The Storyteller's Guild — Terms and Conditions
Effective Date: August 14, 2026
These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern participation in The Storyteller's Guild (the “Guild”), an online promotional event intended to highlight authors, narrators, audiobook projects, books, and related creative works.
By submitting material to, participating in, or appearing in The Storyteller's Guild, each participant (“Participant”) agrees to be bound by these Terms.
1. Eligibility and Participation
1.1. The Storyteller's Guild is open to authors, narrators, co-narrators, publishers, rights holders, and other individuals or entities expressly approved by the Organizers.
1.2. Participation is voluntary. The Organizers reserves the right to decline, remove, or refuse to publish any submission or participant at its reasonable discretion, particularly where the material or conduct violates these Terms, applicable law, platform rules, or the intended purpose of The Storyteller's Guild.
1.3. Participation in The Storyteller's Guild does not create an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, endorsement, or other legal relationship between the Organizers and any Participant beyond the rights and permissions expressly stated in these Terms.
2. Appropriate and Respectful Conduct
2.1. Participants agree to conduct themselves in a professional, respectful, and reasonable manner when participating in The Storyteller's Guild or interacting with other Participants, the Organizers, authors, narrators, listeners, readers, publishers, and members of the public.
2.2. Participants shall not use The Storyteller's Guild to engage in harassment, bullying, threats, intimidation, discriminatory conduct, targeted abuse, impersonation, doxxing, stalking, deliberate misinformation, or other unlawful or abusive behaviour.
2.3. Participants shall not knowingly make false allegations of criminal, unethical, fraudulent, or otherwise unlawful conduct concerning another Participant.
2.4. Legitimate criticism, good-faith reviews, professional disagreement, and reasonable discussion are permitted, provided they are expressed honestly and without harassment, threats, malicious intent, or knowingly false statements.
2.5. Participants are responsible for ensuring that their conduct complies with the rules and terms of the social media platform or platforms on which The Storyteller's Guild content is published.
3. Code of Conduct Enforcement
3.1. The Organizers of The Storyteller's Guild reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to intervene in, pause, terminate, or otherwise end any live stream, Guild event, discussion, recording, or other Guild activity at any time where the Organizers believe that a Participant is violating these Terms, failing to abide by the Code of Conduct, behaving in a disruptive, inappropriate, hostile, threatening, disrespectful, or otherwise problematic manner, or where the Organizers reasonably believe that continued participation may negatively affect the safety, wellbeing, reputation, or experience of other Participants, guests, viewers, or the Guild.
3.2. The Organizers may, at their discretion, remove, suspend, restrict, or terminate a Participant's participation in The Storyteller's Guild at any time, including without prior warning, where the Organizers determine that such action is necessary or appropriate.
3.3. The Organizers are not required to provide a warning, opportunity to correct behaviour, or other remedial period before ending a live event or removing a Participant where the Organizers determine that immediate action is warranted.
3.4. Removal or suspension from The Storyteller's Guild may be temporary or permanent, at the Organizers' discretion. Where appropriate, the Organizers may also restrict a removed or suspended Participant from participating in future Guild events or activities.
3.5. The Organizers' decision to end a live event, remove a Participant, suspend participation, or take other reasonable enforcement action under this section shall not constitute a finding that the Participant has committed an unlawful act. The Organizers may take such action based solely on their determination that the Participant's conduct is inconsistent with the standards, purpose, or safe operation of The Storyteller's Guild.
3.6. Nothing in this section limits the Organizers' ability to take additional action under any other provision of these Terms, including removal of content, termination of participation, or enforcement of the Non-Disparagement, Generative AI, Copyright, or other applicable provisions.
4. Non-Disparagement
4.1. Participants agree not to make, publish, distribute, or encourage others to make or distribute knowingly false or malicious statements about The Storyteller's Guild, the Organizers, or another Participant in connection with The Storyteller's Guild.
4.2. This provision does not prohibit truthful statements, good-faith opinions, fair comment, legitimate criticism, factual reviews, reporting unlawful conduct to an appropriate authority, responding truthfully to legal proceedings, or making disclosures that are otherwise protected or required by law.
