These Authority Book Program Terms apply only to purchases of The Authority Book Program from Dibbly Inc., operating as The Urban Writers ("TUW," "we," "us," or "our"). They supplement our Terms of Service, Refund and Revision Policy, Privacy Policy, and Acceptable Uses of AI Policy.
If these Program Terms conflict with a general TUW policy on a matter involving The Authority Book Program, these Program Terms control. Your signed Authority Book Program agreement, proposal, approved outline, and recorded change orders form part of your agreement with TUW. Nothing in these Program Terms limits a right or remedy that cannot be waived under applicable law.
1. Accepting these terms
You accept these Program Terms when you sign the Authority Book Program agreement and pay the deposit. Electronic signatures, written approvals by email, and approvals recorded through the TUW platform may be used as described below. We retain the version of these Program Terms accepted with your agreement.
2. What the program includes
The Authority Book Program produces a nonfiction book of up to 40,000 words that is ready to publish and supported through publication. The program includes:
- an experienced Project Manager who manages day-to-day production and acts as your main point of accountability;
- a team of six specialists: writer, editor, cover designer, quality assurance provider, quality control provider, and proofreader;
- candidate shortlists, profiles, work history, and fresh sample writing for writer selection, subject to the sample limits below;
- research and a chapter-by-chapter outline that becomes the approved scope for the manuscript;
- five human passes over the text: writing, editing, quality assurance, quality control, and proofreading;
- four manuscript revision rounds within the approved outline;
- cover design, interior formatting, print-ready files, and eBook files;
- a book description, originality report, revision change maps, and Amazon publishing assistance; and
- guidance for ordering author copies at print cost after the book is live.
Your proposal and approved outline state the subject, intended audience, target word count, specific deliverables, and any approved additions. Work outside that scope requires a written change order and may change the price or schedule. An additional 10,000 words costs $2,000 USD before tax and must be agreed in writing.
3. Your participation
You may be as involved as you want. Your Project Manager carries day-to-day production, prepares the major decisions, and keeps the specialist team moving. You are responsible for supplying the expertise, source material, factual direction, and major approvals the book requires.
Candidate interviews, direct conversations with specialists, inline comments, and detailed reviews are available but are not mandatory. Included call allowances are access limits, not a required time commitment.
4. Price, taxes, and payment
The program price is $12,985 USD before tax. Applicable taxes are added to each invoice.
- Deposit: $3,895.50 USD before tax to begin research and team selection.
- Balance: $9,089.50 USD before tax, due within seven calendar days after outline approval is recorded.
Outline approval must be explicit. You may approve the outline in writing, including by email, or through the TUW platform. Your Project Manager records the approval channel, timestamp, and supporting evidence. Delivery of the outline, attendance at a review call, or silence does not approve the outline.
Recorded outline approval closes the Outline Fit Guarantee and starts the seven-calendar-day balance deadline. Production does not begin until the balance clears.
5. Outline Fit Guarantee and pre-outline refunds
Your deposit is protected through the outline stage under the Outline Fit Guarantee. The guarantee includes the short cancellation period and the conditional outline-fit protection below. Any cancellation or refund right required by applicable law continues to apply.
5.1 Three-business-day cancellation period
You may cancel for any reason by sending an explicit written request through a designated project channel within three business days after TUW receives the deposit, provided custom research, candidate sampling, team selection, or outline work has not begun. TUW will not begin that custom work until this period ends.
5.2 Outline-fit protection after custom work begins
After custom work begins, a full deposit refund qualifies only when all of the following requirements are met:
- You completed onboarding truthfully, supplied the agreed source materials and inputs, and approved the written Book Brief that records the book's intended audience, subject, central promise, scope, required themes, and factual direction.
- Within seven calendar days after receiving the initial outline, you sent one consolidated written notice identifying specific material mismatches between the outline and the approved Book Brief.
- You allowed TUW one bounded correction round addressing the mismatches in that notice.
- The corrected outline still materially misses the approved Book Brief.
- You sent an explicit written refund request within seven calendar days after receiving the corrected outline, before approving the outline, and before the project entered the inactivity pause described in section 8.
- You have not materially breached these Program Terms or misrepresented your ownership, source materials, project facts, or project requirements.
- You confirm in writing that you will not use, publish, distribute, or build from TUW-created research, candidate samples, outlines, or other TUW-created work product supplied before the refund, and that you will delete or return copies as TUW reasonably directs.
