Refund Policy

1. Overview & Philosophy

Pen & Laurel provides bespoke, labor-intensive creative and editorial services performed by real people — writers, editors, designers and production staff — whose time is committed to your project the moment it is booked. This policy is deliberately, intentionally strict, and it is built on the following governing principles:

• Unlike a retailer selling a finished, off-the-shelf product that can be returned unopened, our work begins as research, planning, drafting and design almost immediately after a deposit clears, often well before you see a visible deliverable;
• Time and resource committed to your project are not recoverable once spent, and our pricing, staffing and production calendar are built around that reality — a refund request does not un-spend our staff’s time;
• Refunds exist as a narrow exception, never as a default outcome of a change of mind, a shift in priorities, or a subjective creative disagreement that has not first been resolved through the revision process you have already paid for;
• This Refund Policy operates alongside our Terms and Conditions, which govern your broader engagement with us; in the event of any conflict specifically about refunds, this policy controls, and every clause in this policy is to be read in whichever manner most preserves our right to retain fees already paid.

2. Definitions

For purposes of this policy: “Order” means the written quote, proposal, invoice or statement of work you accepted. “Deposit” or “Retainer” means any upfront payment required before work begins. “Milestone Payment” means any payment tied to a specific phase of your Order (outline, draft, revision round, design concept, final delivery, etc.). “Work Product” means any manuscript, outline, note, draft, design file, formatted file, audio file, or other material we prepare in connection with your project, whether or not it has been sent to you. “Business Day” means Monday through Friday, excluding U.S. federal holidays. “Written Notice” means an email sent to the address in Section 27 from the email address on file for your account; verbal statements, social-media messages, and third-party communications do not constitute Written Notice.

3. General Presumption: No Refunds

Every payment you make to Pen & Laurel is presumed non-refundable from the moment it is received. That presumption governs your entire engagement, subject only to the following clauses:

• Clause 3.1 — Reason is irrelevant. The presumption applies regardless of the reason for your request, including scheduling conflicts, budget changes, personal circumstances, a change of publishing strategy, or dissatisfaction with pacing, tone, or any other subjective element.
• Clause 3.2 — Exceptions must be earned, not assumed. The presumption is displaced only where you affirmatively satisfy every condition of a specific, narrowly-drafted exception expressly set out elsewhere in this policy; a circumstance not listed as an exception remains governed by the presumption.
• Clause 3.3 — Ambiguity resolves against the request. Where this policy is silent, unclear, or open to more than one reading, it is interpreted in the manner that preserves the no-refund presumption, not in the manner most favorable to the person requesting a refund.
• Clause 3.4 — The burden of proof is yours alone. You bear the full and exclusive burden of demonstrating, with specific written evidence meeting the standard in Section 9, that a listed exception applies to your circumstances; Pen & Laurel bears no burden to disprove an unsupported claim.
• Clause 3.5 — Partial performance does not create partial rights. Even where only a fraction of a phase has been performed, the presumption applies to the payment for that phase in full, not merely to the fraction performed.

4. Deposits & Retainers Are Strictly Non-Refundable

Deposits and retainers secure your project slot, block out staff time on our production calendar, and compensate us for the immediate planning, onboarding, intake review, scheduling and research work that begins as soon as your Order is confirmed. The following clauses govern:

• Clause 4.1. This work is performed, and the fee earned, regardless of whether you later decide to proceed with the project;
• Clause 4.2. Deposits and retainers are non-refundable in full from the moment they are paid, subject only to the narrow 24-hour cooling-off window in Section 6, and except where refund is strictly and unavoidably required by applicable law;
• Clause 4.3. No partial deposit refund is issued for any reason once the cooling-off window has closed, including where zero hours of visible work have been shared with you;
• Clause 4.4. This clause overrides any contrary expectation formed from a sales conversation, marketing material, or verbal assurance not reflected in your written Order.

