Terms of Use

Effective Date: July 1, 2026

Last Updated: July 1, 2026

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the website, forms, submission systems, account features, content, communications, and online services provided by House of the Broken Bread, LLC (“HBB,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).

By accessing or using our website, creating an account, submitting information, uploading materials, purchasing products or services, or otherwise interacting with HBB through our online services, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the website or submit materials to HBB.

These Terms apply to website use and online interactions. They do not replace any separate written publishing agreement, author agreement, services agreement, distribution agreement, permissions agreement, or other contract signed by HBB and another party. If a signed written agreement conflicts with these Terms, the signed written agreement controls for the subject matter covered by that agreement.

1. About HBB

House of the Broken Bread, LLC is an independent publishing company based in Missouri. HBB may publish books, review manuscript submissions, work with authors, sell or promote books, provide publishing-related services, maintain author or prospect accounts, and operate websites, forms, communications, and workflows related to those activities.

2. Privacy Policy

Your use of the website and submission systems is also governed by our Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect information. By using the website or submitting information to HBB, you acknowledge the Privacy Policy.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account, submit a manuscript, submit a publishing inquiry, enter into a business relationship with HBB, purchase services, or otherwise use features intended for authors, prospective authors, contractors, vendors, or business contacts.

HBB does not knowingly accept manuscript submissions, publishing inquiries, or account registrations from anyone under 18 without involvement and consent from a parent or legal guardian. At this time, HBB generally prefers not to receive manuscript submissions from minors. If HBB later creates a process for minor submissions, that process may require parent or legal guardian participation, additional verification, and separate written consent.

You may not use the website or submit materials if you are prohibited from doing so under applicable law.

4. Accounts

Some website features may require an account. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to update that information when necessary.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity under your account. You agree to notify HBB promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization or your credentials have been compromised.

HBB may suspend, restrict, or terminate accounts if we believe an account is inaccurate, inactive, abusive, unauthorized, unlawful, compromised, or used in violation of these Terms.

5. Website Content

The website may include information about HBB, authors, books, publishing services, submission processes, blog posts, articles, announcements, educational materials, religious or inspirational content, business updates, and other content.

Website content is provided for general informational purposes. HBB does not guarantee that website content is complete, current, error-free, or suitable for any particular purpose.

Nothing on the website is legal, financial, tax, medical, therapeutic, or professional advice. You are responsible for obtaining advice from qualified professionals where appropriate.

6. No Guarantee of Publication, Sales, or Results

HBB does not guarantee that any manuscript, proposal, inquiry, book, author, or project will be accepted, published, marketed, distributed, sold, promoted, reviewed, ranked, endorsed, or profitable.

Any statements about publishing opportunities, royalties, marketing, distribution, book sales, audience reach, platform availability, timelines, pricing, or business expectations are estimates or general information unless expressly stated in a signed written agreement.

HBB does not guarantee sales volume, income, royalties, rankings, reviews, bookstore placement, online retailer placement, media coverage, advertising results, customer response, or any specific business outcome.

7. Purchases, Orders, and Third-Party Platforms

HBB may sell, promote, link to, or distribute books, products, or services directly or through third-party platforms, retailers, printers, distributors, payment processors, fulfillment providers, or other services.

Third-party platforms may have their own terms, privacy policies, refund policies, shipping procedures, tax practices, account requirements, and customer service processes. HBB is not responsible for third-party platforms except as required by applicable law or a signed written agreement.

Prices, availability, formats, editions, shipping options, release dates, and product descriptions may change. HBB may correct errors, update listings, cancel unavailable items, or refuse orders where appropriate.

Refunds, returns, cancellations, and replacements may be governed by the applicable seller, retailer, distributor, payment processor, or HBB policy in effect at the time of purchase.

8. Manuscript Submissions and Publishing Inquiries

HBB may allow prospective authors to submit manuscripts, proposals, samples, descriptions, author information, cover concepts, images, or other publishing-related materials (“Submission Materials”).

By submitting Submission Materials, you agree to the following:

A. You Retain Ownership

You retain ownership of your Submission Materials, subject to any rights you have granted to others and any separate written agreement you may later sign with HBB.

Submitting materials to HBB does not transfer copyright ownership to HBB.

