This Payout Policy explains how Dragon's Quill handles author earnings, payout eligibility, payout timing, payout holds, minimum payout thresholds, refunds, chargebacks, negative balances, and related author payment issues.
This Payout Policy applies to authors who enable monetization, offer paid Early Access content, receive earnings, connect a payout account, or otherwise participate in Dragon's Quill monetization.
This Payout Policy is part of the Dragon's Quill Terms of Service and applies together with the Author Monetization Terms, Reader Purchase and Subscription Terms, Refund Policy, and any other applicable Dragon's Quill policies.
By enabling monetization or receiving earnings through Dragon's Quill, you agree to this Payout Policy.
1. Overview
Dragon's Quill may allow eligible authors to earn money through paid reader features, including:
- Individual Chapter Unlocks;
- Next-5 Bundles;
- Binge Packages;
- Story Subscriptions;
- other paid features Dragon's Quill may add later.
- Dragon's Quill maintains author earnings records through an internal author ledger.
Author earnings are not automatically payable immediately after a reader purchases or subscribes.
Payouts are subject to:
- payment settlement;
- Dragon's Quill's platform fee;
- payment processing fees;
- taxes;
- refunds;
- chargebacks;
- payment disputes;
- payout fees;
- currency conversion;
- author onboarding;
- tax/KYC requirements;
- payout holds;
- minimum payout thresholds;
- negative balances;
- moderation or policy review;
- payment processor requirements;
- this Payout Policy.
No payout is guaranteed until Dragon's Quill determines that the funds are eligible, cleared, payable, and not subject to hold, reversal, refund, chargeback, dispute, or other adjustment.
2. Relationship to Other Dragon's Quill Policies
This Payout Policy supplements the Author Monetization Terms.
Authors must also comply with:
- the Terms of Service;
- the Author Monetization Terms;
- the Refund Policy;
- the Reader Purchase and Subscription Terms;
- the Mature Content and Monetization Eligibility Policy;
- the Paid Chapter Deletion / Unpublishing Policy;
- payment processor terms;
- Stripe or other payout onboarding terms;
- any author dashboard, payout, tax, or support notices shown by Dragon's Quill.
If this Payout Policy conflicts with the general Terms of Service on a payout-specific issue, this Payout Policy controls for that issue.
If a more specific Dragon's Quill policy controls a narrow issue, that more specific policy controls unless it says otherwise.
3. Definitions
For purposes of this Payout Policy:
- "Author" means a Dragon's Quill user who publishes or monetizes stories or chapters.
- "Author Earnings" means amounts recorded as potentially payable to an author after applicable fees, refunds, chargebacks, holds, reversals, taxes, and adjustments.
- "Gross Transaction Amount" means the total amount charged to a reader before applicable deductions, refunds, chargebacks, taxes, payment fees, payout fees, currency conversion, and adjustments.
- "Platform Fee" means Dragon's Quill's fee for providing monetization and platform services.
- "Processing Fees" means fees charged by payment processors, card networks, banks, payout providers, currency conversion providers, tax tools, or related financial service providers.
- "Ledger" means Dragon's Quill's internal record of author earnings, fees, refunds, chargebacks, payouts, holds, adjustments, and balances.
- "Available Balance" means earnings Dragon's Quill determines are eligible for payout after applicable delays, holds, fees, refunds, chargebacks, reserves, and adjustments.
- "Pending Balance" means earnings that have been recorded but are not yet eligible for payout.
- "Payout" means a transfer of eligible Author Earnings to an approved author payout account.
- "Payment Processor" means Stripe or another third-party payment processor used by Dragon's Quill.
- "Connected Account" means an author payment or payout account connected through Stripe or another payment processor.
4. No Immediate Right to Payout
A reader purchase, subscription payment, renewal, or checkout confirmation does not create an immediate right to payout.
Earnings may remain pending until Dragon's Quill determines that:
- the reader payment was successfully completed;
- the payment was settled or reliably confirmed;
- the transaction was not refunded;
- the transaction was not disputed or charged back;
- the reader received access as intended;
- the author remains eligible for monetization;
- the content remains eligible for monetization;
- payment processor reporting is complete or sufficiently reliable;
- required tax/KYC information has been provided;
- no payout hold applies;
- the minimum payout threshold has been met.
Dragon's Quill may correct, reduce, reverse, or delay author earnings based on later information.
5. Dragon's Quill Platform Fee
Unless Dragon's Quill states otherwise in an updated policy, Dragon's Quill charges a 5% platform fee on applicable monetized transactions.
