Referrer Agreement

This agreement governs the referral program on Writers Grove. Please read it before you set a referral code. By setting a code you agree to it.

Only a payment earns a commission. A month in which the account you referred pays nothing earns you nothing.

1. Who we are

The referral program is run by Writers Grove (“we” or “us”).

Questions about a commission or a payout go to billing@writersgrove.net.

2. What this agreement covers

• It covers the referral code on your account, the commissions that code earns, and how those commissions are paid.
• It applies alongside our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. Where this agreement and section 4 of the Terms of Service say the same thing, they are meant to be read together.
• We record the version of this agreement you agreed to and the date you agreed, on your account.

3. Your referral code

• An account has one referral code. You choose it on your Referrals page, and it cannot be changed afterwards. Write to us if it has to change.
• Anyone who arrives through your share link and creates an account is recorded as your referral.
• The first referrer is locked in. A referral cannot be taken, traded or reassigned to another code later.

4. What earns a commission

• You earn 10% of each premium payment an account you referred actually makes, for as long as that account keeps paying.
• The 10% is worked out on the amount of the invoice that was paid.
• Your share is cut off at the cent. The remainder is dropped and never rounded up, so a $14.99 payment earns you $1.49, not $1.50.

5. What earns nothing

A month the account pays nothing for earns you nothing. There is no commission on any of these:

• the 30-day free trial that every new subscription starts with;
• free Premium time, whether it came with a referral code, was added by us, or was won as a contest prize;
• a discount, coupon or promotion code that brings the bill to $0, including a contest prize that covers the account's Premium for a number of months;
• any other month where the invoice collects nothing.

An invoice of $0 earns a commission of $0. Commissions start again with the next payment the account actually makes.

6. When a commission is paid

• A commission is pending for 90 days after the payment, which is the window for a chargeback or a refund.
• After 90 days it is owed to you.
• Owed commissions are paid by PayPal to the address on your Referrals page, once at least $25 is owed. Below that they stay owed and carry forward.
• Keep the PayPal address on your account current. We pay the address recorded at the time of payment, and we cannot recover money sent to an address you no longer hold.

7. Fair play

The program is for introducing other writers to the site. The following forfeit the commissions involved:

• referring yourself, including through a second account of your own;
• creating or using accounts that are not real people;
• any other attempt to earn a commission on a payment you made yourself or arranged.

We may also act under the Terms of Service, which can include suspending the account. An account deleted over an unresolved chargeback earns nothing further.

8. Taxes

• All taxes on what you earn, whether federal, state, local or foreign, are yours to handle. We do not withhold tax and we do not give tax advice.
• PayPal receiving fees, currency conversion and bank charges are yours as well. We do not top up a payout to cover them.
• Where the law requires it, we may ask you for a completed tax form (for example IRS Form W-9 or W-8) before paying. If the form is not returned within 30 days of our request, the payout is held until it is.

9. Privacy

• Your Referrals page shows how many accounts signed up through your code and what they have earned you. It never shows who they are.
• The PayPal address you give us is used only to pay referral payouts and contest prizes. It is shown to you and to Writers Grove administrators and to no one else.
• Everything else about your account is handled under our Privacy Policy.

10. Changes to this agreement

• We may change this agreement. When we do, the version number and date at the top change, and every referrer has to agree to the new version before setting a referral code again.
• Commissions you have already earned, and payouts already owed to you, are not affected by a change, and a code you have already set keeps earning while you catch up with the new version.

11. Ending this agreement

• You may leave the program at any time by writing to us. Your code stops earning from that point, and anything already owed is still paid.
• We may end the program, or your part in it, if this agreement or the Terms of Service is broken. Commissions earned honestly before that point are still paid.
• If your account is deleted, the code stops earning and any owed balance is paid to the PayPal address on the account.

12. Limitation of liability

• The program is provided as it is. We do not promise any level of earnings, and a referral is not a guarantee of a commission.
• To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability under this agreement is limited to the commissions owed to you at the time the claim arises.

13. Governing law and disputes

• This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, United States.
• Any dispute about the referral program shall be resolved exclusively in the state courts located in Washtenaw County, Michigan, or the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

14. General

• If any part of this agreement cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
• This agreement, together with the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, is the whole agreement between you and us about the referral program.
• This agreement is written in English, and the English text is the one that applies.