B. Limited Review License

You grant HBB a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to receive, store, copy, transmit, review, evaluate, internally process, scan, back up, and communicate about your Submission Materials for purposes related to submission review, editorial evaluation, business review, technical processing, security, recordkeeping, and possible publishing discussions.

This limited review license does not give HBB the right to publish, sell, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or commercially exploit your manuscript as a book unless you later sign a separate written agreement granting those rights.

C. No Publishing Relationship Until Written Agreement

Submitting materials does not create a publishing agreement, author relationship, agency relationship, fiduciary relationship, partnership, joint venture, employment relationship, contractor relationship, or obligation to publish, compensate, promote, edit, review, respond, or provide feedback.

No publishing relationship exists unless HBB and the author sign a separate written publishing agreement.

D. Submissions Are Not Confidential Unless Separately Agreed

HBB is not agreeing to treat Submission Materials as confidential merely because they are submitted through the website or sent to HBB.

HBB may limit access to Submission Materials as part of ordinary business practice, but submission alone does not create a nondisclosure agreement, confidential relationship, fiduciary duty, or special duty of secrecy.

If confidentiality is required for a specific project, it must be stated in a separate written agreement signed by HBB.

E. Similar Ideas and Independent Development

HBB receives, develops, reviews, publishes, and discusses many books, ideas, themes, outlines, titles, genres, concepts, characters, arguments, religious topics, business topics, educational topics, and creative works.

You understand that HBB may already be reviewing, developing, publishing, planning, or receiving materials that are similar to your Submission Materials. You agree that you will not claim that HBB owes you compensation, credit, ownership, publication, or other rights based only on the fact that HBB publishes, reviews, considers, or develops a work with similar ideas, themes, topics, concepts, genres, titles, structures, or subject matter.

This section does not give HBB permission to copy your protected expression unlawfully. It is intended to clarify that ideas, themes, topics, genres, general concepts, and independently developed or separately submitted works may overlap.

F. Submission-Specific Acceptance

Each manuscript inquiry or submission requires its own acceptance of these Terms and acknowledgment of the Privacy Policy. Acceptance for one submission applies only to that specific submission and the related review, communication, and evaluation process for that submission. Acceptance for one submission does not automatically apply to a different manuscript, proposal, project, account action, purchase, agreement, or future submission.

If you submit an inquiry or manuscript before creating an account, you must provide an email address so HBB can communicate with you about that submission. HBB may use that email address to identify the submission record, send submission-related communications, invite you to create an account, and connect the submission to your account if you later create one.

If you later create an account using the same email address, HBB may associate your prior submission and related acceptance records with that account. Creating an account may require a separate acceptance of the Terms of Use and acknowledgment of the Privacy Policy for account access and account-related features.

If you submit a new manuscript, proposal, or publishing inquiry, you must complete a new submission process and provide any required acknowledgments, confirmations, or acceptances then in effect.

G. Submission Review and Declined Submissions

HBB may accept, decline, ignore, close, archive, delete, or request more information about a submission in its discretion.

If HBB declines a submission, HBB may retain the Submission Materials and related records for up to six months after the decline decision for recordkeeping, follow-up, reconsideration, abuse prevention, legal protection, and business purposes, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law, needed to resolve a dispute, or agreed to in writing.

After that period, HBB may delete declined Submission Materials according to its internal retention practices. HBB is not required to return submitted files or maintain copies for the submitter.

A declined author may submit a new or revised submission unless HBB has restricted further submissions from that person or account.

H. Technical and Security Processing

HBB may use software tools, automated systems, file scanners, malware detection, formatting tools, editorial tools, analytics, workflow tools, cloud storage, and other technology to receive, scan, process, evaluate, store, and manage Submission Materials.

HBB does not intend to use submitted manuscripts to train public artificial intelligence models. If a particular service, workflow, or agreement would involve additional use of submitted content beyond ordinary review, processing, storage, security, or publishing operations, that use should be addressed in the applicable agreement or disclosure.