5. Milestone & Phase-Based Payments

For projects billed in phases or milestones (for example, outline, first draft, revision round, design concept, final delivery), each payment covers the work performed in, and reserved for, that phase. “In progress” is interpreted broadly: a phase is considered in progress, and its payment non-refundable, from the moment we begin any research, outlining, drafting, correspondence, scheduling, or preparatory work connected to it — not only once a visible deliverable is produced.

• Amounts already paid for completed or in-progress phases, as defined above, are non-refundable in full, without exception, reflecting time, staffing and resources already committed on your behalf.
• Amounts paid strictly in advance for a future phase that has not yet begun in any respect may, at our sole discretion, be refunded, less: (a) any non-recoverable third-party costs already incurred on your behalf (licensed stock assets, ISBNs already registered, printing already ordered, advertising already spent, software or subscription costs); (b) a 15% administrative and re-scheduling fee to cover calendar and staffing disruption; and (c) any payment-processing fees already incurred and not returned to us by our processor.
• No refund is available for a milestone payment once the corresponding deliverable has been sent to you for review, even if you have not yet opened, read, or responded to it.

6. The Limited 24-Hour Cooling-Off Window

A deposit may be refunded in full, less payment-processing fees, but only where every one of the following conditions is met:

• Condition (a). You submit Written Notice within 24 hours of the deposit being charged — not 24 hours from when you read the charge notification, but from when it was charged;
• Condition (b). No onboarding call, intake questionnaire, kickoff meeting, or project brief has yet been completed or even scheduled;
• Condition (c). No research, outlining, drafting, design, or other Work Product of any kind has begun on our side.

If any single one of these conditions is not met, the window does not apply at all, and Section 4 governs in full instead — there is no partial credit for partially meeting these conditions. This window never applies to milestone payments, rush fees, third-party costs, or any payment made after the initial deposit.

7. Refund Eligibility by Project Stage

Service stage	Refund eligibility
Within the 24-hour cooling-off window, before any onboarding, scheduling, or Work Product (Section 6)	Deposit may be refunded in full, less payment-processing fees.
After onboarding/kickoff, intake review, or scheduling has occurred, even with zero pages drafted	Non-refundable. Onboarding and scheduling are themselves billable, committed work.
After research, outlining, or drafting of any kind has begun	Non-refundable for that phase. Only genuinely unbegun future phases may be refunded, per Section 5, less applicable deductions.
After a draft, design concept, sample chapter, or formatted file has been delivered for review	Non-refundable. The mandatory revision process in Section 8 must be exhausted first; a refund is not an alternative to using included revisions.
After all included revision rounds for a phase have been used	Non-refundable for that phase under any circumstance other than a documented material breach meeting the standard in Section 9.
After final files have been delivered, approved, published, submitted to a platform, sent to a printer, or made available for download	Non-refundable, without exception.
After 10 business days from delivery of a phase’s final deliverable have passed without Written Notice of a specific, documented defect	Deemed accepted; permanently non-refundable regardless of subsequently raised concerns.

8. Mandatory Revision Process Before Any Refund Claim

No refund request relating to the quality, tone, style, structure, pacing, accuracy, or creative direction of a deliverable will be considered, reviewed, or approved unless every one of the following conditions is first satisfied:

• You have requested, and we have delivered a response to, every revision round included in your Order — not a subset of them;
• You have provided specific, itemized written feedback for each round, submitted through our designated channel;
• You have allowed us a reasonable opportunity, of no less than 10 business days per round, to address that feedback before raising any further concern;
• You have done all of the above in good faith and in the sequence set out in your Order, not out of order and not in parallel with a refund request.

A refund request submitted before every condition above is satisfied will be closed without further review and without a substantive response, and you will be redirected to the revision process. Requesting a refund is never a substitute for, and never a way to skip, shortcut, or run in parallel with, the revision process you have already paid for.

