Terms of use
Last updated: November 1, 2026
These terms are an agreement between you and Travis Rickett (“Shelf Starter,” “we,” “us”) for using the Shelf Starter website and Shelf Scout, our free Chrome add-on (extension). By using Shelf Starter, you agree to them.
Who can use Shelf Starter
You must be at least 18 years old. You’re responsible for keeping your account secure and for what happens under it.
A new and changing service
Shelf Starter is new, and we’re still improving it. Features may change, break, or be removed.
Free trial, plans and payments
Using Shelf Starter takes a plan: $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (prices in US dollars; sales tax is added where the law requires it). Payments are handled by Stripe.
What each plan includes is listed on the Plans page. We may change what a plan includes. If a change takes a feature away from your plan, you can still open and read what you already made with it, and you can switch plans or cancel at any time.
Starter starts with a 7-day free trial and Pro with a 3-day free trial. A card is required to start a trial. If you don’t cancel before the trial ends, your plan starts automatically and your card is charged for your first month or year the day after the trial ends (day 8 for Starter, day 4 for Pro). You can cancel during the trial with “Manage billing” on the Plans page, and you won’t be charged.
After that, plans renew automatically at the end of each month or year until you cancel. You can cancel or switch plans anytime with “Manage billing” on the Plans page; if you cancel, you keep access until the end of the time you’ve paid for, and you won’t be charged again. If a payment fails, your access pauses until the payment goes through. If we ever change a price, we’ll tell you before it applies to you. If you think you were charged by mistake, email us and we’ll make it right.
What Shelf Starter does and doesn’t promise
- Shelf Starter gives information, estimates, and suggestions to help you plan and make books. Sales estimates, scores, and lights are rough guides, not promises. We don’t guarantee that any book will sell or earn money.
- Price, printing-cost, and plan-limit figures are estimates based on public information and may be out of date. Always check the final numbers in KDP and in each AI tool before relying on them.
- Shelf Starter isn’t legal, tax, or financial advice.
Your books and your responsibilities
- Your books are yours. We don’t claim any ownership of what you create.
- You’re responsible for your book’s content, and for following Amazon KDP’s rules, including its AI-content disclosure.
- You’re responsible for following the terms of the AI tools you use, including whether their plan lets you sell what they make. Shelf Starter’s notes about those terms are a starting point, not a guarantee.
- Don’t use names, characters, or brands you don’t have the rights to. Shelf Starter’s warnings about these can’t catch everything.
Fair use of the service
Don’t misuse Shelf Starter: no trying to break into accounts or systems, overloading the service, copying the service to resell it, or using it for anything illegal. We may suspend accounts that do.
Amazon
Shelf Starter isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon. Shelf Scout reads public pages in your own browser as you use it. You’re responsible for your own use of Amazon’s website.
No warranty and limits on liability
Shelf Starter is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent the law allows, we aren’t liable for indirect or consequential losses, such as lost profits or lost data, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim (if you haven’t paid us anything, such as during a free trial, that’s $0).
Ending your use
You can stop using Shelf Starter and ask us to delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end access if these terms are broken.
Changes and law
We may update these terms; we’ll change the date above and tell you about important changes. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, USA.