The platform fee may apply to:
- Individual Chapter Unlocks;
- Next-5 Bundles;
- Binge Packages;
- Story Subscriptions;
- other monetized products Dragon's Quill may add later.
The platform fee is separate from payment processing fees, taxes, payout fees, refunds, chargebacks, dispute fees, currency conversion, and other adjustments.
Authors should not describe their payout as "95% of every payment" without clearly acknowledging that payment processing fees, taxes, refunds, chargebacks, payout fees, currency conversion, and other adjustments may reduce final payouts.
6. Payment Processing Fees and Adjustments
Payment processing fees are separate from Dragon's Quill's platform fee.
Author earnings may be reduced or affected by:
- payment processing fees;
- card network fees;
- Payment Processor fees;
- Stripe Connect or connected-account fees;
- payout fees;
- currency conversion;
- taxes;
- tax calculation or remittance costs;
- refunds;
- partial refunds;
- chargebacks;
- dispute fees;
- fraud losses;
- payment reversals;
- account reserves;
- negative balances;
- manual corrections;
- compliance holds;
- legal or regulatory requirements.
Dragon's Quill may display estimated earnings before all final fees and adjustments are known.
Displayed earnings, dashboard estimates, and ledger projections are not guaranteed final payout amounts.
Dragon's Quill may correct ledger entries when new or corrected information becomes available.
7. Stripe and Payout Onboarding
Dragon's Quill uses Stripe or another Payment Processor to handle payment processing, connected author accounts, identity verification, tax/KYC information, and payouts.
To receive payouts, authors may be required to create, connect, verify, and maintain a Stripe Connected Account or another approved payout account.
Authors must provide accurate, complete, and current information, including information that may be required for:
- identity verification;
- age verification;
- tax reporting;
- payout eligibility;
- bank account verification;
- fraud prevention;
- anti-money-laundering compliance;
- sanctions screening;
- payment processor requirements;
- legal compliance.
Dragon's Quill may delay, deny, or hold payouts if required onboarding information is missing, incomplete, outdated, rejected, unverifiable, or inconsistent.
Dragon's Quill is not responsible for Stripe's or another Payment Processor's decisions, verification requirements, payout delays, unsupported countries, rejected accounts, account restrictions, or required documentation except where required by law.
8. Tax and KYC Requirements
Authors are responsible for complying with their own tax obligations.
Dragon's Quill may require authors to provide tax, identity, legal, business, and payout information before enabling monetization or issuing payouts.
Dragon's Quill may withhold, delay, deny, or hold payouts if:
- required tax information is missing;
- required KYC information is missing;
- identity verification is incomplete;
- payment processor verification fails;
- tax forms are incomplete;
- author information appears inaccurate;
- legal name, taxpayer information, or address information is inconsistent;
Dragon's Quill or the Payment Processor is required to do so by law or policy.
Taxes collected from readers are not author earnings and are not Dragon's Quill platform-fee revenue.
Dragon's Quill does not provide tax advice.
Authors should consult their own tax professional about income tax, sales tax, VAT, GST, business deductions, reporting obligations, 1099 forms, or similar issues.
9. Monthly Payout Schedule
Unless Dragon's Quill states otherwise, Dragon's Quill's MVP payout schedule is monthly.
Dragon's Quill may calculate eligible earnings after the end of each calendar month and may issue payouts after a delay.
Example payout structure:
- Earnings from June may be reviewed after June ends.
Eligible June earnings may become payable after a delay, such as around July 15 or later.
Payout may occur only if the author meets all payout eligibility requirements and the minimum payout threshold.
This example is not a guaranteed payout date.
Actual payout timing may vary based on payment settlement, refunds, chargebacks, Stripe availability, bank processing, weekends, holidays, tax/KYC status, account holds, fraud review, moderation review, and technical issues.
Dragon's Quill does not promise instant payouts.
10. Payout Delay / Hold Period
Dragon's Quill may delay payouts to allow time for transactions to settle and for early refund, dispute, fraud, and access issues to appear.
A payout delay helps protect:
- readers;
- authors;
- Dragon's Quill;
- payment systems;
- refund handling;
- chargeback handling;
- tax and accounting records;
- platform trust.
Unless Dragon's Quill later changes this rule, Dragon's Quill may use a delay or hold period before earnings become eligible for payout.
Dragon's Quill may extend the delay for specific authors, stories, transactions, regions, payment methods, or accounts where Dragon's Quill determines that additional review is needed.