9. Documentation & Burden of Proof

Any refund request based on an alleged failure to deliver the Services must be submitted in writing and must satisfy every one of the following requirements before it will be treated as complete:

• It cites the specific section(s) of your written Order that were allegedly not met, by section number or exact quoted language;
• It contains specific, itemized examples of the alleged failure — general statements such as “I don’t like it” or “it’s not what I expected” are insufficient on their own and will be denied without further review;
• It confirms, with dates, that the mandatory revision process in Section 8 was exhausted, and attaches the written feedback given at each round;
• It attaches any supporting materials referenced in your original brief that bear on the claim, in the format they were originally provided;
• It is submitted within the deadline set by Section 7 or Section 10, whichever applies — a request that is otherwise complete but late is still denied.

A request missing any one of the above is closed as incomplete, not merely delayed, and does not toll or extend any deadline elsewhere in this policy. The burden of proof rests entirely and exclusively on you as the requesting party; Pen & Laurel bears no obligation to investigate, corroborate, or disprove a vague, incomplete, or undocumented claim.

10. Circumstances That Are Never Refundable

The following are never eligible for a refund, partial refund, or credit, under any circumstance, except where a refund is strictly and unavoidably required by applicable law:

• Change of mind after work has begun, for any reason, including a decision to self-publish differently, pause or shelve the project indefinitely, pursue traditional publishing instead, change genre or direction, or simply no longer wish to continue;
• Dissatisfaction with subjective creative choices (voice, tone, pacing, structure, cover concept, color palette, typography) that were approved, selected, or directed by you at any earlier stage, including via an approved outline, mood board, sample chapter, or design concept;
• Personal, financial, health, family, business, or scheduling circumstances that make it difficult or undesirable for you to continue, on your side, regardless of hardship;
• Delays, gaps, or lapses in the project timeline caused by your late delivery of Client Materials, feedback, approvals, or payments;
• Third-party costs already paid or committed on your behalf, including ISBNs, licensed stock imagery, fonts, printing runs, paid advertising spend, platform or subscription fees, and freelance subcontractor fees;
• Ghostwriting, editorial, design, or production time already invested once work on a phase has commenced, regardless of whether you ultimately use, publish, or are pleased with the delivered material;
• Promotional, discounted, bundled, sale-priced, or package-rate engagements, which are final and non-refundable once work has begun, regardless of the discount applied;
• Dissatisfaction with the commercial or critical performance of a published book, including sales, reviews, ranking, or algorithmic visibility, none of which Pen & Laurel guarantees (see our Terms and Conditions);
• Requests made more than 10 business days after delivery of the relevant phase, regardless of the underlying reason;
• Requests where the mandatory revision process (Section 8) or the mandatory internal dispute process (Section 21) has not been fully completed first;
• Rush, expedite, or priority fees paid to accelerate a timeline, which compensate for calendar disruption regardless of the project’s later status;
• Any amount already disbursed to a subcontracted writer, editor, designer, narrator, or other third-party contractor for work performed on your project.

11. What Does Not Qualify as a Material Failure

None of the following — individually or in any combination — constitutes a “material failure to deliver” capable of supporting a partial refund under Section 21:

• A preference for a different writing voice, pacing, or sentence-level style than what was delivered, where the delivered work is reasonably consistent with your written brief;
• A late-arriving change in your own creative vision, however sincerely held;
• Disagreement with an editorial or design judgment call that falls within reasonable industry practice;
• The book not achieving a particular sales, review, or ranking outcome after publication;
• A subcontractor’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous or incomplete brief that you supplied;
• Typographical or minor errors correctable through the included revision or proofreading process;
• Dissatisfaction discovered only after final approval and sign-off was already given in writing.

12. Ghostwriting & Co-Writing — Service-Specific Terms

• Once drafting of any chapter, section, or outline has commenced, the fees allocated to that unit of work are permanently non-refundable;
• This applies regardless of whether you ultimately use, credit, publish, or discard the material, and regardless of how many words have been produced at the time of your request;
• A partially written chapter is treated identically to a completed one for refund purposes — work has begun, and the corresponding fee is earned in full, not pro-rated by word count.