9. Your Representations About Submitted Materials

When you submit any material to HBB, you represent and warrant that:

you are at least 18 years old, or you are acting with the required involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian under a process approved by HBB;
the information you provide is accurate and not misleading;
you own the submitted material or have the legal right to submit it;
the submitted material does not infringe or violate another person’s copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy right, publicity right, contractual right, or other legal right;
the submitted material does not contain unlawful material;
the submitted material does not contain malware, spyware, viruses, corrupted files, or intentionally harmful code;
the submitted material does not contain defamatory, harassing, threatening, abusive, exploitative, or intentionally deceptive content;
the submitted material does not contain plagiarism or stolen work;
the submitted material does not violate any agreement you have with another publisher, employer, client, collaborator, contributor, agent, illustrator, editor, contractor, platform, or other party;
you have obtained any permissions needed for third-party text, images, artwork, lyrics, photographs, quotations, illustrations, charts, designs, or other materials included in the submission.

HBB may request additional information, documentation, permissions, releases, or warranties before reviewing, accepting, publishing, or continuing with a project.

10. Prohibited Content and Conduct

You may not use the website, accounts, forms, submission systems, communications, or services to:

violate any law or regulation;
infringe or violate the rights of another person or entity;
submit stolen, plagiarized, unauthorized, or infringing materials;
impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity, affiliation, authority, or rights;
submit false, misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive information;
upload malware, viruses, spyware, corrupted files, or harmful code;
attempt to gain unauthorized access to HBB systems, accounts, data, files, or networks;
interfere with or disrupt the website or services;
scrape, harvest, crawl, copy, or extract data except as permitted by law and these Terms;
spam, harass, threaten, abuse, exploit, or harm others;
submit pornography, exploitative sexual content, or explicit sexual content that HBB determines is outside its publishing standards;
submit content involving sexual exploitation of minors, which is strictly prohibited and may be reported to appropriate authorities;
submit content that encourages unlawful violence, criminal conduct, self-harm, abuse, exploitation, or serious harm;
use the website or submission system in a way that is abusive, excessive, automated, deceptive, or burdensome;
bypass security, access controls, rate limits, or technical restrictions.

HBB may restrict, remove, reject, report, or preserve content or account information if we believe it violates these Terms, creates legal risk, threatens safety or security, or is otherwise inappropriate for HBB’s business.

11. Public-Facing Author Materials, Testimonials, and Promotional Content

If you provide information intended for public display, such as an author name, pen name, biography, author photo, book description, endorsement, testimonial, interview response, review excerpt, event information, or catalog information, you grant HBB permission to use, reproduce, display, distribute, edit for length or formatting, and publish that information for catalog, publishing, promotional, marketing, author-page, website, social media, retailer, distributor, and business purposes, subject to any applicable signed written agreement.

You are responsible for ensuring that public-facing materials you provide are accurate and that you have the right to provide them.

HBB may edit public-facing materials for spelling, grammar, formatting, length, clarity, house style, platform requirements, or legal compliance, but HBB is not required to use any public-facing material.

Testimonials, endorsements, and reviews must be honest, accurate, and not misleading. If there is a material connection between HBB and a person giving an endorsement, testimonial, or review, that connection may need to be disclosed.

12. HBB Intellectual Property

The website and its content, design, layout, graphics, logos, marks, names, trade dress, text, images, icons, software, workflows, and other materials are owned by HBB or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws.

You may use the website for personal, informational, and authorized business purposes related to HBB. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, sell, exploit, scrape, or create derivative works from HBB content except as allowed by these Terms, allowed by law, or authorized in writing by HBB.

The names “House of the Broken Bread,” “HBB,” associated logos, branding, and other HBB marks may not be used without HBB’s prior written permission except as permitted by law.

All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

13. Copyright and Permissions

If you believe content on the website infringes your copyright or other rights, contact HBB using the contact information below and provide enough information for us to review the issue.

HBB may remove or restrict content that it believes may infringe another party’s rights. HBB may also request permissions, releases, documentation, or proof of ownership before using, publishing, or continuing to process submitted materials.

If you want to quote, reproduce, adapt, distribute, or otherwise use HBB content, book content, author content, images, logos, or other protected materials, you must obtain permission from the appropriate rights holder unless your use is permitted by law.

14. Communications

By submitting information, creating an account, making an inquiry, purchasing products or services, or otherwise communicating with HBB, you agree that HBB may contact you using the information you provide.

HBB may send administrative, transactional, account-related, submission-related, publishing-related, legal, security, and business communications. HBB may also send marketing communications where permitted. You may unsubscribe from marketing emails, but HBB may still send non-marketing communications related to accounts, submissions, transactions, agreements, security, legal notices, or business operations.

