Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

Contents

Most recent update: 12 July 2019

Please read these Terms and conditions carefully. These terms and conditions cover the use of this site (www.indiemosh.com.au) and the publishing aggregation and distribution services provided by this site.
By publishing with IndieMosh, you agree to these terms and conditions. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, then do not publish with IndieMosh.
In these Terms and conditions:

• the words ‘you’, ‘the author’, ‘the writer’, ‘the publisher’ or ‘the account holder’ may be used interchangeably
• the words ‘book’ and ‘ebook’ and ‘work’ may be used interchangeably
• the words ‘we’ and ‘IndieMosh’ may be used interchangeably.

1. The Service

IndieMosh provides a self publishing service to Australian authors only.
This service allows Australian authors to upload their book manuscript in digital format for creation and distribution as an ebook (digital format) or as a print on demand book.
IndieMosh is not primarily a retailer of ebooks or print on demand books.
IndieMosh is an aggregator, publisher and distributor of ebooks and print on demand books.
IndieMosh takes no responsibility for the content of submitted works. The owner of any book found to be in breach or violation of any law will be liable in the event of legal action.
IndieMosh collects royalties and commissions from recognised worldwide ebook and print on demand distributors and retailers on behalf of you, the author.
IndieMosh disburses a minimum of 85% of all net royalties and commissions collected to the account holder of each book, on an ISBN basis.
IndieMosh retains a maximum of 15% of all net royalties and commissions collected as a service (accounting and administration) fee.

2. Geographical rights

By using the IndieMosh service, you grant and assign IndieMosh the nonexclusive worldwide right to digitally publish and distribute to online retailers the work identified on the first page of your submission. This means that your book will be available for purchase online, anywhere in the world, to anyone in the world with digital access to the retailers which we may use from time to time.
You may publish your work with other online retailers, but not using the IndieMosh files.

3. End of contract

Your contract with us ends when you withdraw your book from the IndieMosh service by asking us to unpublish it. If you ask us to unpublish your work, we will action this request within five working days, but please note that it can take up to eight weeks for each individual retailer to remove your book from their shelves.
If you unpublish your work, we will pay outstanding royalties as and when they become due. Due to the delay in receiving royalties from retailers, this may be some weeks or months after the date your book is unpublished.
If you unpublish your work, this will only prevent further sales, it does not remove sold ebooks from ereading devices or computers.

4. Publication of your work

IndieMosh is a service to enable worldwide publication of works by Australian authors in a digital or print on demand format.
IndieMosh publishes the content of those works as they are submitted, without editorial intervention, unless this has been paid for as part of the service..
IndieMosh will add imprint, publishing and possibly marketing data (e.g. ‘please review my book’ requests) to your work to comply with our retailer’s requirements.
IndieMosh will refuse to publish any works which, in our opinion, appear to violate these Terms and conditions.

5. Your obligation as an author

5(a) Publishing rights

By using the IndieMosh service, you confirm that:

• you are who you say you are
• the work is entirely your own work
• if the work is not entirely your own work, that credit is given to co-authors, illustrators and other contributors
• if the work is not entirely your own work, that you have secured the appropriate copyright permissions from any owners of any component you intend to use in your work e.g. song lyrics
• this is not a public domain work
• you are the sole owner of the rights to the work
• if you work has been previously published by a publisher, that you have obtained written confirmation that all rights have reverted to you or been passed to you and that you are now free to self publish or re-publish the book
• that this is a complete work, and not a partial work, or a work in progress, or a collection of sample chapters. One complete book in a series counts as a complete work. You are not required to publish the entire series at once, but the work should stand alone as well as being identifiable as part of a series
• you have not assigned, pledged, or encumbered such rights and have not entered into any agreement which would conflict with the rights granted to IndieMosh and that you agree not to do any of the aforementioned without first unpublishing the work at IndieMosh
• you have the full right, power and authority to enter into this agreement and to grant the rights herein.

5(b) Content of your work

By using the IndieMosh service, you confirm that your work contains no content which will:

• violate any right of privacy in a libellous manner
• violate any personal right or other right of any kind of any person or entity (this includes publishing a person's private email address or photo or other image of them without their permission)
• violate any of your contracts with others
• disclose any confidential information given to you by others on the understanding that it would not be published or disclosed
• plagiarise or pirate any other work or infringe upon any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right
• injure the book’s buyer or any other end user of the book, including but not limited to recipes, formulae or instructions
• violate any federal or state laws of Australia
• incite or promote hate, discrimination, racism or violence toward others
• incite or promote illegal activities
• contain images of persons committing acts of graphic or sexual violence on other persons (including children) or on animals or property

