Terms of Service

Last updated: May 12, 2026 · Version 2026-05-12

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. These Terms include a mandatory arbitration clause and a class action waiver in Section 17. By using the Service, you agree to resolve disputes through individual binding arbitration. You may opt out of the arbitration agreement within 30 days of first accepting these Terms by following the procedure in Section 17.6.

Contents

  1. Agreement to Terms
  2. Description of Service
  3. No Guarantee of Results
  4. Eligibility
  5. Account Registration & Click-Wrap Acceptance
  6. Third-Party Platform Integration
  7. Acceptable Use
  8. Intellectual Property
  9. Confidentiality
  10. Payments, Auto-Renewal & Cancellation
  11. Service Availability
  12. Copyright Policy & DMCA
  13. Limitation of Liability
  14. Indemnification
  15. Termination & Data Deletion
  16. Modifications to These Terms
  17. Dispute Resolution; Arbitration; Class Waiver
  18. Governing Law
  19. General Provisions
  20. Contact

1. Agreement to Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you ("Customer," "you," or "your") and Indie Author Academy LLC, a Nevada limited liability company ("IAA," "Company," "we," "us," or "our"). By accessing or using indieauthormedia.com, mira.indieauthormedia.com, tiktok.indieauthormedia.com, amazonads.indieauthormedia.com, related subdomains, or any service we provide (collectively, the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You also agree to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

2. Description of Service

IAA provides marketing tools and managed services for independent authors and publishers, including:

The Service uses commercial AI models supplied by third parties (currently Anthropic and Google) under enterprise agreements that prohibit those providers from training their models on your content. The full list of sub-processors is maintained in our Privacy Policy.

3. No Guarantee of Results

3.1 Marketing Services Disclaimer. IAA does not guarantee any specific outcome from your use of the Service, including but not limited to: book sales, Amazon Best Seller Rank ("BSR") improvement, royalty income, advertising click-through or conversion rates, social media views or follower growth, account survival on third-party platforms, or any other commercial result.

3.2 Variability. Results from book marketing depend on many factors outside IAA's control, including book quality, genre demand, cover and metadata quality, pricing, seasonality, platform algorithm changes, third-party platform policy changes, and your own promotional efforts. Outcomes vary widely from author to author, and most authors will achieve more modest results than any case study or testimonial showcased on our marketing materials.

3.3 Case Studies. Any case studies, success stories, testimonials, or example results presented in IAA marketing materials reflect the experience of specific authors under specific conditions and are not typical or expected results. IAA maintains documentation of any results referenced and will provide platform-source documentation on reasonable request.

3.4 No Investment or Income Promise. Nothing in IAA marketing materials, account dashboards, AI-generated outputs, or communications from our team constitutes a promise of return on investment or guaranteed income. You are solely responsible for your own business decisions, including how much to invest in advertising or promotion.

4. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years of age and capable of forming a binding contract under the laws of your jurisdiction to use the Service. The Service is not directed to children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. By using the Service, you represent that you meet these requirements.

The Service is offered to residents of the United States and other jurisdictions where its provision is lawful. You are responsible for compliance with local laws when accessing the Service. We do not knowingly provide the Service to any person or entity on the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions lists or located in any country subject to U.S. embargo.

5. Account Registration & Click-Wrap Acceptance

To access most features, you must create an account. You agree to:

5.1 Click-Wrap Acceptance. By clicking "Pay & Agree to Terms," "Subscribe," or any equivalent button at checkout, by ticking the acceptance checkbox accompanying these Terms, or by continuing to use the Service after creating an account, you affirmatively manifest assent to these Terms, the Privacy Policy, and to any service-specific terms identified at the point of purchase. We retain a server-side record of your acceptance, including timestamp, IP address, the version of these Terms accepted, and the acceptance event identifier. This record may be used as evidence in any dispute.

6. Third-Party Platform Integration

The Service integrates with third-party platforms, including TikTok, Amazon Advertising, Stripe, and others. By connecting your accounts you:

If a third-party platform restricts, suspends, or terminates an account or feature on which the Service depends, IAA will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide alternative service, but is not liable for the platform's action and is not required to refund fees for periods affected by platform-side disruptions.

7. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

We may suspend or terminate your access for any violation, with or without notice.

8. Intellectual Property

The Service and all its components — including software, algorithms, indexing pipelines, slide templates, analytics tools, brand assets, and documentation — are owned by IAA and protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other intellectual property laws.

