exists.
We do not hold your content hostage, we do not charge an exit fee, and we do not need a reason.
10. Who owns what
- You own your manuscript, your book descriptions, your covers, your photographs, your biography, everything you write in the editor, and your web address.
- We own the website system, the editor, the design system and the code that runs it. You are licensed to use it for your site for as long as your care plan is active.
- You give us permission to show your site as an example of our work. If you would rather we did not, tell us and we will not — this is a genuine choice and it costs you nothing.
11. Your responsibilities
You confirm that you have the right to use everything you give us — your text, your covers, your photographs. We do not check this, and we are not liable for it.
You agree not to use the site for anything unlawful, and not to attempt to gain access to any part of our systems you have not been given.
12. Your information
We handle your personal information in line with our privacy policy. We only use your details to build and support your site and to contact you about it. We do not sell them and we do not add you to marketing lists you did not ask for.
If your site collects reader email addresses, those readers’ details belong to you. We store them on your behalf, we do not use them, and you can have them at any time.
13. Liability
To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for anything arising from this service is limited to the total amount you have paid us in the 12 months before the claim.
We are not liable for lost sales, lost income or other indirect losses. We are not liable for anything caused by companies we do not control — for example the company your web address is registered with, your email service, or the shops your buy buttons link to.
Nothing here limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.
14. Changes to these terms
If we change these terms in a way that materially affects you, we will email you at least 30 days before the change takes effect. If you do not want to continue, you can cancel under section 8 and section 9 still applies in full.
We may change the £15 monthly price no more than once in any 12 months, with the same 30 days’ notice. Your build fee is fixed at the price you were quoted.
15. Law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.
16. Talk to us
Email: hello@publishing.co.uk
If something here worries you, ask before you buy. We would much rather have the conversation now.