5(c) Work not allowed

By uploading your work to the IndieMosh service, you confirm that it does not fall under the categories listed in this section. IndieMosh does not allow:

• works which promote get rich quick schemes about using the internet to make money, either via publishing ebooks or any other form of action
• works which contain keyword spam (SEO spam) in either the content or the metadata (information about your book)
• partial books or works. Only whole books are permitted
• works which are primarily designed as advertisements for services
• works which contain hyperlinks to affiliate marketing pages
• works which promote development of projects or works based on the use of private label rights content
• works which have been developed from private label rights
• works which have been developed or ‘scraped’ from public domain information such as that found on government websites, wiki websites,  corporate, non-government or other commercial websites
• book covers or interiors which contain graphic images of nudity or persons involved in sexual acts or witnessing persons involved in sexual acts
• works which appear elsewhere on the internet as authored by others or using different pseudonyms to the author name you used for your work on IndieMosh
• works which have been compiled from sources which license the same content or text to other people
• works which contain computer-generated or machine-generated language translations. If your book or any passages therein require translation, then a human translator should be employed for this purpose

6. Publication

6(a) Acceptance of submitted works

• With the exception of imprint pages and formatting work, IndieMosh will generally publish your work as uploaded without editing or modifying it, unless you have purchased an editing or proofreading service.
• In the event that we have edited or modified your work, you will be delivered a proof (in Word, ePub, mobi or PDF format, depending on the publishing package you purchased) for your approval.
• If you purchase a print on demand package, the cost of the first proof is included in the package cost. Subsequent proof copies will be charged at AUD$75 each.
• If you make changes to the proof which are changes which should have been made to the original work prior to uploading it, additional charges may apply.
• You understand that conversion to an ebook may result in a loss of some formatting and design. Ebooks are not intended to look like print books and IndieMosh cannot guarantee that the original formatting will be preserved following conversion.

6(b) Rejection of submitted works

IndieMosh respects the needs of its retail partners and distributors for quality, properly developed ebooks and print on demand books.

• It is your duty to understand what type of work IndieMosh allows and the quality of the work which IndieMosh requires. You should understand and follow the style guides and formatting guides on this website and these Terms and conditions before submitting a work to IndieMosh.
• IndieMosh does not read any submitted works, but may peruse for content or cover violations and may notice formatting or design issues or content or cover violations as part of the conversion process.
• If any content or cover violations, formatting or design issues are noticed, and these transgressions are considered serious enough, we will refuse to publish the work as submitted.
• IndieMosh will not publish poorly edited or formatted works.
• You will be given the right to amend or revise the work and resubmit the work for consideration.
• If you do not amend or revise the work and resubmit it for consideration, you will not be entitled to a refund of your package fee.
• IndieMosh may decide not to publish your work or works for any reason.
• IndieMosh may decide to discontinue publication and distribution of your work or works for any reason.
• Where a work is rejected, either before or after publication, except in the case of gross violation of these Terms and conditions, IndieMosh will make every attempt to provide reasonable notice to you via email about our intention not to publish or to discontinue publishing and distributing your work. Where we feel the work can be remedied, we will include instructions on how to remedy identified issues so that we can continue to publish your work. If we feel the work can’t be remedied, you will be advised. You will not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid.

6(c) Copyright

IndieMosh does not claim copyright over your work. You will own the copyright in the work.
It is your responsibility to record suitable copyright information in your book.
In the case of a MoshPit Publishing ISBN, it will be IndieMosh’s responsibility to inform the National Library of Australia of your copyright details and Thorpe-Bowker of your publication details. IndieMosh will also forward copies of your book for legal deposit to the appropriate libraries.
In the case of supplying your own ISBN, it is your responsibility to advise the relevant information to the National Library of Australia and Thorpe-Bowker and to forward the appropriate copies of your book to the appropriate libraries.

6(d) Copyright infringements by you against others

IndieMosh will not tolerate copyright infringements or plagiarism.

• If it is brought to our attention (via a legitimate Infringement Notice - see below) that a work infringes on another’s copyright or contains defamatory content, we will take immediate action to suspend distribution of that work until such time as the matter is resolved.
• We may, subject to our discretion, act upon other advices not received via a legitimate Infringement Notice if we feel that the situation warrants it.
• We will inform you immediately if a claim of infringement has been lodged against your work.
• The work will be republished if we receive written notification from the claimant who lodged the Infringement Notice or a Court Order that the work may be republished.
• We reserve the right to remove other publications by you and additional information from the IndieMosh site about you during the course of any court actions.