11. Minimum Payout Threshold
Unless Dragon's Quill states otherwise, Dragon's Quill's MVP minimum payout threshold is $25.
If your available balance is below $25, Dragon's Quill may carry the balance forward until the threshold is met.
Dragon's Quill may set different payout thresholds by country, currency, payout method, account type, or payment processor requirement.
Dragon's Quill may change the minimum payout threshold in the future.
If monetization is disabled, your account is closed, or Dragon's Quill discontinues payouts, Dragon's Quill may handle balances below the threshold according to applicable law, payment processor limitations, administrative costs, and Dragon's Quill policy.
12. Payout Eligibility Requirements
To receive a payout, you must satisfy all applicable payout requirements.
Payout eligibility generally requires:
- active author account;
- active or payout-eligible monetization status;
- accepted current Terms of Service;
- accepted current Author Monetization Terms;
- accepted current Payout Policy;
- completed Stripe or Payment Processor onboarding;
- valid Connected Account;
- completed tax/KYC requirements;
- no active payout hold;
- no unresolved fraud, abuse, or payment investigation;
- no unresolved serious moderation investigation affecting monetization;
- no unresolved copyright, plagiarism, or ownership issue affecting paid content;
- no unresolved chargeback/dispute reserve requirement;
- no negative ledger balance;
- minimum payout threshold met;
- compliance with Dragon's Quill policies.
Dragon's Quill may deny, delay, reduce, or hold payouts if Dragon's Quill determines that payout eligibility is not satisfied.
13. Payout Holds
Dragon's Quill may place a temporary or indefinite hold on some or all author earnings.
Payout holds may apply if Dragon's Quill believes there is or may be:
- refund risk;
- chargeback risk;
- payment dispute risk;
- fraud;
- suspicious purchase activity;
- artificial purchases or subscriptions;
- self-purchase or coordinated monetization manipulation;
- stolen payment methods;
- payment processor review;
- tax/KYC issue;
- incomplete onboarding;
- identity verification problem;
- sanctions or compliance concern;
- negative ledger balance;
- excessive refund rate;
- excessive dispute rate;
- content ownership dispute;
- copyright complaint;
- plagiarism complaint;
- moderation investigation;
- mature-content monetization issue;
- paid content removal issue;
- account security concern;
- author inactivity affecting subscriptions;
- violation of the Author Monetization Terms;
- violation of any Dragon's Quill policy;
- legal request, court order, or regulator request.
- Dragon's Quill may hold payouts while investigating.
Dragon's Quill may release, reduce, reverse, reserve, refund, offset, or otherwise adjust held amounts depending on the outcome.
Dragon's Quill is not required to pay held amounts until Dragon's Quill determines that the amounts are eligible for payout.
14. Reserves
Dragon's Quill may hold a reserve from author earnings where Dragon's Quill determines that a reserve is needed to manage refund, chargeback, fraud, subscription, moderation, legal, or payment risk.
A reserve may be temporary or ongoing.
Dragon's Quill may apply reserves to:
- high-risk accounts;
- new monetized authors;
- accounts with unusual purchase activity;
- accounts with high refund or dispute rates;
- accounts under review;
- content with unresolved ownership issues;
- stories with subscription inactivity concerns;
- accounts affected by payment processor requirements.
Dragon's Quill may change reserve amounts, release reserves, or apply reserves against refunds, chargebacks, dispute fees, negative balances, or other adjustments.
15. Refunds and Payouts
Refunds may reduce, reverse, or eliminate author earnings from the refunded transaction.
If author earnings from a refunded transaction have not yet been paid out, Dragon's Quill may deduct the refunded amount from pending or available earnings.
If author earnings from a refunded transaction have already been paid out, Dragon's Quill may:
- create a negative ledger balance;
- offset the amount against future earnings;
- hold future payouts;
- request repayment;
- restrict monetization;
- take other action permitted by Dragon's Quill policies and applicable law.
- Authors do not have final approval over reader refunds.
Dragon's Quill may issue refunds under the Refund Policy, Reader Purchase and Subscription Terms, Author Monetization Terms, payment processor rules, applicable law, or Dragon's Quill support decisions.
16. Chargebacks and Payment Disputes
Reader payments may be disputed through banks, card issuers, payment providers, card networks, or Payment Processors.