4.3. Nothing in this section prevents a Participant from exercising any legal right, reporting misconduct, participating in an investigation, cooperating with law enforcement or a regulatory authority, or making any disclosure that cannot lawfully be restricted by contract.
5. No Generative AI or Synthetic Media
5.1. Unless expressly authorized in advance in writing by the Organizers and all applicable rights holders, no generative artificial intelligence (“Generative AI”) may be used in connection with any submission to or participation in The Storyteller's Guild.
5.2. This prohibition includes, without limitation:
Generating, rewriting, expanding, translating, or substantially modifying written material using Generative AI;
Generating or modifying narration, voice recordings, dialogue, character performances, or other audio using Generative AI;
Voice cloning, voice replication, voice conversion, voice synthesis, or the creation of an artificial version of any Participant's voice;
Generating images, artwork, video, music, sound effects, or other media for The Storyteller's Guild;
Using AI-generated avatars, digital performers, synthetic presenters, or artificial representations of a Participant;
Using Generative AI to imitate, reproduce, or simulate an author's or narrator's creative work, style, voice, performance, or identity;
Uploading an author's manuscript, excerpt, unpublished material, narration, voice recording, or other confidential or copyrighted material to a Generative AI system for processing, training, analysis, modification, or generation;
Using AI-powered systems to create a substitute performance for a human narrator or performer; and
Any substantially similar technology that creates, alters, synthesizes, or reproduces creative content without the applicable rights holder's express written authorization.
5.3. Participants shall not use materials submitted to The Storyteller's Guild to train, fine-tune, develop, improve, test, or otherwise contribute to any Generative AI model or dataset.
5.4. Ordinary software used for routine technical purposes, such as standard file transfer, storage, playback, formatting, or basic technical administration, is not prohibited solely because the underlying service incorporates automated technology, provided that such technology does not generate, imitate, synthesize, or materially recreate a Participant's or another person's creative work or performance.
5.5. If there is uncertainty about whether a particular technology qualifies as Generative AI or synthetic media under these Terms, the Participant must obtain written approval from the Organizers before using it.
6. Author Copyright and Submitted Excerpts
6.1. Each author or other rights holder (“Author”) retains all copyright and other intellectual property rights in any manuscript, book, excerpt, text, characters, world-building, artwork, or other original material supplied by that Author.
6.2. Submission of an excerpt to The Storyteller's Guild does not constitute a transfer, assignment, sale, or waiver of copyright or ownership.
6.3. By submitting an excerpt, the Author grants the Organizers and participating Narrator(s), solely for purposes of The Storyteller's Guild and its promotion, a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, and share the submitted excerpt as incorporated into The Storyteller's Guild content.
6.4. This license includes the right to publish the excerpt through The Storyteller's Guild's designated social media accounts, websites, promotional channels, and reasonable promotional reposts associated with The Storyteller's Guild.
6.5. The license granted under this section is limited to the purpose of promoting and presenting The Storyteller's Guild and does not grant the Organizers or any Narrator the right to publish the Author's complete work, create derivative works from it, sell it independently, license it to third parties, or otherwise exploit the underlying work outside the scope of The Storyteller's Guild without the Author's separate written permission.
6.6. The Author represents that they either own the rights necessary to submit the excerpt or have obtained all necessary permissions from the applicable copyright owner and other rights holders.
6.7. If an excerpt contains material owned by a publisher, co-author, estate, licensing partner, or other third party, the Author is responsible for obtaining any permissions necessary for its inclusion in The Storyteller's Guild.
7. Narrator's Voice and Performance Rights
7.1. Each narrator or performer (“Narrator”) retains all rights they may have in their voice, identity, performance, and original creative contribution to The Storyteller's Guild, subject to any separate written agreement between the Narrator and the applicable Author or rights holder.
7.2. A Narrator's participation in The Storyteller's Guild does not constitute a grant of permission to clone, synthesize, imitate, train an AI model on, or otherwise reproduce their voice or performance through Generative AI or synthetic media.
7.3. The Organizers and Participants may use the Narrator's actual performance solely as reasonably necessary to publish, promote, share, archive, and otherwise present The Storyteller's Guild and the specific work being Guildd.
7.4. No Participant receives the right to create a new performance using the Narrator's voice, voice likeness, vocal characteristics, or performance style through artificial or synthetic means.