6(e) Copyright infringements against you

If you learn that another person or organisation is violating your copyright or redistributing your works illegally, please inform us. However, it is your responsibility to take action against any offending parties or websites.
If you notice that someone has published your work or violated your copyright on the IndieMosh site, please advise the name and ISBN of the work and we will suspend distribution immediately, pending processes and approval to republish it as per section 6(d) above. 

7 Book formats and publication channels

7(a) Print on demand

IndieMosh will format your print on demand book for creation via Ingram’s Lightning Source service and Amazon’s KDP service. Once your book is published, you will be able to purchase print copies via IndieMosh at a wholesale price. This price of your order will vary depending on the specifications of your book (e.g. paperback, hardback, black and white printing, colour), how many copies you wish to purchase and where they need to be sent.

7(b) Kindle

IndieMosh will format your ebook for sale on Amazon as a Kindle (.mobi) ebook. You may elect to take part in Amazon’s KDP Select program, or not.

7(c) Epub

IndieMosh will format your ebook for sale on Smashwords in epub format. If the book is admitted to Smashwords’ Premium Catalogue, it will then be distributed to Smashwords’ retail partners, in particular the Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and other Smashwords partner retailers from time to time.

7(d) Rights restrictions

Under 5(a) of these Terms and conditions, you grant IndieMosh a non exclusive worldwide license to publish your book. This means you may also publish it in other formats and in other places. However, you may not use the IndieMosh formatted files to publish your book elsewhere. To publish with other retailers, you will need to supply them with files created by yourself or someone else to their standard. IndieMosh files are created solely for distribution by IndieMosh.
Violation of this section may result in forfeiture of any royalties earned.

8. Royalties

Where no claims have been lodged against you or your work, IndieMosh will pay royalties as follows:

8(a) Royalty rate

The Royalty rate payable by IndieMosh will be 85% of the net amount received in our bank account less Australian GST.
The net amount received in our bank account will be primarily in US dollars, converted to Australian dollars on the day of receipt, and reduced before receipt in our bank account by any or all of retailer sales commissions, US withholding tax, UK and other VAT if so applied, exchange rate commissions, exchange rate losses or gains, and telegraphic transfer fees.
Therefore, the amount you receive will not be equivalent to 85% of the retail price and is absolutely impossible to predict.

8(b) Retailers’ royalty rates

Various retailers pay different rates. Smashwords pays, on average, 85% net of their receipts, but has other rates depending on if the book was sold as an affiliate sale. Refer to the Smashwords website at www.smashwords.com for more information on their royalty calculations.
Amazon pays 70% or 35% on Kindle ebook sales, depending on the price of the book and the country in which it is sold, and whether there is a download fee or not. If your Kindle ebook is on sale between USD$2.99 and USD$9.99, we will automatically enrol it in the 70% royalty program, but not all sales will earn 70%. Sales in certain countries will automatically be at a 35% royalty and some sales will also have a download fee deducted. Refer to the Amazon KDP website at https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202181110 for more information on their royalty calculations.

8(c) Royalty rates on print on demand books

Again, the royalty rate payable by IndieMosh will be 85% of the net amount received in our bank account less Australian GST.
The net amount received in our bank account will be primarily in US dollars, converted to Australian dollars on the day of receipt, and reduced before receipt in our bank account by any or all of the cost charged to print your book, retailer sales commissions, US withholding tax, UK and other VAT if so applied, exchange rate commissions, exchange rate losses or gains, and telegraphic transfer fees.
Therefore, the amount you receive will not be equivalent to 85% of the retail price and is absolutely impossible to predict.

8(d) Royalty payments

Royalty payments will be made to you around the 21st of the month after they are received by us.
Royalty payments will be made in Australian dollars to your Australian bank account.
As Amazon pays 60 days after the end of the month, Lightning Source pays 90 days after the end of the month and Smashwords pays monthly after the end of each month, royalty payments will often occur to you four or more months after a book has sold.

8(d) Royalty reporting

As we receive funds from distributors, we account for each payment by reconciling the report to the net Australian funds received. These reconciliations are then combined to provide total information by ISBN which is then imported to our accounting system. We will then email you a ‘Recipient Created Tax Invoice’ which summarises the funds calculated as owing to you from the prior month’s receipts.
The reconciliations are then used to upload sales data to your IndieMosh account. These lines will be cross-referenced to your Recipient Created Tax Invoice.
Spreadsheets for each month are generally uploaded by the 21st of the following month. You can then log in and download these spreadsheets for your own accounting, taxation and marketing purposes.