The guarantee also qualifies before outline approval if TUW cannot complete the candidate-selection process stated in your proposal using candidates who meet the objective criteria recorded during onboarding, after you have supplied specific written reasons tied to those criteria and allowed the documented replacement process. It also qualifies if a pre-outline TUW failure defined in section 12 occurs and TUW does not cure it.
5.3 Requests that do not qualify
A refund does not qualify after the three-business-day cancellation period when the reason is a change of mind, budget, timing, business priority, subject, audience, central promise, or project scope. It also does not qualify when you:
- refuse the documented candidate-replacement or outline-correction process;
- repeatedly reject candidates without specific reasons tied to the recorded selection criteria;
- fail to provide the agreed inputs or consolidated outline feedback within the required review periods;
- retain, use, publish, distribute, or build from TUW-created work, or solicit a candidate outside TUW;
- materially breach these Program Terms or misrepresent ownership, source materials, project facts, or project requirements; or
- enter the inactivity pause or terminate for customer inactivity under section 8.
5.4 Review, decision, and outcome
A written refund request immediately freezes work and prevents outline approval while the request is reviewed. The Project Manager records the request and supporting project evidence. Operations or Finance, not the Project Manager or the sales representative, applies the published qualification criteria and sends a written decision within five business days.
You may request one review of that decision within five business days. A senior Operations representative who was not involved in the sale makes the review decision and identifies the qualification criteria applied.
If the request qualifies, TUW refunds the deposit principal and applicable tax to the original payment method after successful payment-provider processing. Processing fees are handled according to applicable law and the payment record. The time for funds to appear depends on the payment provider and your financial institution. You keep the source materials you supplied, but the completed refund grants no licence to TUW-created work.
If the request does not qualify and you choose to end the project, TUW retains the deposit. You receive your source materials and an exit package containing the completed research and completed outline work available on the stop date, with a licence to use those materials. Candidate samples, internal records, confidential team information, and unfinished or future work are not included.
If you start a chargeback or payment-provider dispute while TUW is reviewing a refund request, TUW pauses the internal review until the external process ends. This does not limit a right or remedy that cannot be waived under applicable law.
If you return after a completed refund or deposit-retained exit, the return is a new enrollment at the price, scope, terms, deposit, schedule, and available capacity in effect at that time.
If you cannot access the designated project channel, email support@dibbly.com and identify The Authority Book Program and your project.
6. If the balance is not paid
If the balance has not cleared by the end of the seventh calendar day after recorded outline approval, production does not begin and the project ends. TUW keeps the deposit. You receive your source materials, the completed outline, and the completed research materials.
7. Schedule and Project Manager response
The program is estimated to take approximately 120 days. This is an estimate, not a guaranteed delivery date. Your proposal states the scheduled start. Team selection, the time needed to receive required materials, customer decisions, approvals, revision feedback, and approved scope changes can move the schedule.
During an active project, your assigned Project Manager or an authorized backup will provide a human response through the designated project channels within one business day. A business day is Monday through Friday, excluding Ontario statutory holidays. If the matter cannot be resolved in that response, the response will state its status and next step. Automated acknowledgements do not satisfy this promise.
8. Customer inactivity, pause, and resumption
When TUW is waiting for a required response, approval, or material from you, the TUW delivery clock is paused for that customer delay.
After 30 consecutive calendar days without the required action, TUW may place the project into a formal pause and send written notice. You then have up to 15 additional calendar days to provide the missing action and pay a $500 USD resume fee before tax, plus applicable taxes.
A customer who re-engages and pays the resume fee during the pause returns when capacity is available. If the original production slot is no longer available, the project takes the next available opening. The original slot is not guaranteed.
If the required action and resume-fee payment are not received within the 15-day pause, TUW terminates the project for customer inactivity. The termination is not refundable, including when it happens before outline approval. TUW retains amounts already paid and provides your source materials plus all completed TUW-created work produced through the termination date. No unfinished or future work is owed.
A later return after termination is a new enrollment at the price, scope, terms, deposit, schedule, and available capacity in effect at that time.
9. Team selection, samples, and replacement
TUW prepares candidate shortlists and you may interview the people you are considering. Fresh sample writing is provided to help you evaluate writer candidates. Candidate samples are for evaluation and may not be published, reused, or distributed unless they are incorporated into the final paid deliverables or TUW gives written permission.
Fresh sample requests have a soft operational limit of 15 writers per project. Requests involving 16 through 20 writers require Project Manager and Operations approval based on available capacity. No project may request samples from more than 20 writers.
If a specialist is not working out, tell your Project Manager. Replacement is the standing first remedy. TUW will present replacement candidates and continue the project. If a specialist seat remains vacant for 14 consecutive days while TUW owes the replacement, section 12 applies.