13. Editing & Proofreading — Service-Specific Terms

• Editorial and proofreading fees are earned as our editors read, mark up, and return your manuscript, regardless of whether you agree with, accept, or implement any individual suggested change;
• Disagreement with specific edits is addressed exclusively through the revision process in Section 8, never through a refund;
• An editor declining to make a change that conflicts with grammatical, structural, or house-style standards is not, and will never be treated as, a basis for a refund claim.

14. Cover Design & Formatting — Service-Specific Terms

• Design fees are earned upon delivery of each design concept, regardless of whether that concept is ultimately selected;
• Once you have approved a final cover or interior layout in writing (including via email or a project-management tool), that approval is final and irreversible, and no refund is available for a later change of preference;
• Formatting fees for interior layout are non-refundable once the formatted file has been generated, whether or not you have reviewed it.

15. Publishing & Platform Submission — Service-Specific Terms

• Once your book has been submitted to, uploaded to, or published on any third-party platform (including Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Press, Kobo, IngramSpark, or Draft2Digital) at your direction, all fees for that publishing service are irrevocably non-refundable;
• This applies regardless of whether you subsequently unpublish, withdraw, or revise the listing;
• We are not responsible for, and will not refund fees in connection with, any platform’s independent decision to reject, delay, remove, or reprice your listing.

16. Marketing, Advertising & Promotion — Service-Specific Terms

• Marketing and advertising service fees, and any advertising spend paid to a third-party platform on your behalf, are non-refundable once a campaign has been created, scheduled, or launched;
• Ad spend already disbursed to a platform is never refundable under any circumstance;
• Dissatisfaction with campaign performance, reach, click-through rate, or return on spend is never a basis for a refund, as advertising outcomes depend on factors outside our control.

17. Audiobook Production — Service-Specific Terms

• Narration, engineering, and production fees are earned as each is performed;
• Once a narrator has been booked and studio time reserved, the associated fee is non-refundable regardless of subsequent cancellation;
• Once a chapter has been recorded, fees for that chapter are non-refundable, even if a different narrator voice is later requested.

18. Cancellation by You

You may cancel an active project at any time by Written Notice, subject to every one of the following clauses:

• Clause 18.1. You will be invoiced in full for all work completed and in progress through the effective date of cancellation, as determined under Sections 5 and 10, and no amount already paid for that work will be refunded;
• Clause 18.2. Amounts paid strictly in advance for phases that have not begun in any respect may be considered for refund only as described in Section 5, less every applicable deduction listed there;
• Clause 18.3. A cancellation fee equal to 15% of the total remaining contracted project value applies on top of the above, to compensate for lost calendar capacity, as stated in your Order;
• Clause 18.4. None of the above is waived by your stated reason for cancelling, however reasonable.

19. Cancellation or Termination by Pen & Laurel

• Clause 19.1 — Termination for our own operational reasons. If we are unable to complete your project for reasons within our reasonable control (for example, an inability to staff the engagement), we will provide a pro-rata refund limited strictly to amounts paid for phases not yet begun in any respect, calculated at our sole discretion;
• Clause 19.2 — Termination for your breach. If we suspend or terminate your engagement for breach of our Terms and Conditions — including non-payment, late payment, abusive or threatening conduct toward our team, misrepresentation, or a request to produce prohibited content — no refund is owed for any amount already paid;
• Clause 19.3. Work already completed at the time of a Clause 19.2 termination is invoiced and due in full regardless of the termination;
• Clause 19.4. Any deposit or retainer on file at the time of a Clause 19.2 termination is forfeited in its entirety, with no exception.

20. Chargebacks, Payment Disputes & Fraud Claims

If you have a concern about a charge, you must contact us first, in writing, so we can work toward resolution under Section 21 before contacting your bank or card issuer — this is a condition of your Order, not a suggestion.

