Terms of Service

1. Who we are

Spark of Tales ("we", "us", the "Platform") is an online fiction platform operated by Marko Kostic, sole proprietor, Serbia. Writers publish serialized stories and readers follow, unlock, and help shape them. By creating an account or using the Platform you agree to these Terms.

2. Accounts

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. You are responsible for your account credentials and for the activity on your account. You may delete your account at any time from Settings; deletion permanently removes your content and data as described in the Privacy Policy.

3. Your content and ownership

Writers keep full ownership of the stories, worlds, and characters they create. By publishing on the Platform you grant us a non-exclusive license to host, display, and distribute your content through the Platform for as long as it remains published here. You can unpublish or delete your content at any time.

Reader contributions (inspiration questions, event suggestions, wandering characters and quests) are offered to the receiving writer for use in their story. By submitting a contribution you license the writer to incorporate it into their work; accepted substantial suggestions additionally earn the rewards described in Section 5.

You may only publish content you created or have the right to use. Plagiarism, AI-impersonation of other authors, and content that is illegal in Serbia or in your country are prohibited.

4. Purchases and Premium

Payments are processed by Paddle.com, our merchant of record. Paddle handles checkout, payment data, invoicing, and applicable taxes; your card details never touch our servers.

• Book purchases permanently unlock a completed book for your account.
• Premium is a monthly subscription that gives full reading access to every completed paid book while active. It renews automatically each month and can be canceled at any time from your profile; access continues until the end of the period you already paid for, and no further charges occur after that.

Refunds are handled per the Refund Policy.

5. Earnings

We share revenue transparently. All amounts are calculated in USD, net of payment processing fees:

• Book sales:the writer receives 80% of net revenue for each sale of their book. If the writer has accepted substantial event suggestions from readers on that book, 5 percentage points of that share are split equally among those contributing readers. Accepting a suggestion is always the writer's free choice.
• Premium pool: 80% of monthly Premium subscription revenue forms a pool that is distributed to writers in proportion to how much premium subscribers read their completed paid books that month.
• Prizes: we may award cash prizes for competitions and community events at our discretion. Winners are confirmed manually before any prize is credited.

Earnings accrue in your on-platform wallet. You can request a payout once your balance reaches $10, to the PayPal address or bank account you saved in Settings. Payouts are reviewed and sent within a few business days. You are responsible for any taxes on your earnings in your country of residence.

Earnings obtained through fraud, self-dealing, bot activity, or manipulation of Platform mechanics (including reputation or read farming) may be forfeited and the related accounts closed.

6. Founders program

The first 100 writers to complete a qualifying book (at least 3 chapters) and the first 300 readers to unlock a book each receive one free month of Premium. One reward per person per category. Platform administrators are excluded. We may adjust or end the program for abuse, but rewards already granted are never revoked.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• upload malicious code, scrape the Platform, or interfere with its operation;
• create multiple accounts to manipulate reputation, reads, follows, or rewards;
• harass other users or publish hateful, defamatory, or unlawful content;
• misrepresent your identity to other users or to us.

8. Termination

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms. Where reasonable we will warn you first. Legitimate earned balances are paid out on termination unless they result from the violation itself.

9. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim related to the Platform is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

10. Changes

We may update these Terms as the Platform evolves. Material changes will be announced on the Platform at least 14 days before they take effect. Continuing to use the Platform after that constitutes acceptance.

11. Contact and governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Serbia. Questions: support@sparkoftales.com.