TERMS & CONDITIONS

SECTION I

GENERAL TERMS:

• All sales are final.

• No refunds or returns.

SECTION II

SCHEDULING/APPOINTMENTS:

• All services—minus pre-made cover alterations—must be scheduled.
• Services should be booked well ahead of any other scheduled deadlines Client may have such as cover reveal, KDP pre-order submissions, ARC distribution, etc. Client understands that turnaround times are the same for everyone (excluding VIP clients) and that their appointment could run anywhere from 1-3 weeks, longer still depending on time of year or if excess alterations are requested. Furthermore, the Designer is not responsible for any missed deadlines due to finalization delays and/or too-close-to-deadline bookings.
• Client agrees to have a general design vision ready to provide to the Designer on appointment day. An order form will be provided to Client in which they can apply this vision. This form must be filled out within 24-hours, otherwise, the appointment will be considered abandoned and a $75 no-show fee will apply.
• Every Black Widow Designs service comes with an allotted number of stock photo credits from DepositPhotos. Any additional photo(s) that needs to be licensed after the fact is $10 per image unless Client is providing them.

CANCELLATIONS:

In the event Client needs to cancel, cancellation fees apply within certain timeframes. Fees are as follows:

Cancellations made any time before the two weeks leading up to appointment: $50
Cancellations made within two weeks leading up to appointment: $75
Cancellations made one week to 24 hours prior to appointment: $100
Cancellations made after appointment date/before design work has begun: $150
Cancellations made after design work has begun: $200

TURNAROUND TIME:

Standard turnaround time for all services is 1-3 weeks. In the event the Designer needs more time to complete the Client's project than originally stated (i.e. illness, medical emergency, family emergency, etc), Client will be contacted to set up a new finalization date and/or cancel if a new date cannot be agreed upon.

RUSH SERVICES:

Black Widow Designs does not actively promote rush services due to heavy scheduling, but it can be provided if an author finds themselves in a bind.

Fees are additional to the final price of the design invoice and are as follows:

5 day rush: $200
3 day rush: $300
1 day rush: $500

PROOFS:

Regardless of what service is to be completed, Black Widow Designs does not offer multiple concepts during the initial proofing phase. One design proof will be provided in which the Client can then request alterations or a new concept altogether. Additional concepts can be provided at a cost.

• Each service comes with three rounds of changes. Additional alterations after the allotted number has been exceeded will come with a charge of $15 PER round. These accrued fees will be reflected on Client's final invoice.

• Client agrees to thoroughly review their files before approving for finalization. Black Widow Designs is not responsible for any claims/losses based on errors/inaccuracies appearing in Client's files after they've been approved for finalization and submitted to the Client.

• Upon finalization approval, all necessary images/elements will be licensed by Designer unless Client is providing them. *Please see Section IIV for more information.

PAYMENT:

• Payment is due in full and within 24 hours of invoicing unless an alternate payment option has been discussed prior to invoicing.

FILE DISTRIBUTION:

Once the invoice has been paid, the Client will receive an email with a Google Drive link (or DropBox for those who don't use Google) that houses all of their high-resolution files. The Client will have full editing access to this folder for a 90-day period where they can continuously download these images. The Client understands that after the 90-days, this folder will be removed from the Drive/DropBox, and it is their sole responsibility to save their files to a safe place beforehand.

CHANGES AFTER PAYMENT/APPROVAL:

Should the Client request any changes after finalization and/or after payment has been been received, and the Designer has delivered the files, a $25 alteration fee will apply and may increase with the number of files that need to be revised. Client also understands their final files are not to be altered in any way, shape, or form by anyone except Black Widow Designs without permission.

SECTION III

PREMADES:

• All premades will sell only once.

• All premade sales are final.

• No refunds or returns.

• Payment is due in full within 24 hours of invoicing.

• Failure to do so will cancel out the invoice, thus rendering the premade available for purchase again.

PREMADE CHANGES:

• If a pre-made is purchased but Client does not have use for it yet or is not ready to make changes, the Designer will gladly hold onto the cover for five years. After a five-year period, Client understands that if they have not returned for their premade, the Designer is at full liberty to permanently delete the original source-file. *Please see FAQs tab for more information.

• In the same hand, if a premade is purchased and Client is ready to have those changes made, an order form will be provided upon request. Please allow 1 week after submitting the form for changes to be made.

SECTION IV

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY/COPYRIGHT OWNERSHIP

In the event that any copyrighted work(s) are created as a result of the Services provided by the Designer in accordance with this Agreement, the Designer owns all copyrights in any and all work(s) it creates or produces pursuant to federal copyright law (Title 17, Chapter 2, Section 201-02 of the United States Code), whether registered or unregistered. Any and all products, whether tangible or intangible, produced or created in connection with, or in the process of fulfilling this Agreement, are expressly and solely owned by the Designer and may be used in the reasonable course of Designer's business.