8(e) Information required for you to receive your royalty payment

You will be required to complete banking and taxation details to enable us to pay you, and to enable us to comply with our Australian Taxation Office requirements. Failure to complete these items will mean that we will not be able to pay you any royalties due to you. You will, however, not forfeit any of these royalties. They will be held until such time as the required information is received by us.

9 Free previews

9(a) Ebook previews

Most online retailers have a preview system where potential buyers may browse inside an ebook or print on demand file to see if they would like to purchase it. While most retailers have a suggested minimum percentage, IndieMosh recommends that the first 30% of a book is an adequate and balanced portion of the book to show potential purchasers. If you would like your book to show less than 30% of the initial contact, please let us know.

9(b) Print on demand book previews

When your book is listed on Amazon, we will ask them to activate their ‘Look Inside the Book’ function for your book at a 30% preview rate, unless you request otherwise.

10 Author accounts

As part of your promotional opportunities, both Amazon and Smashwords allow you to create Author profile pages. IndieMosh will provide hyperlinks for you to create your Author profile pages on both these sites.
Smashwords requires authors to have a profile page. If you do not wish to create your own, IndieMosh will create one and manage it for you.
Amazon does not require you to have a profile page. IndieMosh is unable to create and manage your profile page for you, so if you do not with to create your own, there won’t be one.
Neither company charges authors for creating a profile page.

11 Pricing

11 (a) Ebook pricing

We strongly recommend pricing your ebook under USD$10 and in general we do not support prices higher than USD$10 for an ebook. Our recommended price range is USD$2.99 to $9.99, in line with Amazon’s 70% royalty conditions. However, these pricing suggestions are merely that - suggestions - and do not necessarily apply to special interest books, children’s books or illustrated books.

11(b) Print on demand pricing

We will contact you regarding retail pricing for your PoD book. Production costs will depend on the number of pages, whether the internals are in colour or black and white, and whether you choose to have it printed on cream or white paper. Pricing will also depend on the extended distribution channels - you will need to allow enough for there to actually be a profit once the book has been distributed.

12 DRM

IndieMosh only publishes DRM-free works, so please understand that your ebook is distributed based on the trust we have that the majority of ebook readers will not attempt to infringe your copyright.
Studies have shown that infringement will take place regardless of DRM - if someone wants to infringe your copyright, they will find a way to do it. Applying DRM to an ebook makes it harder for the buyer to transfer it between devices or to back it up.

13 Governing law

This agreement shall be governed by the laws of New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Australia. If any portion of this Agreement is held invalid, the parties agree that such invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Agreement.

14 Spam and privacy

14(a) Spam

IndieMosh, MoshPit Publishing and Mosher’s Business Support do not engage in and do not support spam practices. Any IndieMosh author found to be engaging in spamming activities, such as misleading subject lines, false email return addresses, etc, will have their account terminated and be at risk of forfeiting any accrued royalties.
Legitimate online promotion of your book does not count as spam.

14(a) Privacy

To provide our service to you, we will ask you for certain information so that we can provide our service and comply with our legal obligations. This information may include your real name, your pseudonym, your residential address, your telephone number and email address, your bank account details and your ABN, if you have one.

We do not share, rent or sell your personal contact information to anyone. Your personal information is collected to allow us to perform the work you have contracted us for, to protect us in the event of legal action, and to ensure compliance with our taxation and reporting obligations. The only other time your personal information would be released to a third party would be in the event that we are required to comply with a legal obligation such as subpoena.

15 Acknowledgement

By publishing your book or ebook through IndieMosh you acknowledge that you have read this Agreement, understand it and will be bound by its terms and conditions.

Copyright Infringement Notice

If you believe that a book published through IndieMosh violates your copyright, please contact us via our contact page, and advise:

• Your full name
• Your address, email address and telephone number
• The name of the book and author which you believe has infringed your copyright
• The content and its location in the book which appears to have infringed your copyright
• Any other information you have available to help us identify the text or images in question
• A statement to the effect that it is your solemn belief that this person has infringed your copyright and the way they have accomplished this
• A statement that you are either the copyright owner, or you are acting as the copyright owner’s authorised representative

IndieMosh will take any such claims seriously and will immediately suspend any such works from distribution pending resolution of the claim. Reinstatement of any disputed works will take place following receipt of written documentation:

• from the claimant withdrawing the claim, or
• from the claimant confirming that any revisions to the work meet with their approval and that they agree to the revised version of the work being published, or
• from a court directing IndieMosh, MoshPit Publishing and Mosher’s Business Support to republish the work unchanged, or publish a revised version of the work.

For further information, please contact us at:
IndieMosh
C/- Mosher’s Business Support Pty Ltd
PO Box 147
Hazelbrook NSW 2779