10. Revisions, defects, and approvals
The program includes four manuscript revision rounds for changes that remain within the approved outline. Requests outside the approved outline are new scope and may require a separate quote and schedule.
If delivered work fails to meet a requirement in the approved outline, TUW will correct that defect without using one of the four revision rounds. Each revision round includes a written change map showing what changed, where it changed, and why.
After the outline stage, a manuscript revision round or a cover or layout milestone may be treated as approved after seven calendar days of customer silence only when TUW:
- sends written notice that the milestone is ready for review;
- states the seven-calendar-day review deadline; and
- sends a written final reminder 48 hours before that deadline.
Outline approval, final-manuscript approval, and authorization to publish always require explicit written approval or approval through the TUW platform. Silence never supplies those approvals.
11. Rights, customer materials, and publicity
You retain ownership of the source materials you provide. After the program is paid in full and the final deliverables are delivered, you own the final manuscript, cover, and finished book files supplied under the agreement, subject to any third-party materials or licences identified in writing.
Rights to work supplied when a project ends early follow the specific refund, nonpayment, inactivity, or TUW-failure section that applies. A completed full refund grants no licence to TUW-created work.
TUW receives no automatic right to publish your name, book title, cover, manuscript excerpt, testimonial, or results. Each public use requires your separate written consent.
12. If TUW fails
A TUW failure occurs when TUW owes the next action and one of the following happens:
- TUW owes work or a human response and provides neither for 30 consecutive calendar days.
- A vacant specialist seat is not filled within 14 consecutive calendar days.
- TUW refuses revision work required by the approved outline.
Customer delay, a pending customer approval, work requested outside the approved outline, or dissatisfaction with work that remains within the outline does not by itself create a TUW failure. A production stage counts as delivered only when it has been delivered to you. Partial work within a stage counts as the previous completed stage.
When a TUW failure occurs, you choose one of two remedies:
- Continue: TUW replaces the failing specialist where applicable and completes the project. No refund is issued.
- Exit: the project ends, you receive all materials produced through the last completed stage, and TUW issues the applicable pro-rata refund below.
The following schedule applies to the $12,985 USD pre-tax base program price. Applicable tax on a refunded amount is handled as required by law and the payment record. Separately purchased additions are handled under their written terms.
| Last completed stage delivered | Earned from base price | Pre-tax refund |
|---|---|---|
| Approved outline | $1,947.75 | $11,037.25 |
| First full draft | $7,141.75 | $5,843.25 |
| Editorial pass | $9,089.50 | $3,895.50 |
| Quality assurance and quality control passes | $10,388.00 | $2,597.00 |
| Proofread final manuscript | $11,686.50 | $1,298.50 |
| Cover, formatted files, and publishing assistance | $12,985.00 | No base-price refund remains |
13. Amazon publishing assistance
You choose one of two publishing-assistance paths:
- TUW uploads and configures the book when you voluntarily provide authorized access to your existing Amazon KDP account; or
- TUW provides the completed files, metadata, categories, keywords, and step-by-step instructions so you can publish the book yourself.
You are never required to share account credentials and TUW will not instruct you to create a second KDP account. If you provide access, it is limited to the authorized publishing task and TUW will not retain the credentials after that task. Amazon and other third-party publishers control their own accounts, reviews, content rules, timelines, availability, and decisions. TUW cannot guarantee that a third party will accept or keep a book live.
TUW does not order or ship author copies. After the book is live, TUW can guide you through ordering copies at print cost through your own account.
14. AI use
The Authority Book Program AI Policy forms part of these Program Terms. AI may support research. AI-generated manuscript writing and AI-generated visual work each require separate explicit written permission. Silence, a general agreement signature, research consent, or permission for one type of AI use does not grant another permission.
15. No business or publishing outcome guarantee
TUW promises the production services and remedies stated in these Program Terms. TUW does not promise sales, leads, revenue, rankings, reviews, bestseller status, media coverage, bookstore placement, speaking engagements, or any other business result.
The final deliverables are ready to publish and the program supports you through publication. If you choose the self-service publishing path, whether and when the book goes live remains your decision.
16. Changes and governing law
TUW may update these Program Terms for future enrollments. A change does not alter the version accepted with an existing enrollment unless you and TUW agree to the change in writing or applicable law requires it.
These Program Terms and the related agreement are governed by the laws of Ontario, Canada, without limiting any non-waivable rights that apply in your place of residence.
17. Questions
Questions about these Program Terms may be sent to support@dibbly.com. Active customers should use the designated project channel so the request and response are recorded with the project.