8.1 Your Content — Manuscript Ownership

You retain full and exclusive intellectual property ownership of any manuscripts, book content, KDP reports, audio, images, and other materials you upload to the Service ("Your Content"). Uploading Your Content does not transfer, assign, or license any ownership rights to IAA.

8.2 Limited License to Provide the Service

By uploading Your Content, you grant IAA a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable (except to affiliates and sub-processors), revocable license to:

This license is strictly limited to providing the Service. We may not sublicense, sell, distribute, or share Your Content with any third party (other than the LLM providers and sub-processors disclosed in our Privacy Policy) or use Your Content for any purpose beyond delivering the Service to you.

8.3 What We Will NOT Do With Your Content

8.4 AI-Generated Output

Marketing slides produced by the Service combine verbatim passages extracted from Your Content with AI-generated visual elements and layout. Text passages are extracted directly from Your Content and remain Your intellectual property. AI-generated visual elements (images, backgrounds, design components) are produced by third-party AI models and may not be independently copyrightable under current U.S. law (per Thaler v. Perlmutter, D.D.C. 2023, and U.S. Copyright Office guidance). You receive a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license to use all output generated for your account for any commercial purpose, subject to the terms of the underlying AI provider where applicable.

You are solely responsible for reviewing AI-generated output before publication or public distribution. AI output may contain errors, hallucinations, or content that does not faithfully represent Your Content.

8.5 Reverse IP Indemnity (IAA-Originated Content)

If a third party brings a claim against you alleging that visual elements, design templates, stock imagery, or AI-generated graphics provided by IAA infringe that third party's intellectual property rights, IAA will defend you against the claim and pay any costs, damages, or settlement amounts a court finally awards against you, provided that you (a) promptly notify IAA in writing, (b) allow IAA sole control of the defense and settlement, and (c) reasonably cooperate. This indemnity does not cover infringement arising from Your Content or from your modification of IAA-supplied materials.

8.6 IAA Trademarks

"Indie Author Media," "Indie Author Academy," "MIRA," "Booketeer," "Reader AI," and the IAA logo are trademarks of Indie Author Academy LLC. You may not use these marks without our prior written permission, except for descriptive or nominative fair use.

9. Confidentiality

We treat Your Content as Confidential Information. IAA personnel who access Your Content are bound by written confidentiality obligations. We maintain access controls, audit logs, and encrypted storage (AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit) to protect your unpublished and published works.

The confidentiality obligations in this Section survive termination of your account for so long as Your Content remains in our possession. Standard exceptions apply for information that (a) was already in IAA's possession without confidentiality obligation, (b) becomes publicly known through no fault of IAA, (c) is independently developed without reference to Your Content, or (d) is required to be disclosed by law (with notice to you where legally permitted).

10. Payments, Auto-Renewal & Cancellation

10.1 Setup Fee

The one-time book indexing setup fee is non-refundable once processing begins. Processing typically begins within 24 hours of manuscript upload. If we are unable to process your manuscript for technical reasons, we will refund the setup fee in full.

10.2 Subscriptions and Auto-Renewal

Your subscription automatically renews at the end of each billing period (monthly or annual, as you selected at checkout) at the then-current rate, unless you cancel before the renewal date. By subscribing, you authorize IAA (or our payment processor, Stripe) to charge your payment method on each renewal date.

Pre-renewal notice. For annual subscriptions, IAA will send you an email reminder between fifteen (15) and forty-five (45) days before each renewal, identifying the renewal date, the amount to be charged, and a one-click link to cancel. For monthly subscriptions, your initial confirmation email contains the recurring charge details and your account dashboard displays the next billing date at all times.

10.3 How to Cancel (One-Click)

You may cancel your subscription at any time, effective at the end of the current billing period, by:

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period. No prorated refunds are issued for partial periods, except where required by applicable law.

California residents. The disclosures and procedures in this Section comply with California Business and Professions Code §17600 et seq. (the Automatic Renewal Law). You may also cancel by mailing a written request to: Indie Author Academy LLC, 657 Timberfalls Lane, Henderson, NV 89015.

10.4 Done-For-You (DFY) Posting — Service-Specific Terms

The following terms apply exclusively to the Done-For-You posting add-on and do not modify the general subscription terms in Sections 10.2 and 10.3 above. They are operative only when, and for as long as, you are subscribed to the DFY service.

