Terms of Service

Subhead is an invitation-only community. You must be at least 16 and legally able to enter into these Terms. If you are below the age of majority where you live, you must have permission from a parent or legal guardian. Invitations are personal and may not be sold or transferred.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your email account, sign-in links, browser, and devices. You must provide accurate information, keep it reasonably current, and notify us promptly if you believe your account or a private sharing link has been compromised.

Subhead provides tools for writers to publish community posts, exchange critique, discuss query letters, synopses, and pitches, arrange beta reads, participate in writing groups, manage reading progress, and share links to writing stored with third-party providers. Features may change as the Service develops.

You retain ownership of writing, feedback, profile information, and other material you submit ("User Content"). You grant Subhead a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, process, transmit, and display User Content only as needed to operate, secure, improve, and provide the Service according to the audience and feature you select. This license ends when the content is deleted from active systems, except where retention is necessary for backups, legal obligations, safety, or the integrity of contributions made by others.

You represent that you have the rights needed to submit User Content and to grant this license. You are responsible for deciding what to share and for keeping your own copies of your work.

If your User Content identifies or discusses another person, you are responsible for having a lawful basis to publish it, respecting that person's privacy and other rights, and ensuring that factual claims are accurate and fairly presented. You must distinguish fact from opinion and must not submit confidential, unlawfully obtained, or unnecessarily sensitive personal information.

Workshop, Perfect Pitch, and Forum contributions are available to the Subhead community as described in the interface. Other members may read, quote, reply to, and critique that content. Writing-group and beta-reading material is limited to relevant participants where marked private, but no online sharing method can guarantee that a recipient will not copy or disclose material. Share only content you are comfortable providing to the stated audience.

You may paste an HTTPS sharing link from Google Drive, Dropbox, or another service. Subhead stores a public-post or submission link rather than the file itself. A manuscript source link is encrypted and signed in the member's browser before it is stored. You are responsible for configuring the provider's permissions, ensuring recipients can access the file, and revoking access when appropriate. Your use of a third-party service is also governed by that provider's terms. Subhead is not responsible for the availability, security, or conduct of third-party services.

You must not use the Service to:

• infringe copyright, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, or other rights;
• harass, threaten, exploit, impersonate, defraud, or endanger another person;
• publish unlawful, malicious, or deliberately deceptive material;
• make an attributed factual claim about another person that you do not reasonably believe is accurate or cannot support if challenged;
• present speculation or opinion as an established fact, or publish personal information that is not reasonably necessary for the contribution;
• send spam, scrape member information, or use community data for unsolicited marketing;
• probe, disrupt, overload, reverse engineer, or bypass security or access controls;
• introduce malware or use automated systems without written permission; or
• use Google user data obtained through Subhead for advertising, surveillance, credit, employment, insurance, or other unrelated purposes.

Critique is subjective and does not constitute professional editorial, legal, financial, or publishing advice. Members must engage constructively and respect the boundaries and requested feedback scope of other writers. You remain responsible for editorial and publishing decisions.

We may investigate reports and remove, limit, preserve, or disclose content when reasonably necessary to operate the Service, enforce these Terms, protect members, or comply with law. We may suspend or terminate access for violations, safety concerns, legal risk, or prolonged inactivity. We are not obligated to monitor every contribution.

A person identified in User Content may request review, correction of an inaccurate factual statement, a response to be attached or otherwise made available, restriction during review, or removal of personal information by emailingprivacy@subhead.org. They do not need a Subhead account. We may ask the contributing member for context or evidence, temporarily limit the content, and take the proportionate action we consider appropriate after considering applicable law, privacy, freedom of expression, community safety, and the rights of everyone involved. We will communicate the outcome to the requester.

The Service, excluding User Content, and its software, design, branding, and documentation are owned by or licensed to Subhead and are protected by applicable law. These Terms grant only a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable right to use the Service as intended.

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Service. We aim to provide a reliable service but do not promise uninterrupted, error-free, or permanent availability. Keep independent copies of writing and other material that matters to you.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or that the Service will meet every requirement. Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Subhead will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of data, opportunity, revenue, goodwill, or profits arising from the Service. Subhead's aggregate liability arising from the Service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid Subhead during the preceding twelve months or 100 US dollars. These limitations do not apply where prohibited by law or to liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

You may stop using the Service at any time and request account closure by emailingprivacy@subhead.org. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination, including ownership, disclaimers, liability limits, and enforcement rights, will survive.

We may update these Terms as the Service or law changes. We will post the revised Terms, update the effective date, and provide additional notice for material changes. Continued use after the updated Terms take effect constitutes acceptance where permitted by law.

If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain effective. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms without our consent. We may transfer them in connection with a reorganization or transfer of the Service. These Terms and the Privacy Policy form the entire agreement concerning the Service, subject to rights that cannot be waived under the law where you live.

Questions about these Terms may be sent toprivacy@subhead.org.