Terms of Service
& Seller Agreement

Agreement and seller eligibility

These Terms of Service and Seller Agreement govern anyone who lists, gives away, buys, or sells a book through Live Free & Read (the “Platform”). By creating a listing or completing a transaction, you agree to these terms and represent that you are legally able to enter into this agreement.

Seller accounts are personal unless the Platform approves a business account. Sellers are responsible for activity performed through their accounts and for keeping account information accurate and secure.

Seller guarantee and authenticity

• Accurate descriptions. Describe the book’s actual condition, edition, binding, format, and all material flaws, including highlighting, writing, odors, water damage, spine damage, missing pages, ex-library markings, or missing supplemental material.
• Authenticity and ownership. You guarantee that you own or are authorized to sell the item and that it is a genuine, lawfully made physical copy—not counterfeit, pirated, stolen, or an unauthorized print-on-demand edition.
• Listing integrity. Photographs must show the actual copy offered unless the Platform clearly labels a catalog image. Listings may not contain deceptive pricing, unrelated keywords, or materially false information.

Order fulfillment and shipping

• Ship a paid order within 3 business days after purchase notification using the selected tracking-supported method.
• Package books with reasonable protection from moisture, bending, edge damage, and movement in transit.
• Use an accurate origin address, package size, and weight. The seller is responsible for carrier adjustments caused by inaccurate shipment information.
• If an order has not shipped within 5 business days, the Platform may cancel it, refund the buyer, and record the failure in the seller’s account standing.

Three-day buyer guarantee

A buyer may report a qualifying problem within 3 calendar days after carrier-confirmed delivery. Qualifying claims include an item that is significantly not as described, materially damaged because of inadequate packaging, counterfeit, or missing from the shipment.

While a timely claim is reviewed, the Platform may pause the seller payout, request photographs or other evidence, require a tracked return, deny an unsupported claim, issue a partial adjustment agreed to by the parties, or refund the buyer when the claim is validated.

Buyer’s remorse, a disclosed flaw, or ordinary variation in used-book condition is not automatically a qualifying claim.

Payout hold and seller responsibility

Seller proceeds ordinarily become eligible for payout 3 calendar days after confirmed delivery when no claim is open. Sellers may choose to group eligible proceeds on a weekly, monthly, or annual payout schedule. Schedule changes apply prospectively and remain subject to verification, provider availability, minimums, weekends, holidays, and banking timelines.

This operational payout hold and earnings display are not represented as a bank account, deposit account, or regulated escrow service. Final payout timing and services depend on the Platform’s payment provider. If a claim is validated, the seller may lose the payout for that transaction. Where permitted by law and the payment-provider agreement, the Platform may recover a refund from pending proceeds, future seller earnings, or the seller’s authorized payment method. Sellers remain responsible for negative balances associated with their transactions.

Fees, subscriptions, and cancellations

Live Free & Read charges 0% platform commission on a seller’s book price. The Free plan includes unlimited saved listings, up to three public paid titles at once, up to three paid book sales per calendar month, and unlimited Free Books listings. Paid selling tools are offered through the All Access membership at $3.99 per month or $39 per year, subject to the plan terms shown at enrollment.

Stripe’s third-party payment-processing charge is separate from the platform commission. The actual Stripe charge is deducted from seller proceeds and itemized in the seller’s transaction record. Stripe may change its rates. Carrier charges, taxes, refunds, chargebacks, and optional services are also separate and may be deducted or collected when applicable. Subscription cancellation stops future renewals but does not erase charges, disputes, or obligations already incurred.

Free Books

A seller may list an eligible book for $0 and must choose one shipping arrangement before publishing: Seller Pays, meaning the seller is responsible for the disclosed carrier and label charge, or Buyer Pays, meaning the selected buyer is responsible for that charge. The choice is displayed on the listing and may not be changed after a buyer has been selected without that buyer’s express agreement. The book price must remain $0 in either arrangement.

For Buyer Pays gifts, the buyer must see and accept the carrier charge before purchasing postage; sellers may not add a hidden shipping markup or collect an undisclosed off-platform fee. Live Free & Read may help create labels and retain participant receipts or activity records, but those records are not tax forms or a determination of deductibility. Free-book participants remain subject to the authenticity, accurate-description, privacy, safety, and conduct rules in this agreement.

Prohibited items and conduct

Users may not list illegal materials, stolen property, counterfeit or pirated copies, dangerous items, personal data, or non-book media unless that category is expressly authorized. Fraud, harassment, off-platform payment manipulation, review manipulation, repeated non-shipment, and deliberate condition misrepresentation are prohibited.

The Platform may remove listings, limit features, pause payouts while investigating, suspend an account, or permanently terminate access. Any handling of funds will remain subject to validated buyer claims, payment-provider rules, and applicable law; termination does not create an automatic forfeiture unrelated to a valid obligation.

Privacy, exports, and account closure

Members may export a portable copy of their account data and may close an account from Account → Settings & Profile. Closure requires an explicit data-handling choice and typed confirmation. An account cannot close while an order, dispute, seller payout, Free Books shipment, or paid membership still requires resolution.

Mailing details supplied for a Free Books exchange are shared only with the selected buyer and seller and used to quote, purchase, create, and track the agreed shipment. The public listing may show Seller Pays or Buyer Pays, but never displays a private address or full payment credential.

Members may request immediate personal-data erasure, export before erasure, or a 365-day recovery period. During the recovery period, the profile and listings are hidden and active sessions are revoked; signing in before the stated expiration restores the account. At expiration, personal data is scheduled for deletion.

Deletion removes sign-in methods, provider tokens, sessions, profile content and images, private addresses, preferences, and other deletable personal data. The Platform may retain a minimal anonymized transaction or compliance record when reasonably necessary for payouts, disputes, fraud prevention, tax, accounting, safety, or legal obligations. Those records are not used to recreate a public profile.

Platform role and policy changes

Live Free & Read provides marketplace and transaction tools but is not the owner or publisher of books listed by independent users. Features described in this draft—including payments, automated shipping, buyer protection, and payouts—apply only when those services are enabled and may be supplemented by payment-provider or carrier terms.

The Platform may update these terms prospectively. Material changes will be presented through the website or account notice before they take effect where required. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.