Writer Agreement

> DRAFT: have a lawyer review before launch.

About this agreement

This agreement is between you (“the writer”) and MayR Labs, which runs Moonlit (“Moonlit”, “we”, “us”). It applies each time you create a story, save a chapter or submit work on Moonlit, and it works alongside the Terms of Use, Community Guidelines, Content Ratings, Child Safety standard and Copyright and Takedown Policy. If you do not agree, do not publish on Moonlit.

You own your work

You keep the copyright in everything you write. Moonlit does not buy it or take it over. By publishing you confirm that:

• you wrote the content yourself, or you hold every right needed to publish it on Moonlit;
• it does not copy, adapt or borrow from anyone else’s work without their permission;
• you have not given exclusive rights to anyone else that would stop you granting Moonlit the licence below.

You are responsible for your content, including any claim that it infringes someone’s rights or is unlawful.

The licence you give Moonlit

You give Moonlit a non-exclusive, worldwide licence, for as long as your content is on Moonlit and for a reasonable period afterwards to finish payments and keep records, to host, store, display, reproduce, translate, narrate (by recording or text-to-speech), distribute offline, and promote your content in the app, on the website and in our marketing, including with excerpts and cover images.

The licence is non-exclusive, so you can publish your work elsewhere unless you have agreed otherwise with someone else. There is no exclusivity at launch.

Content rules and ratings

You must follow the Community Guidelines and the Child Safety standard. You agree to set an accurate age rating and accurate content warnings. Content that does not match its rating may be re-rated, hidden or removed, and repeated or deliberate misrating can lead to suspension.

You may not publish sexual content involving minors in any form (this is reported to the authorities and means a permanent ban), hate speech, content that promotes violence or terrorism, content that glorifies self-harm, other people’s private information, content that defames a real person, or anything illegal where it is read.

AI help must be declared

You may use AI tools to help you write, but you must tick “AI-assisted” on the story when you did. Stories show that label to readers. You must have read and edited anything AI produced, and you must be allowed to use it commercially. Moonlit’s own AI writing tools are there to assist you: you remain the author.

We do not allow mass-produced spam. That means stories that are mostly AI output with little human work, copied or near-identical stories, or lots of low-quality chapters posted to chase reads or earnings. Undeclared AI content found later earns a strike.

Writers under 18

Teens (13 to 17) can write for Moonlit, and teens write for teens: a teen’s stories are rated for teens and are shown only to teen readers. Teen writers use a pen name and a preset avatar, and may not share contact details or exact ages.

If you are under 18, a parent or guardian may be told that you write on Moonlit, and we may ask for their agreement before you publish. Teens can earn, but payouts open on your 18th birthday. Your earnings are kept until then.

Review, moderation, strikes and appeals

Every chapter, and every edit to a live chapter, goes through an automatic safety check. Moonlit’s editors may also review stories and chapters before and after they are published. We may ask for changes, hold or hide a chapter, change a rating, or decline to publish. Readers can report content, and enough reports hide a chapter while we look at it. We aim to respond within 48 hours, and we tell you why.

A moderator can restore your work, ask you to edit it, remove it, or raise its rating. Removing work for a rule breach gives you a strike:

• 1 strike is a warning;
• 3 strikes in 90 days suspends your writing for 30 days;
• a child-safety violation is a permanent ban, and evidence is kept and reported.

You can appeal each decision once. A different team member reviews your appeal.

Moonlit Partner and earnings

Only writers who qualify and are approved as Moonlit Partners can put chapters behind a paywall and earn from reader spending. The requirements are shown in the app and may change with notice.

• Revenue share: you earn 50% of the net value of the paid coins readers spend on your chapters. The first 100 partners (Founding Writers) earn 60% for their first 12 months. Net value is what readers paid, after the app store’s fee.
• What earns: only paid (bought) coins. Bonus coins, ad unlocks and wait-for-free unlocks do not earn per unlock. Moonlit may share part of its ad revenue with partners; how is shown in the app.
• Your own account: unlocking your own chapters, or from accounts we find are linked to you, earns nothing.
• Hold: each earning is held for 30 days (the refund window) before it becomes available.
• Payouts: monthly, on the 15th, for everything available, once it reaches the minimum (US$10, or the local equivalent). Smaller balances roll over. You must add payout details and pass an identity check first.
• Refunds: if a reader’s purchase is refunded, the matching earning is cancelled, or taken from your next payout if it was already paid.
• Fraud and review: we may hold earnings and payouts while we look into suspected fraud, a rights claim or a breach of this agreement, and we will tell you when earnings are under review. We may recover amounts paid in error or through fraud.
• Taxes: you are responsible for your own taxes. We may ask for tax details and withhold tax where the law requires.

We may change the share, hold and minimum for the future with notice. Changes do not apply to earnings already made.

Copyright complaints

If someone credibly says your content infringes their rights, we may hide or remove it without notice, hold related earnings, and tell you what was reported where we are allowed to. You can respond or send a counter-notice, as set out in the Copyright and Takedown Policy. Writers who repeatedly infringe copyright are removed from Moonlit.

Withdrawing content and ending this agreement

You can unpublish a story or withdraw a chapter at any time. Either of us can end this agreement with 30 days’ notice. Readers who already unlocked a chapter can keep reading it, and we may keep copies for records and legal reasons. We may suspend or end your writer account immediately if you seriously breach this agreement, put readers at risk, or if the law requires. Ownership, responsibility for your content, payments owed and limits on liability continue after it ends.

Your confirmation is recorded

Each time you tick the confirmation box, Moonlit records that you agreed, which version of this agreement, who agreed and when. If it changes in a significant way, we will ask you to accept the new version before you can publish again.

Governing law

This agreement is governed by the laws of [GOVERNING LAW], subject to any mandatory rights you have where you live.

Contact

Questions about this agreement: use Help & Support in the app, or the contact details on our website.