(a) Service description. The DFY service is delivered through book-recommendation accounts operated by IAA on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms (the "Recommendation Channels"). The Recommendation Channels are not directly tied to you, are not personally representative of you, and operate as thematic book-recommendation channels in which your book is promoted as part of the multi-author content rotation. You are purchasing promotional services delivered through the Recommendation Channels — not an account, account access, or any ownership interest in any channel.

(b) Included volume. The DFY subscription covers up to 10 daily publications dedicated to promoting your book(s) during the term of the subscription, distributed across the Recommendation Channels. Volume above what is included must be requested through IAA's official support channels and will be quoted and billed separately.

(c) Cancellation window. To cancel the DFY subscription and avoid the charge for the following billing period, you must submit the cancellation request at least 7 calendar days before the renewal date of the current period. Cancellations received less than 7 days before renewal will not prevent the charge for the following period; that period will remain in effect, is non-refundable, and the service will continue through the end of that period and stop at its close.

(d) Posting continuity. Upon a valid cancellation, IAA will continue publishing the contracted volume through the end of the current billing period unless you expressly request immediate cessation of posting (in which case no refund is issued for the unused days).

(e) Account ownership — IAA exclusive property. The Recommendation Channels (including account handles, login credentials, recovery email and phone numbers, follower lists, follower data, engagement metrics, video content libraries, and any goodwill or brand equity associated with them) are the exclusive property of IAA. They are not transferred to you under any circumstance, and may be used to promote other books and authors both during and after your subscription. Videos published on these accounts remain online at IAA's sole discretion. You waive any and all claims to ownership, transfer, control, access, or co-ownership of the Recommendation Channels, including upon termination of this Agreement for any reason. This allocation is consistent with JLM Couture, Inc. v. Gutman, 24 F.4th 785 (2d Cir. 2022).

(f) Multi-customer use. You acknowledge that the Recommendation Channels are shared promotional vehicles featuring book recommendations from many authors. IAA may, before, during, and after the term of this Agreement: (i) feature other authors' books on the same Recommendation Channels; (ii) publish content unrelated to your book(s); (iii) modify the editorial direction, branding, or focus of any Recommendation Channel. Your subscription does not grant exclusivity, category exclusivity, or any veto right over other content published on the Recommendation Channels.

(g) Posted content discretion. All marketing content published by IAA on the Recommendation Channels remains the property of IAA upon publication. IAA may, in its sole discretion: (i) leave content live indefinitely after your subscription ends; (ii) edit, repurpose, recycle, or republish content as part of compilations or follow-up posts; (iii) remove content at any time. You waive any right to demand deletion, modification, or removal of published content, except where required by applicable law (e.g., DMCA takedown of third-party rights, GDPR Article 17 erasure requests where applicable to your personal data).

(h) Platform risk disclosure. The Recommendation Channels operate on third-party social media platforms. Under TikTok's Terms of Service (and equivalent platform terms), all accounts are licensed (not owned) by their operators, are non-transferable, and may be suspended or terminated by the platform at its sole discretion at any time, with or without notice. IAA does not control, and is not responsible for: (i) platform algorithm changes affecting reach or engagement; (ii) account suspensions, bans, shadow-bans, or content removals by the platform; (iii) changes to platform terms of service or features; (iv) platform outages, downtime, or service degradation; (v) loss of followers, content, or historical engagement data resulting from any of the foregoing.

(i) Service-level objective. The commitment of up to 10 daily publications is a service objective, not a guarantee. The following events shall not count against the cadence objective and shall not entitle you to any credit or refund: (i) platform suspensions, bans, rate limits, shadow-bans, or content removals affecting any Recommendation Channel; (ii) platform outages, API failures, or upload errors; (iii) algorithm-driven distribution changes; (iv) your failure to provide required materials (book cover, blurb, content notes) on a timely basis; (v) third-party copyright claims requiring content review; (vi) acts of God, civil unrest, government action, internet infrastructure failures, or other events outside IAA's reasonable control. If, in any complete billing period, IAA delivers less than 80% of the contracted publications for reasons other than those enumerated above, you are entitled to a service credit equal to the proportional shortfall, applied to the following period. Service credits are not redeemable for cash and are your sole and exclusive remedy for failure to meet the cadence objective.

