Refund policy

This policy covers deposits, cancellations and refunds. It sits under the Australian Consumer Law, which gives you guarantees that cannot be excluded: services must be provided with due care and skill, be fit for the purpose agreed, and be delivered within a reasonable time. If we fail one of those, you are entitled to a remedy regardless of anything below.

Before work starts

• Quotes, the editorial read behind them and the written scope are free. Nothing is owed if you decide not to proceed.
• If you cancel after accepting a quote but before a stage begins, any deposit for that stage is refunded in full.

Once a stage begins

Work is invoiced by stage, which keeps cancellation simple: you pay for what has been done and you keep the files produced.

• Editing: once an editor has begun reading or marking up your manuscript, that stage is payable. If it is cancelled partway, we invoice the proportion completed and send you the marked-up material as it stands.
• Cover design: payable from the point concepts are presented. If you cancel before concepts, the design deposit is refunded in full.
• Typesetting: payable from the point sample pages are delivered.
• Printing: not refundable once a print run has gone to press, because the copies exist. A proof copy is always sent first, specifically so this decision is made before the run.
• ISBN registration and legal deposit: the agency fee is not refundable once ISBNs are purchased, as they are issued to you.
• Marketing: the planning stage is payable once delivered. Advertising spend already placed with a platform cannot be recovered.

If the work is not right

Tell us. Most problems are fixed by doing the work again properly, which is the first remedy we offer and usually the one authors want.

• A printing fault that is ours or the printer’s — a misaligned spine, a colour shift from the approved proof, a binding failure — is reprinted at no cost to you.
• A file that does not meet the specification in your scope is rebuilt at no cost.
• An edit that was not performed with due care and skill is re-done by a different editor, at no cost.
• Where a problem cannot reasonably be fixed, we refund the fee for the affected stage.

What is not a fault: disliking a cover you approved, changing the manuscript after typesetting, or the book not selling. The first two are quoted as new work. The third is not something any publisher can refund, and we say so before you engage us rather than after.

How to ask for a refund

Write to us using the contact details in the footer, with your project name and what has gone wrong. We will reply within five business days with a position and, where a refund is due, pay it within ten business days to the account the invoice was paid from.

If we disagree

If we cannot resolve it between us, you can take the matter to the consumer protection agency in your state or territory, or to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. We would rather fix the problem than argue about it, and we will not ask you to waive any right as a condition of a remedy.