7.5. The Narrator's participation does not transfer ownership of any underlying audiobook, manuscript, character, or other intellectual property belonging to the Author or other rights holder.
7.6. Where a separate narration agreement exists between an Author and Narrator, that agreement shall govern ownership and licensing of the audiobook narration to the extent of any conflict, unless the parties expressly agree otherwise in writing.
8. Use of The Storyteller's Guild Content
8.1. Participants grant the Organizers a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use their submitted materials, name, professional name, approved photograph, likeness, publicly provided biography, and Guild performance for the purpose of producing, publishing, promoting, and documenting The Storyteller's Guild.
8.2. The Organizers may tag or identify participating Authors, Narrators, publishers, books, audiobook projects, or related social media accounts where appropriate.
8.3. The Organizers may make reasonable technical edits to The Storyteller's Guild content, including formatting, cropping, trimming, resizing, captioning, adding subtitles, or adjusting file formats, provided such edits do not materially misrepresent the Participant or their creative work.
8.4. Marketing Use by Authors and Narrators. Both Authors and Narrators participating in The Storyteller's Guild are granted a non-exclusive, royalty-free right to use video recordings, audio recordings, clips, excerpts, and other content featuring their participation in The Storyteller's Guild for their own marketing, promotional, social media, website, portfolio, and professional purposes. Such use may include reposting or sharing the original Guild content, or creating reasonable promotional clips from the Guild recording, provided that the underlying words, narration, performance, meaning, or context are not materially altered or manipulated in a manner that creates a statement, performance, endorsement, or implication that was not actually made or performed during the original Guild recording.
8.5. Neither an Author nor a Narrator may edit, splice, rearrange, dub, overdub, manipulate, or otherwise modify Guild content in a manner that causes the Narrator to appear to have narrated words they did not actually narrate, causes an Author or Narrator to appear to have made a statement they did not make, changes the meaning or context of the original narration, or creates a misleading representation of the Guild performance.
8.6. The Organizers shall not intentionally alter a Participant's performance or creative work in a manner that falsely attributes words, opinions, statements, or creative choices to that Participant.
9. Participant Representations and Warranties
Each Participant represents and warrants that:
9.1. They have the legal capacity and authority to enter into these Terms.
9.2. Their submission does not knowingly infringe another person's copyright, trademark, privacy rights, publicity rights, contractual rights, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights.
9.3. They have obtained all permissions necessary to submit any material belonging to another person or entity.
9.4. Their participation and submitted material do not knowingly violate applicable law.
9.5. They have not knowingly used Generative AI or synthetic media in violation of these Terms.
10. Indemnification
10.1. Each Participant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Organizers, its owners, officers, employees, contractors, volunteers, agents, and representatives from claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and reasonable expenses arising from or relating to:
(a) the Participant's breach of these Terms;
(b) the Participant's violation of applicable law;
(c) a claim that the Participant did not have the necessary rights or permissions to submit or authorize use of their material;
(d) the Participant's unauthorized use of another person's intellectual property, likeness, voice, or other protected rights; or
(e) the Participant's unauthorized use of Generative AI or synthetic media in connection with The Storyteller's Guild.
10.2. The indemnification obligation does not apply to the extent that a claim results directly from the Organizers’ own intentional misconduct or gross negligence, to the extent such limitation is permitted by applicable law.
11. Limitation of Liability
11.1. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Organizers shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from participation in The Storyteller's Guild.
11.2. The Organizers do not guarantee that The Storyteller's Guild content will remain continuously available on any social media platform or that any post will receive a particular number of views, engagements, followers, sales, downloads, or other commercial results.
11.3. The Organizers are not responsible for social media platform outages, algorithm changes, account restrictions, content removal, comments, reactions, reposts, or other actions taken by those platforms or their users.
12. Removal and Termination
12.1. The Organizers may remove a Participant or The Storyteller's Guild content where the Organizers reasonably believe that the Participant or content:
Violates these Terms;
Infringes or may infringe another person's rights;
Contains unlawful, abusive, threatening, or discriminatory material;
Uses Generative AI or synthetic media in violation of these Terms;
Creates a material legal or reputational risk for The Storyteller's Guild; or
Is otherwise inconsistent with the purpose or reasonable standards of The Storyteller's Guild.