10.5 Refund Policy

All subscription fees are non-refundable once charged, except as expressly provided in this Section or as required by applicable law. The sole refund exceptions are:

10.6 Disputes & Chargebacks

If you believe you were charged in error, contact billing@indieauthormedia.com within 60 days for review. You agree to attempt resolution with IAA before initiating a chargeback with your payment provider. Initiating a chargeback for amounts properly owed under these Terms without first attempting good-faith resolution constitutes a material breach and authorizes IAA to suspend your account and pursue collection of disputed amounts.

11. Service Availability

IAA strives to maintain high availability but does not guarantee uninterrupted access. We may temporarily suspend access for maintenance, updates, security incidents, or circumstances beyond our control. We provide reasonable advance notice of planned downtime when possible.

For Premium-tier customers with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) addendum, the terms of that addendum control. In the absence of a separate SLA, the Service is provided on an "as available" basis.

12. Copyright Policy & DMCA

12.1 Respect for IP. IAA respects the intellectual property of others. We will respond to valid notices of claimed copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §512). It is our policy to terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.

12.2 Designated Agent. Notices of claimed copyright infringement should be directed to our Designated Agent (registered with the U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory):

12.3 Notice requirements. A valid DMCA notice must include (per 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3)): (a) a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized representative; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (c) identification of the allegedly infringing material with sufficient detail to locate it (e.g., URL); (d) your contact information; (e) a statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorized; (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

12.4 Counter-notification. If you believe content was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notification meeting the requirements of 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3) to the Designated Agent. We will restore the content within 10–14 business days unless the original complainant files a court action.

12.5 Misrepresentations. Under 17 U.S.C. §512(f), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages.

13. Limitation of Liability

13.1 Cap on damages. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total aggregate liability of Indie Author Academy LLC, its affiliates, officers, employees, and licensors arising out of or related to these Terms or your use of the Service shall not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees paid by you to IAA in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars ($100).

13.2 Excluded damages. In no event shall IAA be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost goodwill, or lost book sales, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

13.3 AI-generated output disclaimer. The Service uses third-party AI models (currently Anthropic and Google) to generate marketing materials, including slides, captions, and extracted passages. You acknowledge that AI-generated output may contain errors, inaccuracies, hallucinations, misattributions, or content that does not faithfully represent your manuscript. You are solely responsible for reviewing, editing, and approving all AI-generated output before publication or public distribution. IAA makes no warranty that AI output is accurate, fit for any particular purpose, non-infringing, or free of bias.

13.4 Carve-outs. The limitations in Section 13.1 do not apply to: (a) your obligation to pay fees owed; (b) either party's indemnification obligations under Sections 8.5 or 14; (c) liability arising from gross negligence, willful misconduct, or intentional fraud; (d) liability for IAA's breach of Section 9 (Confidentiality); or (e) liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

13.5 Basis of the bargain. The parties agree that the limitations in this Section 13 are an essential element of the bargain, that the fees charged reflect this allocation of risk, and that these limitations apply notwithstanding the failure of essential purpose of any limited remedy.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless IAA, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, and licensors from any third-party claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms; (b) Your Content (including any allegation that Your Content infringes a third party's rights or violates law); (c) your violation of any third party's rights, including intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights; (d) your violation of any applicable law, regulation, or third-party platform's terms of service; or (e) your representations or warranties made in connection with the Service.

IAA's reverse-IP indemnity for IAA-originated content is set forth in Section 8.5.

15. Termination & Data Deletion

15.1 Termination by you. You may terminate your account at any time by following the cancellation procedure in Section 10.3.

15.2 Termination by IAA. IAA may suspend or terminate your account at our sole discretion, with or without notice, for: (a) violation of these Terms; (b) conduct that is harmful to other users, IAA, or third parties; (c) suspected fraud or illegal activity; (d) prolonged inactivity (with prior notice); or (e) discontinuation of the Service. Upon termination for cause, no refund is owed for unused portions of any prepaid period.

15.3 Effect of termination. Upon termination, your right to use the Service immediately ceases. Sections 3, 8.1, 8.4, 8.5, 9, 13, 14, 17, 18, and 19 survive termination.

15.4 Data deletion. Upon cancellation or termination, we will delete your raw manuscript files within 30 days. Your book index and passage documents are retained so that if you return, you do not need to repay the setup fee. This is a benefit, not an obligation — you may request permanent deletion of all data, including indexes, at any time by emailing privacy@indieauthormedia.com. Account information and payment records may be retained as required by law (typically 7 years for tax records).

