Terms & Conditions

TERMS AND CONDITIONS TO BECOME AN AUTHOR MEMBER OF THE BLOODY GOOD READ! BOOK CLUB.
Author members are contributing authors, providing one or more books to the library of the BloodyGoodRead! Book club, here and after called BGR. BGR is owned and operated by New Authors Online, LLC.

As a contributing author, you attest that you are the sole owner of any novels you submit to this website; that your work is entirely fictional and does not represent real people; that no portion of your book has been copied from the works of other; that the work is not classified as ‘obscene’ or violates any laws by its publication; and that New Authors Online, LLC is not legally responsible for the content of your book,

Copyright Infringement:
The author is responsible for the filing of a copyright protection. New Authors Online, LLC is not responsible if a third party infringes on author’s copyrights. The books are downloadable in a PDF and Mobi file, but that does not ensure protection and all risk is born by the author. The author indemnifies and holds New Author Online LLC and BGR management harmless of any and all copyright related actions.

Duration of author membership:
The setup of a novel allows an author member of good standing to maintain their novel upon this site as long as the site operates. However, if a book is found to violate the terms and conditions of this agreement, by the discretion of New Authors Online, LLC it can be removed from the site with no recourse by the author. Additionally if the author is found to violate good membership guidelines, their membership to the club can be revoked, preventing further access to ‘author only’ pages of the website. The determination as to if violations warrant expulsion is solely at the discretion of New Authors Online LLC.

No Claim on Publication Rights.
The goal of most authors on this website is to be discovered and published in the traditional manner. To accommodate this goal, New Authors Online, LLC and BGR hold no claim to any publication rights of the author’s works.

Removal of Books from site:
If an author is requested to remove his/her book by the new found agent or publisher, upon notification, New Authors Online will do so as quickly as feasible at no charge to the author.

If the author requests the removal all books by the author from the site then not only will the books be removed, but the author will be removed from the author’s bios, their author membership will be converted into a general membership for the remaining time, any email site at BloodyGoodRead.com will be canceled.

If the author intends to submit a new book, the author’s bio, author membership and email site can remain open for the time left on their Author Annual membership. When requesting removal of the author’s current books on the site, author should indicate if they wish their author membership maintained while they submit another book for consideration. Submissions will be judged on standard criteria for acceptance. If submission is rejected and author has no further submissions planned, then Author membership will be converted to a General membership for the remainder of the annual membership.

No assurances of being published.
New Authors Online, LLC and BGR management make no representation or warranties of any nature that placing content on this site will materially improve an author’s chance of getting published. BGR is attempting to change a publishing industry process which it believes is currently inefficient to all parties involved by creating a web based pre-ranked 'slush pile' for the publishing industry. However, it cannot provide any assurances it will be successful in this endeavor.

Author promotions:
We want our authors to succeed and will usually wish to help promote the author’s upcoming novel publication on the site; however, we are under no obligations to do so. Any unpaid promotions on this site are solely at New Authors Online’s discretion.

Technical difficulties:
It is possible, on occasion, that the site will incur technical / system difficulties.
The author indemnifies and holds New Author Online LLC and BGR management harmless of any and all claims for damages and/or losses caused by technical difficulties on this site.

Some users may also experience trouble downloading books due to the security programs on their PC. BGR will try to provide guidance, but bears no responsibility in the resolution of these issues.

This site is optimized for viewing in the Internet Explorer Browser Version 6.0/7.0. While effort has been made to make it compatible with other less used browsers, no assurances are given that a member with older or alternative browsers will be able to view all pages in an optimal manner. However, if a user does incur a problem we would like to be contacted so that we can attempt to fix the issue. There is no assurance that we can resolve the issue, so members are encouraged to view the various pages of the site before joining. After a member has downloaded a book from the library, technical difficulties are not considered grounds for a refund.

Founding Author Members pre 6/1/07 will have free Author Membership as long as they remain in good standing. Also all fees for changes will be waived as compensation for their early financial support of site. Owner of New Authors Online LLC is a founding Authoring Member and publishes under multiple pen-names on this site.

By agreeing to this membership, you relinquish The Bloody Good Read Book Club and its owner: NewAuthorsOnline, LLC, of any responsibility or harm perceived to have occurred by your book’s placement on this site.