Permitted Uses of Product(s)

While the Designer maintains full rights of all of their original designs and concepts, the Designer grants to the Client an exclusive license of product(s) produced with and for Client for personal/commercial use so long as Client provides the Designer/Black Widow Designs with attribution. These uses include, but are not limited to, use within the following contexts:

Client may not run their Files through Generative AI.
Client may not copy, duplicate, recreate, or alter the Files or allow others to copy, duplicate, recreate, alter or use them.
Client may not crop, distort, manipulate, reconfigure, mimic, create derivative works or extract portions or in any other manner, alter the Files. All copyright, trademarks, design rights and other intellectual property (registered and unregistered) shall remain vested in the Designer. The Client agrees that such proprietary material is solely for Client’s own personal/commercial use of their books.
Any disclosure to a third party, copying or republishing any portion of the Deliverable or its contents is strictly prohibited and constitutes infringement.
If the Client is partway into a series and would like to proceed with any other designer that is not Black Widow Designs, permission to recreate the series/images can be granted via written and signed agreement only.

LICENSING/IMAGE USE:

The Designer offers a preset amount of stock photo credits for each service. Amount will depend on what package the Client has selected. The Designer will maintain full rights to those images. Should Client choose to provide images instead, whether stock or exclusive, the Client will maintain full rights to said images. The Client must obtain the correct rights/permissions for commercial use of the image(s) they are providing and ensure they are not AI generated. Client also understands that stock images are in no way exclusive, and that the same or similar images/models may appear on other authors and/or designers' work. The Designer will not be held liable for covers/branding/formatting/swag created by a different designer that contain the same imagery.

ATTRIBUTION:

The Designer/Black Widow Designs requires design credit of appropriate service(s) to appear in their initial cover/art reveal posts along with inside the Client’s book on the copyright page. Any of the forms below are acceptable:

ARTISTIC RELEASE

Client has spent a satisfactory amount of time reviewing Designer's work and has a reasonable expectation that Designer will perform the Services in a similar manner and style unless otherwise specified.

Consistency

The Designer will use reasonable efforts to ensure Client's desired Services are produced in a style and manner consistent with the Designer's current portfolio. However, every client is different, with different tastes, budgets, and needs. Design services are often a subjective art and the Designer may have a unique vision, with an ever-evolving style and technique.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY:

The Client agrees that the maximum amount of damages he or she is entitled to in any claim relating to this Agreement or Services provided in this Agreement are not to exceed the Total Cost of Services provided by the Designer.

Loss of Business.

The Client agrees not to hold the Designer liable for any loss of business, revenues, or reputation resulting from outside factors like, for example, "models behaving badly". The Client also understands that while the Designer strives to create unique, eye-catching designs, the Designer cannot guarantee sales or success of any kind on Client's end.

Indemnification.

The Client agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Designer for any injury, property damage, liability, claim or other cause of action arising out of or related to Services and/or product(s) the Designer provides to the Client.

IMPOSSIBILITY:

Force Majeure.
No party shall be liable or responsible to the other party, nor be deemed to have defaulted under or breached this Agreement, for any failure or delay in fulfilling or performing any term of this Agreement (except for any obligations to make payments to the other party hereunder), when and to the extent such failure or delay is caused by or results from acts beyond the impacted party’s (“Impacted Party”) control, including, but not limited to, the following force majeure events (“Force Majeure Events”): (a) acts of God; (b) a natural disaster (fires, explosions, earthquakes, hurricane, flooding, storms, explosions, infestations), epidemic, or pandemic; (c) war, invasion, hostilities (whether war is declared or not), terrorist threats or acts, riot or other civil unrest; (d) government order or law; (e) actions, embargoes or blockades in effect on or after the date of this Agreement; (f) action by any governmental authority; (g) national or regional emergency; (h) strikes, labor stoppages or slowdowns or other industrial disturbances; and (i) shortage of adequate power or transportation facilities. The Impacted Party shall give Notice within seven days of the Force Majeure Event to the other party, stating the period of time the occurrence is expected to continue. The Impacted Party shall use diligent efforts to end the failure or delay and ensure the effects of such Force Majeure Event are minimized. The Impacted Party shall resume the performance of its obligations as soon as reasonably practicable after the removal of the cause. In the event that the Impacted Party’s failure or delay remains uncured for a period of seven days following Notice given by it, the other party may thereafter terminate this Agreement upon Notice.

CODE OF FAIR PRACTICE:

The Designer/Black Widow Designs proudly states that the work provided to the Client is a 100% original creation, and has not been previously produced/published anywhere else. The work provided also does not contain any unlawful matter including generative AI. Author also understands they, or anyone else, may not use Black Widow Designs' original work in any way that may infringe upon the rights of others.