Marketing content already published on the DFY Recommendation Channels is governed by Section 10.4(g).

16. Modifications to These Terms

IAA may modify these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will provide at least thirty (30) days' advance notice by email to the address on your account and by posting the updated Terms with a revised "Last updated" date and version identifier. Material changes include changes to fees, refund policy, dispute resolution (Section 17), governing law (Section 18), or your privacy rights.

If you do not agree to a material change, you may cancel your subscription before the change takes effect under Section 10.3. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of any change constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms. Non-material changes (clarifications, typo fixes, contact-information updates) take effect upon posting.

Any modification to Section 17 (Arbitration) applies only to disputes arising after the effective date of the modification.

17. Dispute Resolution; Arbitration; Class Action Waiver

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. THIS SECTION REQUIRES YOU TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH IAA THROUGH INDIVIDUAL BINDING ARBITRATION AND LIMITS YOUR ABILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION.

17.1 Informal resolution. Before filing any arbitration, you and IAA agree to first try to resolve the dispute informally. Send written notice of your dispute to legal@indieauthormedia.com describing the claim and the relief you seek. The parties will negotiate in good faith for at least sixty (60) days before either may initiate arbitration.

17.2 Binding arbitration. Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that is not resolved through informal negotiation shall be resolved exclusively through binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect (available at www.adr.org). Arbitration shall take place in Clark County, Nevada, or by videoconference at the consumer's election. The arbitrator, not any court, shall decide all issues of arbitrability except as expressly provided below.

17.3 Arbitration fees. IAA will pay all AAA filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees for any arbitration you initiate in good faith, except for the consumer filing fee required by AAA rules (currently approximately $200), which you must pay unless paying it would cause you substantial hardship, in which case IAA will pay it.

17.4 Small claims court exception. Either party may bring an individual action in small claims court, provided the claim qualifies and remains in that court.

17.5 Class action waiver. You and IAA agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

17.6 30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to legal@indieauthormedia.com within thirty (30) days of first agreeing to these Terms. Your notice must include your name, account email, and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out will not affect the rest of these Terms.

17.7 Prospective application only. Any amendment to this Section 17 will apply only to disputes arising after the effective date of the amendment.

17.8 Severability. If the class action waiver in Section 17.5 is found unenforceable as to any claim, that claim shall be severed and proceed in court, and the remainder of this Section 17 shall remain in effect for all other claims. If any other provision of this Section 17 is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force.

18. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the State of Nevada, United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, except that the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. §§1 et seq.) governs the interpretation and enforcement of Section 17. Subject to Section 17, all disputes that proceed in court shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Clark County, Nevada, and the parties consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. Nothing in these Terms deprives California residents of any non-waivable rights under California law.

19. General Provisions

19.1 Entire agreement. These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy and any service-specific addenda) constitute the entire agreement between you and IAA regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

19.2 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force, and the invalid provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable.

19.3 No waiver. IAA's failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of its right to do so later.

19.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without IAA's prior written consent. IAA may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or by operation of law, with notice to you.

19.5 Force majeure. Neither party is liable for failure to perform due to events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, pandemic, internet or power infrastructure failures, third-party platform actions, or labor disputes.

19.6 Notices. Notices to IAA must be sent to legal@indieauthormedia.com with a copy to the address in Section 20. Notices to you may be sent by email to the address on your account or by posting in your account dashboard.

19.7 Electronic signatures (ESIGN Act). You consent to receive communications from IAA in electronic form and agree that all electronic agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing under the U.S. ESIGN Act (15 U.S.C. §7001 et seq.).

19.8 Export controls. You may not use, export, or re-export the Service in violation of U.S. export laws and regulations.

19.9 Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

19.10 Language. The English-language version of these Terms controls. Any translation is provided for convenience only.

20. Contact

Indie Author Academy LLC
657 Timberfalls Lane, Henderson, NV 89015, USA
General: admin@indieauthormedia.com
Legal: legal@indieauthormedia.com
Billing: billing@indieauthormedia.com
Privacy: privacy@indieauthormedia.com
Security: security@indieauthormedia.com
DMCA: dmca@indieauthormedia.com
Cancel: cancel@indieauthormedia.com