If a transaction is disputed or charged back, Dragon's Quill may:
- mark the transaction as disputed;
- pause related payouts;
- hold related funds;
- reverse related author earnings;
- submit evidence to the Payment Processor;
- revoke or pause reader access where appropriate;
- create a negative ledger balance;
- deduct dispute fees or chargeback-related costs where permitted;
- restrict suspicious accounts;
- restrict or disable author monetization;
- take other steps needed to protect Dragon's Quill, readers, authors, and payment systems.
If a dispute is lost, reversed, or charged back, author earnings from that transaction may be reduced or reversed.
If Dragon's Quill believes an author is causing excessive disputes, misleading readers, encouraging abusive payment behavior, or participating in fraud, Dragon's Quill may restrict or terminate monetization.
17. Negative Balances
An author's ledger may become negative if refunds, chargebacks, dispute fees, reversals, corrections, taxes, fees, reserves, or other adjustments exceed unpaid eligible earnings.
If your ledger balance becomes negative, Dragon's Quill may:
- offset the negative amount against future earnings;
- hold payouts until the balance is resolved;
- require repayment;
- reduce future payouts;
- restrict monetization;
- disable monetization;
- suspend payouts;
- take other action permitted by Dragon's Quill policies and applicable law.
Dragon's Quill may choose not to pursue small negative balances, but doing so does not waive Dragon's Quill's right to pursue, offset, or collect other negative balances later.
18. Content Removal and Payouts
Paid content removal may affect author earnings and payouts.
If Paid Content is removed, unpublished, restricted, deleted, hidden, materially altered, demonetized, or made unavailable, Dragon's Quill may:
- hold payouts;
- issue refunds;
- reverse author earnings;
- create a negative ledger balance;
- preserve records;
- cancel or pause subscriptions;
- disable story monetization;
- disable author monetization;
- require admin review;
- take other action under Dragon's Quill policies.
Dragon's Quill may take these actions if content is removed because of:
- author action;
- moderation action;
- legal requirements;
- copyright complaints;
- plagiarism concerns;
- mature-content monetization restrictions;
- payment processor rules;
- safety concerns;
- fraud;
- technical issues;
- platform policy.
Content removal is not automatically refundable in every case, but it may affect payout eligibility and earnings.
19. Author Account Closure and Payouts
If an author closes an account, requests account deletion, disables monetization, or leaves Dragon's Quill, payout issues may remain.
Dragon's Quill may:
- disable new purchases;
- disable new subscriptions;
- cancel subscriptions;
- preserve purchase records;
- preserve payout records;
- preserve tax records;
- preserve ledger records;
- issue refunds where appropriate;
- hold funds for disputes or chargebacks;
- offset negative balances;
- settle eligible unpaid earnings according to this Payout Policy;
- retain records required for legal, tax, accounting, payment, support, fraud-prevention, moderation, and compliance purposes.
Account deletion does not erase refund obligations, chargeback risk, negative balances, payout holds, tax obligations, legal obligations, or record-retention requirements.
20. Currency and Country Limitations
Dragon's Quill may not support payouts in every country, region, currency, bank type, business type, account type, or payout method.
Payout availability may depend on:
- Stripe or Payment Processor support;
- tax/KYC requirements;
- sanctions rules;
- banking rules;
- author location;
- business type;
- currency availability;
- legal requirements;
- payment processor restrictions;
- Dragon's Quill's launch region decisions.
Dragon's Quill may restrict or deny monetization or payouts if the author's region, identity, account type, payout method, tax status, or payment processor status is unsupported.
21. Dashboard Estimates
Dragon's Quill may display author revenue dashboards, estimated earnings, pending earnings, available balances, payout status, subscriber counts, one-time unlock counts, refund indicators, dispute indicators, or related analytics.
These figures may be estimates.
Dashboard numbers may be delayed, incomplete, pending, rounded, manually corrected, or subject to processor updates.
A displayed balance does not guarantee that the amount is payable.
The official payout amount is the amount Dragon's Quill determines is eligible and processed after applicable holds, fees, refunds, chargebacks, taxes, reserves, corrections, and adjustments.
22. Payment Processor Errors and Delays
Dragon's Quill relies on third-party Payment Processors and banking systems.
Payouts may be delayed, failed, reversed, rejected, or restricted because of:
- Payment Processor outages;
- bank processing delays;
- incorrect bank information;
- failed identity verification;
- tax/KYC issues;
- account restrictions;
- currency conversion issues;
- unsupported countries;
- sanctions screening;
- payment method limitations;
- processor risk review;
- technical errors;
- weekends or holidays.