21. Mandatory Internal Dispute Resolution Process

Before any refund, chargeback, complaint to a third party, public review referencing a billing dispute, or legal claim, you must complete every step of this process, in order:

1. Step 1 — Written Notice. Submit Written Notice with the full documentation required by Section 9, within 10 business days of the relevant delivery. Missing this window closes the matter permanently under Section 10.
2. Step 2 — Acknowledgment. We will acknowledge your request within 5 business days and may request additional information; you must supply it within 5 business days or the request is closed as incomplete.
3. Step 3 — Review. We will review the claim and respond within 15 business days with a determination, made at our sole discretion based on the documentation you submitted.
4. Step 4 — One escalation, and only one. If you disagree, you may request a single internal escalation review by a senior team member within 5 business days of our response. That review is final and may not be appealed further within Pen & Laurel.

Only after every step above is exhausted, and only where the determination confirms a clear, documented, material failure to deliver the scope defined in your written Order, will we consider — at our sole discretion, and never as of right — one or more of the following: a further corrective revision at no charge; reassignment to a different writer, editor, narrator, or designer; a credit toward future Services; or a partial refund strictly proportionate to the specific undelivered portion of the work. A partial refund is never issued for a phase in which any deliverable has already been sent to you, only for a discrete, clearly-defined undelivered component.

22. Maximum Refund Cap

• Cap 1. No refund, credit, or combination of remedies under this policy will ever exceed the amount you actually paid for the specific undelivered phase or component giving rise to the claim;
• Cap 2. No refund will ever exceed the total fees paid to Pen & Laurel in the 12 months preceding the claim, regardless of how many engagements that total spans;
• Cap 3. Pen & Laurel is never liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, lost profits, lost royalties, or lost opportunity in connection with any refund request, consistent with the Limitation of Liability section of our Terms and Conditions.

23. Refund Method, Fees & Processing Time

• Any refund approved under this policy is issued solely to the original payment method used, within 15 business days of final written approval, unless a different method is expressly agreed in writing;
• Every approved refund is reduced by non-recoverable payment-processing fees, any applicable administrative fee described in Section 5, and any third-party costs already incurred on your behalf, before the remaining balance is returned to you;
• No refund is ever issued as cash, gift card, store credit substitute, or to a third-party account.

24. Circumstances Beyond Our Control

• Events beyond our reasonable control (see the Force Majeure section of our Terms and Conditions) do not, by themselves, entitle you to any refund;
• We will work with you toward a resolution at our discretion, which may include rescheduling or partial delivery, but a refund is never automatic or guaranteed in these circumstances;
• Any refund arising from such an event, if granted at all, is limited strictly to amounts paid for phases genuinely not performed, and remains fully subject to the caps in Section 22.

25. Rush, Expedite & Priority Fees

• Any fee paid to expedite, rush, or prioritize your project ahead of our standard production calendar compensates us for calendar disruption and reallocation of staff at the moment it is paid;
• Rush fees are non-refundable immediately upon payment, in full, with no cooling-off window and no proration;
• This applies regardless of whether the project is later slowed, paused, or cancelled for any reason, including reasons attributable to us.

26. Changes to This Policy

• We may update this Refund Policy at any time; the “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision;
• Changes apply prospectively to Orders placed after the change takes effect;
• Changes do not retroactively expand refund rights you had under an earlier version of this policy, though we may apply a stricter later version to a later dispute where permitted by law;
• Continued engagement with us after a change is posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

27. How to Request a Refund

To request a refund, you must email connect@penandlaurel.com with the subject line “Refund Request,” and include: your full name, project name, invoice or order number, the specific phase or payment at issue, the specific section of this policy or your Order you believe entitles you to a refund, and the documentation required by Section 9. Incomplete requests will not be reviewed and will be returned to you for completion; the applicable deadline in Section 8, 10, or 21 is not extended while a request is incomplete. We aim to acknowledge complete requests within 5 business days, subject to the process and timelines in Section 21.

• Pen & Laurel, a Desverso LLC company
• Email: connect@penandlaurel.com
• Address: 2135 112th Ave NE Ste 201, Bellevue, WA 98004
• Attn: Billing / Client Services