Author Member Guidelines as of 6/1/07:
Author Members annual membership fee is $25.00 for as long as they maintain a book on this site and are in good standing. To remain in good standing, the author must adhere to the following guidelines:

This site’s ranking/review process was created to help authors improve their writing and improve their chances of being discovered by an agent or publisher. The rating/ranking process should bring the best novels to the top for publishers and agents to easily locate. (See detail in Ranking Process).

Therefore it is critical that authors do not attempt to skew the rating system in an unfair manner. Several of the more obvious possibilities (such as downloading a book a thousand times, or writing a thousand positive reviews about a particular novel) are prevented by the system; however, there are other means to skew ratings which are not so easily prevented by the system (such as giving other books low ratings, to improve a book in comparison). Management of BGR will be checking for such behaviors. Authors are encouraged to bring suspected abuse to the attention of BGR management. If upon review, management agrees that an author attempted to unfairly skew the rankings, management will remove the reviews and take actions against the offending author member.

Action against an author member is at management’s discretion and could range from placing the member on probation to canceling their membership and removing their book. Author members have no recourse to management’s decision.

Author Members additionally have the ability to access and alter certain data about their novels. Uploading of obscene or inaccurate material, or malicious code is grounds for immediate expulsion with no recourse and no refund.

RATING GUIDELINES
Every attempt has been made to provide a fair scoring system:

1. Only members are allowed to rate books and each member is prevented from writing more than one review per book. This is to prevent someone giving the same book a thousand reviews (either good or bad).

2. Only members (regular, authors and agent/editors) downloads count in the ratings of books and only the first download will increase the book's download count. Similar to item 1, this is to prevent someone from downloading the book a thousand times to improve their score. A member may download the book a second time, but the second download will not be counted.

3. Visitor downloads do not count in the scoring process. This is necessary because visitors can not be reliably tracked and prevented from executing multiple downloads which would distort the counting process. We can only track visitors using 'cookies'-which can easily be circumvented. Thus their downloads are tracked separately on a 'sister site' and while included in the ‘total’ download count, they ARE NOT USED in the rating calculation.

4. Downloads from agents and editors count twice as much as regular downloads. This is to ensure books that are attracting agents and editors are being rewarded for doing something right.

5. The score is calculated by the following formula: [ Total Average rating * (downloads of members and authors)] + [Total Average rating * ( 2 * downloads of agents/editors)]. Please be aware that the Average rating presented above is ROUNDED for presentation, and thus if you calculate your score using this rounded number, you may come up with a slightly number different. Note: when establishing a new book setup a count of 1 is established for general members, authors and agent/editors to enable this ranking calculation to function properly.

6. Editors and Agents are verified when they apply for membership.

7. Books are ranked weekly based on the scores at the time of the weekly update. This provides stability to the web site and allows a book to hold its rank for a whole week so that viewers may return and find it in the same place they last saw it (for a week). This is probably obvious: but the ranking of '1' means it is the best scored book in the library.

8. Books are normally presented in order their rank: Obviously the books are presented by rank in the TOP TEN page, but books are also presented by rank when a member selects to view by GENRE, by AUTHOR, or if they request to view the entire library. Only Latest Arrivals are not listed in order of rank, since they are listed in order of arrival.

What this means is the #1 ranked book will be viewed first in almost all presentations for which it qualifies.

Legitimate ways to increase your ranking:

1. Market your book! Let people know it's out there and let them know about the book club and what we are trying achieve. Provide people business cards bearing your name, the book and the web site. Encourage them to become active in the club: not only reading the novels, but writing reviews to help the authors to improve.

2. Improve the presentation of your book. Enhance your 'blurbs', select a better review header, re-evaluate your genre to ensure you are attracting the right readers. Make certain you are putting your best foot forward.

3. Improve your book. Take the feedback you receive in reviews and make your book better.

Any author who places book on this site releases BGR from any liability of whatever nature arising out of the ranking of author’s book.

Restriction Rating of books:

Author need to classify their book correctly.
Concerns over children’s access to sexual content on the web is a growing problem and this site is trying to walk a fine, but responsible, line between allowing authors freedom of expression and ensuring our children are not exposed to inappropriate material for their age.

