Terms of Service

Last updated: 3 September 2026

These are the terms for using Help This Book. We've tried to write them in plain English. If anything is unclear, email us at hello@usefulbooks.com and we'll explain.

The short version

• Authors own their manuscripts. Readers own their feedback. We own the software.
• We only use your content to run the service. We never republish or excerpt it.
• Subscriptions renew automatically. Cancel any time from your settings.
• Not happy within 30 days of your first purchase? Full refund, no questions asked.
• Be decent to each other and don't break the law or the service.

1. Who we are

Help This Book is run by Useful Books Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 13412402). Our registered office is 66 Paul Street, London, England, EC2A 4NA. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean Useful Books Limited.

"You" means the person using Help This Book, whether as an author, a reader, or a visitor to an author's book site.

2. What Help This Book is

Help This Book is a beta reading platform. Authors upload drafts of their books and share them with readers. Readers read those drafts and leave feedback: highlights, reactions and comments. Authors can see that feedback, along with how far readers got and where they slowed down or stopped.

Authors can also publish a public web page for their book (a "book site"), optionally on their own domain, to collect readers and, later, sell the finished book.

3. Agreeing to these terms

By creating an account, subscribing, or using Help This Book in any way, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use the service.

If you're using Help This Book on behalf of a company or publisher, you confirm you have authority to bind them to these terms, and "you" includes them too.

4. Your account

You sign in with your email address. We send you a link or code; there's no password to remember.

• You must be at least 16 years old to hold an account. To buy a subscription, you must be 18 or otherwise legally able to enter a contract.
• Keep your email address current. It's how we reach you and how you get back in.
• You're responsible for what happens under your account. Don't share sign-in links or codes.
• One person, one account. Don't impersonate anyone or create accounts by automated means.

Readers can sometimes read and react without creating an account. If you later sign in with your email, we'll link that earlier activity to your account.

5. Your content

Authors

You keep every right to your manuscript, your book site content, your cover, and anything else you upload. We claim no ownership.

You give us permission to store, process, display, back up and transmit your content solely so we can provide the service to you and to the readers you choose to share it with. That includes converting your uploaded files into a readable format and delivering them to readers' browsers. This permission ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies in routine backups, which expire on their own schedule.

We will never republish, excerpt, sell or use your manuscript to train anything. If we ever want to feature your book publicly (for example as a case study), we'll ask first.

You're responsible for having the rights to what you upload. Don't upload work you don't own or have permission to share, and don't upload anything unlawful.

Readers share their feedback, reading activity and sometimes their name and email with you to help you write your book. Use that information for your book and for keeping in touch with readers who've agreed to hear from you. Don't sell it, pass it on outside your team, or add people to mailing lists they didn't sign up for.

Readers

You keep ownership of the comments and feedback you write. Because the whole point of Help This Book is to help the author, you give the author a permanent, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use your feedback in developing, editing, publishing and promoting their book, in any form. You also give us permission to store and display your feedback within the service.

When you read a draft, the author can see your highlights, reactions, comments and reading progress. If you provided your name or email when requesting access or following a book, the author can see those too. Please see our Privacy Policy for details.

Drafts you read on Help This Book are the author's unpublished work. Don't copy, share, or distribute them beyond the service without the author's permission.

Feedback to us

If you send us ideas or suggestions about Help This Book itself, we can use them freely without owing you anything. We appreciate them.

6. Book sites and custom domains

If you publish a book site, you're responsible for its content and for complying with any laws that apply to you, including consumer and advertising rules if you sell your book from it.

If you connect your own domain, you're responsible for owning and renewing it and for the DNS changes needed. We'll help where we can, but we can't control your registrar.

7. Acceptable use

Please don't:

• upload or post anything unlawful, infringing, defamatory, or that harasses or threatens others;
• use Help This Book to distribute spam, malware, or unsolicited marketing;
• scrape, crawl or bulk-download content, or access the service by automated means other than standard search engines;
• probe, disrupt, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the service, other accounts, or our infrastructure;
• resell or sublicense access to the service;
• remove or hide any notices or attribution we include.

If a reader's comment is abusive, authors can remove it. If you see something that shouldn't be on Help This Book, tell us at hello@usefulbooks.com.

8. Subscriptions and payment

Reading and giving feedback is free. Authors need a paid subscription to use the full service.

• Billing. Payments are handled by Paddle, who act as the merchant of record. Paddle's own terms apply to the payment itself. Prices are shown in US dollars at checkout; applicable taxes are added based on your location.
• Renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or yearly) until you cancel.
• Cancelling. You can cancel any time from your account settings. You keep access until the end of the period you've paid for, and you won't be charged again.
• Price changes. If we change the price of your plan, we'll email you at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you don't want to pay the new price, cancel before then.
• Trials and offers. If we offer a free trial or a discount, its specific terms will be shown when you sign up.

9. Refunds

If you're not happy with Help This Book within 30 days of your first payment, email hello@usefulbooks.com and we'll refund you in full. No questions asked.

After 30 days, and for renewal payments, we don't offer refunds for partial periods, but you can cancel at any time and keep access until the period ends. This doesn't affect your legal rights as a consumer if the service is faulty or not as described.

10. When an account ends

If you cancel your subscription, your projects and feedback remain in your account so you can export them; you'll need an active subscription to keep editing and sharing. If you'd like your data deleted, ask us.

If you delete your account, or ask us to, we'll delete your personal data as described in our Privacy Policy. Feedback you gave as a reader remains available to the author, as it forms part of their work, but it will no longer be linked to your identity.

11. What we promise, and what we don't

We work hard to keep Help This Book fast, reliable and secure, and we back up data regularly. But we're a small team and we can't promise the service will be available or error-free at all times. Please keep your own copy of your manuscript.

We provide Help This Book "as is". To the extent the law allows, we exclude all implied warranties, and we aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, lost profits, or lost data. Our total liability to you for anything arising from the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that can't be limited by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or your statutory rights as a consumer.

12. Suspending or ending accounts

We may suspend or close your account if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, if we're required to by law, or if your use poses a risk to the service or other users. Where reasonable, we'll warn you first and give you a chance to fix things and to export your content.

We may also retire Help This Book or parts of it. If we do, we'll give you at least 90 days' notice and a way to export your data.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. For material changes we'll email account holders before they take effect. Minor changes (clarifications, typos) may be posted without notice. The date at the top tells you when the terms last changed. Continuing to use Help This Book after a change means you accept it.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute. If you're a consumer living elsewhere, you keep any protections of your local law that can't be overridden, and you may bring claims in your local courts.

15. Other bits

These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us about Help This Book. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce something straight away, we can still enforce it later. We may transfer our rights under these terms to a successor business; you may not transfer yours without our consent.

16. Contact

Useful Books Limited 66 Paul Street, London, England, EC2A 4NA hello@usefulbooks.com