Dragon's Quill is not responsible for third-party payment or banking delays except where required by law.
Authors are responsible for keeping payout information accurate and current.
23. Corrections and Adjustments
Dragon's Quill may correct mistakes in author ledgers, payout calculations, fee calculations, refund calculations, chargeback records, tax records, or dashboard displays.
Corrections may increase or decrease author balances.
Dragon's Quill may make corrections based on:
- payment processor updates;
- accounting review;
- tax review;
- refund decisions;
- chargebacks;
- dispute outcomes;
- duplicate transactions;
- system errors;
- manual support review;
- fraud review;
- content removal;
- policy enforcement;
- data migration;
- technical bugs.
Authors are responsible for promptly notifying Dragon's Quill if they believe a payout or ledger entry is incorrect.
24. No Assignment or Transfer of Earnings
You may not sell, assign, transfer, pledge, license, or otherwise transfer your author earnings, payout rights, ledger balance, or expected payouts without Dragon's Quill's written consent.
Dragon's Quill may refuse to recognize any attempted transfer of payout rights.
Payouts will be made only to the approved payout account associated with the eligible author account, subject to this Payout Policy.
25. Fraud and Abuse
Dragon's Quill may deny, hold, reverse, or recover payouts if Dragon's Quill believes earnings resulted from fraud, abuse, manipulation, or policy violations.
Fraud or abuse may include:
- self-purchases;
- coordinated artificial purchases;
- fake subscriptions;
- stolen payment methods;
- refund abuse;
- chargeback abuse;
- purchase rings;
- account takeovers;
- bot activity;
- manipulated reviews or engagement;
- misleading paid content;
- off-platform payment evasion;
- violation of mature-content monetization rules;
- copyright or plagiarism abuse;
- attempts to bypass Dragon's Quill's platform fee.
Dragon's Quill may preserve evidence, restrict accounts, disable monetization, reverse earnings, report activity to payment processors, or take legal action where appropriate.
26. Changes to This Payout Policy
Dragon's Quill may update this Payout Policy from time to time.
If Dragon's Quill makes material changes, Dragon's Quill may provide notice by posting the updated policy, changing the "Last Updated" date, emailing authors, showing an in-product notice, requiring acceptance in Author Studio, or using another reasonable method.
Dragon's Quill may require authors to accept the updated Payout Policy before continuing monetization or receiving payouts.
If you do not accept the updated Payout Policy, Dragon's Quill may disable your monetization features while preserving records and handling existing reader access, refunds, chargebacks, and payout issues according to applicable policy.
27. Contact
For payout questions, contact:
- Dragon's Quill
Email: support@dragonsquill.net
Mailing Address:
502 W 7th ST
STE 100
Erie, PA, 16502, USA
Dragon's Quill may require payout questions to be handled through Author Studio, Stripe, account tools, payout dashboards, support forms, or other designated support workflows.
To help Dragon's Quill review a payout issue, include:
- your Dragon's Quill account email;
- story title, if relevant;
- payout period;
- transaction or ledger issue;
- screenshots, if relevant;
- Stripe or Payment Processor information, if available;
- a clear explanation of the issue.
Do not send full bank account numbers, full payment card numbers, passwords, or sensitive identity documents by ordinary email unless Dragon's Quill specifically instructs you to use a secure method.
28. Author Acknowledgment
By enabling monetization, receiving earnings, connecting a payout account, or accepting payouts through Dragon's Quill, you acknowledge and agree that:
- payouts are not immediate;
- payouts are subject to monthly payout timing and delay periods;
- the MVP minimum payout threshold is $25;
- Stripe or another Payment Processor may require onboarding, identity verification, tax/KYC information, and payout account approval;
- Dragon's Quill's 5% platform fee is separate from payment processing fees, taxes, refunds, chargebacks, payout fees, currency conversion, and other adjustments;
- refunds may reduce or reverse earnings;
- chargebacks and disputes may reduce or reverse earnings;
- your ledger may become negative;
- Dragon's Quill may hold payouts for fraud, refunds, chargebacks, tax/KYC issues, moderation, content removal, legal concerns, payment processor requirements, or policy violations;
- dashboard estimates are not guaranteed payout amounts;
- no payout is guaranteed until Dragon's Quill determines that funds are cleared, eligible, payable, and not subject to hold, reversal, refund, chargeback, dispute, or adjustment.
If you do not agree to this Payout Policy, do not enable monetization or receive payouts through Dragon's Quill.