15. Electronic Records and Signatures

You agree that electronic communications, notices, records, acknowledgments, checkboxes, button clicks, account actions, form submissions, and electronic signatures may satisfy legal requirements for writings, signatures, consent, and delivery, where permitted by law.

You are responsible for maintaining copies of communications, submissions, agreements, and records that are important to you.

16. Third-Party Links and Services

The website may contain links to third-party websites, platforms, retailers, distributors, payment processors, social media platforms, author pages, embedded content, or other services.

HBB does not control third-party services and is not responsible for their content, security, availability, policies, practices, or errors. Your use of third-party services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies.

17. Website Availability and Changes

HBB may update, modify, suspend, restrict, or discontinue any part of the website, accounts, submission systems, content, services, products, workflows, or features at any time.

HBB does not guarantee that the website or services will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or available at all times.

18. Disclaimer of Warranties

The website, content, accounts, submission systems, communications, and online services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, HBB disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, security, and uninterrupted operation.

HBB does not warrant that the website, files, communications, or services will be free of errors, viruses, malware, harmful components, interruptions, or security issues.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty limitations, so some of these limitations may not apply to you.

19. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, HBB and its owners, members, managers, officers, employees, contractors, agents, service providers, licensors, and representatives will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, punitive, or lost-profit damages arising out of or related to your use of the website, services, accounts, communications, purchases, submissions, or these Terms, even if HBB has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, HBB’s total liability for any claim arising out of or related to the website, services, accounts, communications, purchases, submissions, or these Terms will not exceed the greater of: (a) the amount you paid directly to HBB for the specific product or service giving rise to the claim during the six months before the claim arose; or (b) one hundred dollars ($100).

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

20. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless HBB and its owners, members, managers, officers, employees, contractors, agents, service providers, licensors, and representatives from and against claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to:

your use of the website or services;
your account;
your submissions or uploaded materials;
your violation of these Terms;
your violation of law;
your violation of another person’s rights;
your breach of any representation, warranty, or obligation in these Terms;
any dispute involving ownership, authorship, permissions, plagiarism, infringement, or rights in materials you submit.

HBB may assume control of the defense of any matter subject to indemnification, and you agree to cooperate with HBB’s defense.

21. Suspension and Termination

HBB may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the website, account, submission system, communications, or services if we believe you violated these Terms, created legal risk, threatened security, abused the system, submitted unlawful or infringing materials, provided false information, or acted in a way that is harmful to HBB or others.

Termination or suspension does not limit HBB’s right to retain records, enforce rights, seek remedies, or comply with legal obligations.

Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including sections related to ownership, submissions, similar ideas, warranties, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, and dispute resolution.

22. Changes to These Terms

HBB may update these Terms from time to time. The updated Terms will be posted with a new “Last Updated” date. Changes are effective when posted unless otherwise stated.

Your continued use of the website or services after updated Terms are posted means you agree to the updated Terms.

Updated Terms do not retroactively alter a separate signed written agreement unless that agreement expressly allows it.

23. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Missouri, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms, the website, online services, accounts, or submissions must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Missouri that have jurisdiction over the dispute. You consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts.

This section does not prevent HBB from seeking injunctive or equitable relief in another court of competent jurisdiction where necessary to protect intellectual property, confidential information, security, or legal rights.

24. Severability

If any part of these Terms is found invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, the remaining parts will remain in effect. The invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable part will be interpreted or modified to the extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable, or removed if modification is not permitted.

25. No Waiver

HBB’s failure to enforce any part of these Terms is not a waiver of HBB’s right to enforce that part later. Any waiver must be in writing and signed by HBB.

26. Assignment

You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without HBB’s prior written consent.

HBB may assign or transfer these Terms as part of a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, reorganization, financing, change of control, or similar business transaction.

27. Entire Agreement for Website Use

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms presented for specific website features, form the entire agreement between you and HBB regarding your use of the website and online services.

These Terms do not replace separate signed written agreements between you and HBB.

28. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be directed to:

House of the Broken Bread, LLC

600 West Woodbine Road

Ash Grove, MO 65604

United States

Email: support@houseofthebrokenbread.com

Website: https://houseofthebrokenbread.com

For copyright, permissions, or rights-related questions, contact:

Email: rights@houseofthebrokenbread.com