Copyright Policy
Last updated: 10/31/26
Your work stays yours
You own your manuscript, and nothing in our services transfers any ownership of your writing to us. We don’t take copyright, we don’t take publishing rights, and we don’t take a share of your royalties. When you work with us on editing, coaching, or publishing support, you keep every right you walked in with.
If you publish independently through us, you buy and own your ISBNs, your retailer accounts belong to you, and 100% of your royalties are paid directly to you.
The permission we need
To do the work you’ve hired us for, we need limited permission to handle your manuscript (edit, format, make notes on it, etc.) and share it with the editors, designers, or proofreaders on our team working on your project.
That permission is limited to the work itself, and it ends when the project does. It does not ever allow us to publish, sell, distribute, or adapt your work for any other purpose.
Confidentiality
While we’re working together, your work is confidential. We don’t share your manuscript, your ideas, or the details of your project with anyone outside the team working on it without your permission. If we’d like to recommend you or your manuscript to an agent, we will request your permission first.
Once your book is published, we reserve the right to share and advertise the cover, the title, your author name and image, and the book’s description on our websites and social media. It’s free promotion for you, and we love to promote authors!
Anything you’ve told us in confidence stays private, and we’ll always ask before sharing your testimonial.
Artificial intelligence
We don’t put your work into AI tools that train on it or store it. Your manuscript isn’t used to train anyone’s model, and it isn’t fed into a system that keeps it. Where a tool offers settings that prevent training or retention, we use them.
The editing and the coaching are human. Every structural note, every line edit, every piece of career advice comes from a person on our team who has read your pages.
One honest caveat. Generative AI is now built into ordinary software, such as word processors, email, cloud storage, and spell-checkers. We can’t promise your manuscript will never touch a tool with an AI feature somewhere in it, because that would mean promising not to use Microsoft Word. What we can promise is that we don’t knowingly submit your work to any system that can train on it or keep it, and that no part of our editorial work is generated for you.
If any part of your manuscript was written with AI assistance, please tell us up front. It changes how we approach the edit, and some agents and publishers now ask authors to disclose it.
Work we create for you
When we design a cover, format your interior, or build marketing materials, you receive the final, print-ready files, including:
Print-ready cover PDF, sized to your book’s exact specifications
Interior files formatted for print and ebook
Cover images in the formats you’ll need for retailers, your website, and social media
You’re free to use these files however you like for your book and its promotion, for as long as you like.
We keep the editable source files. The working design documents our designers build in stay with us. This is standard practice in book design, and it means that if you need a change later (a new edition, a hardcover version, a different trim size) we can make it quickly and consistently rather than rebuilding from scratch. (Minor changes to an existing cover are made for a small fee.)
Stock images and fonts in your cover are licensed from third parties (or provided by you, if you prefer) for use on your book. For any other use, check the license terms first (we’ll tell you what was used).
What you’re promising us
By sending us your work, you confirm that it’s yours, that you have the right to share it with us, and that it doesn’t infringe anyone else’s copyright. If your manuscript includes material you didn’t write (song lyrics, poetry, long quotations, images) securing permission to use that material is your responsibility.
What we don’t do
We don’t register copyright on your behalf, and we don’t check your manuscript for plagiarism or clear permissions for you.
We also can’t speak to whether your finished book is fully protectable. Copyright law around AI-assisted writing is still developing, and whether any particular passage can be registered is between you, your attorney, and the Copyright Office.
Our website and materials
Everything on this website, including text, design, images, course materials, templates, and resources, either belongs to The Writer’s Sanctuary or is used under license or with permission. You’re welcome to read it, share links to it, and quote short passages with credit.
You may not copy, republish, resell, or distribute our materials, or use them to build a competing service. Materials provided as part of a program or package are for your personal use and may not be shared.
Spotted a problem?
If you believe anything on this site infringes your copyright, email us at thewriterssanctuary2@gmail.com and we’ll look into it straight away.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed.
Questions
Email us at thewriterssanctuary2@gmail.com.