12.2. Where reasonably practicable, the Organizers may provide the Participant with an explanation of the reason for removal.
12.3. Removal of content does not eliminate any rights, obligations, or liabilities that arose before removal.
13. Copyright Complaints and Disputes
13.1. A person who believes that The Storyteller's Guild content infringes their copyright or other legal rights should notify the Organizers promptly and provide sufficient information to identify the allegedly infringing material and explain the basis of the claim.
13.2. The Organizers may temporarily remove or restrict access to disputed content while investigating a legitimate rights complaint.
13.3. Nothing in these Terms prevents a rights holder from pursuing remedies available under applicable law.
14. Privacy and Personal Information
14.1. Participants should only provide personal information reasonably necessary for participation in The Storyteller's Guild.
14.2. Participants acknowledge that material voluntarily submitted for public publication may become publicly available and may be copied, reposted, shared, or commented upon by third parties.
14.3. Participants should not submit confidential personal information, financial information, passwords, private contact information, or other sensitive information unless specifically requested through an appropriate secure process.
15. No Guarantee of Publication, Employment, or Results
15.1. Submission to or participation in The Storyteller's Guild does not guarantee that any material will be published, promoted, featured, retained, or otherwise used in connection with the Guild.
15.2. Participation in The Storyteller's Guild does not create or imply any guarantee, promise, representation, or expectation that an Author will hire, contract with, audition, or otherwise engage any Narrator for an audiobook or other narration project. Similarly, participation by an Author does not guarantee that any Narrator, publisher, producer, or other industry professional will choose to work with, promote, represent, or otherwise engage that Author.
15.3. The Storyteller's Guild is intended to provide promotional and networking opportunities only. No Participant is guaranteed employment, contracts, auditions, narration work, publishing opportunities, business relationships, sponsorships, sales, royalties, commissions, bookings, referrals, leads, followers, audience growth, or any other financial or professional benefit as a result of participation.
15.4. The Organizers make no representation or guarantee regarding the number of views, impressions, engagements, followers, inquiries, sales, downloads, contracts, bookings, revenue, royalties, or other results that may arise from participation in The Storyteller's Guild or from the use of Guild content for marketing purposes.
15.5. Any agreement, employment relationship, narration contract, publishing agreement, business relationship, or other transaction between Participants that arises from an introduction or interaction through The Storyteller's Guild is solely between the relevant parties. The Organizers are not party to such an agreement and are not responsible for the terms, performance, payment, cancellation, termination, or outcome of any such relationship.
15.6. Participants acknowledge that marketing, networking, social media exposure, and professional opportunities involve factors outside the Organizers’ control, including audience response, social media algorithms, market conditions, individual professional decisions, and the actions of third parties. Accordingly, no particular marketing, professional, or monetary result is promised or guaranteed.
15.7. The Organizers may determine the order, timing, format, frequency, and platform used for The Storyteller's Guild content and may modify or discontinue promotional activities at their discretion.
16. Changes to the Terms
16.1. The Organizers may make reasonable amendments to these Terms from time to time.
16.2. Material changes affecting existing Participants will be communicated through The Storyteller's Guild's established communication channels where reasonably practicable.
16.3. Registration for The Storyteller’s Guild and continued participation following the effective date of an amended version constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
17. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
17.1. These Terms shall be governed by the laws of British Columbia, Canada, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
16.2. Subject to any mandatory legal rights applicable to a Participant, the parties agree that disputes arising from these Terms shall be subject to the courts of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada.
18. Severability
18.1. If any provision of these Terms is determined to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision shall be modified or severed only to the extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.
19. Entire Agreement
19.1. These Terms constitute the agreement between the Participant and the Organizers concerning participation in The Storyteller's Guild and supersede prior discussions concerning the same subject matter, except for any separate written agreement that expressly governs a particular Author-Narrator relationship or project.
19.2. Any waiver, permission, or exception to these Terms must be provided in writing by the Organizers or other party with the authority to grant it.
20. Acceptance
By registering for, submitting material to, appearing in, participating in, or otherwise voluntarily taking part in The Storyteller's Guild, the Participant confirms that they have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and Conditions.