Authors are requested to self rate their books during submission based on the following profile when they first submit their novels.
Code 2 is for books that are appropriate for children under the age of 16. This means there is no sexual content nor excessive violence.
Code 3 is for book that are appropriate for 16 years of age and above. This means there can be violence, but limited romantic content and only of a non-explicit nature.
Code 4 is for books that are appropriate for 18 years and older. This is where most adult fiction will exist. There can be explicit violence and limited explicit sexual content.
Code 5 is for books in which the reader should be 21 years or older. This indicates there is more than a limited amount of explicit sexual content within the story-line, however the story is still about something other than sex, and the explicit sexual content is limited to a moderate amount.
Code 5-Mature: If the story is actually about sex, sexual manipulation, etc with moderate explicit sexual content, then it needs to be classified as 5 AND the genre identified as Mature. Mature classification does not translate to pornography. This site does not accept pornography. This classification would represent a story line involving themes of a sexual nature that has no more than moderate use of explicit sexual content.

We recommend writers to tone down the sexual content so they qualify for Code 4, however we recognize in some situations an author believes the storyline requires more explicit content. Thus we do provide this category/genre. Be aware that Code 5 and 5-Mature novels are restricted in their availability; are never included in featured novels of our sister site, and are not provided the same promotions as other novels.

If an author wishes to change the restriction code of a book, contact BGR management and it will be done at no charge if BGR management agrees the change is in line with the above guidelines.

If upon review of novel upon submission, management does not agree with the author’s self-assessment and raises the restriction category or moves the novel genre to Mature theme, the author has no recourse other than reworking the novel or accepting the higher restriction.

If management receives complaints from members, management has the right to change that rating based upon their own evaluation of the content. Authors have no recourse to management’s decisions other than removing the book from the site under the terms listed above.

SPECIAL RULES CONCERNING EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT:
This site does not accept pornography or non-literary material of an obscene nature. Explicit sexual scenes are allowed but the novel must have literary value. If complaints are made that a novel is considered pornographic or obscene or violates child pornography laws, it will be reassessed by management and may be removed at management’s discretion. The author’s only recourse will be to submit a censored version for re-upload.

Presentation material: Nothing read by the general membership may contain explicit sexual content. This includes blurbs, reviews, bios and Chapter 1.

CHAPTER 1 Link:
The “Chapter 1” page for your book (which presents the first chapter for easy reading on screen) cannot contain explicit sexual content since this content is available to all readers.

If the first chapter contains sexually explicit sections, an author must provide a second copy of chapter 1 with their submission in which the explicit sexual scenes have been written out or simply removed and replaced with the bracketed comment: [explicit sexual content removed for general viewing]. If BGR management receives complaints about content in a Chapter 1 page, BGR has the right to remove offending sections and place the [explicit sexual content removed for general viewing]’ in its place.

RESTRICTION CODE 5 BOOKS:
If a book falls into the most restrictive rating: 5 (moderate explicit sexual content) it will only be available to agents, editors, publishers and members 21 years or older that have selected to see all novels on the site. Additionally, if the main topic of the book is sexual in nature, it will be classified as Mature Theme (see below for more on this category).

Restriction Code 5 books are never included in the FREE NOVELS of the sister site: Unread Treasures. Downloading the novel on the BGR site is prevented if the member is not 21 years or older, or if they have selected not to read 5 level books. However the book may still appear in the TOP TEN, if highly ranked, GENRE and BY AUTHOR feature pages .

MATURE THEMED NOVELS.
Mature themed novels that are classified with a restriction code of 5 and the main topic of the book is sexual in nature.
Mature themed novels are not shown in the Genre Menus of this site. The only way to access Mature themed novels directly is through a link which appears on the personal home page of members who are 21 years of age and have requested to view all novels on the site. (Agents, Editors and Publishers will have access in the same fashion.)

However, the novels can be assessed indirectly in searches by the AUTHOR or BOOKTITLE Search function. Since it is still possible for a minor to come upon the novel through these alternative menus, Chapter 1 cannot contain explicit sex (you must use [explicit sexual content removed for general viewing] and the short blurbs about the storyline cannot include explicit sex either. (Note: Even though a minor can come upon the web page featuring the novel through these indirect methods, they still cannot download the actual novel if their age was properly given during the membership signup.)