Terms & Conditions
Effective 14 September 2026
First Audiobooks Limited ("First Audiobooks", "FAB", "we", "us" or "our") is a company incorporated in Gibraltar under Company No. 124089, with registered office at Suite 4.3.02, Eurotowers, Gibraltar GX11 1AA. Our contact email is info@firstaudiobooks.com.
These Terms govern use of firstaudiobooks.com and related account facilities, our audiobook-production services, purchases from the First Audiobooks Store, and related services. Different provisions apply depending on whether you are an Author commissioning production or a Store Customer purchasing an audiobook.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or restricts any right or remedy which cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.
Key definitions
Account – an account created on the Website for an Author, Store Customer or other authorised user.
Author – a person or legal entity that commissions, uploads or supplies a manuscript or other material for an audiobook Project, whether or not that person is the original writer.
Audiobook – a digital audio work, including narration, character voices, music and/or sound effects, whether supplied by streaming, download or another digital-delivery method.
Completed Audiobook – the final master audiobook that we make available after completion of a Project and receipt of all sums due.
Cloned Voice – a synthetic or computer-generated voice created from recordings or other voice data relating to a natural person.
Content – any manuscript, text, cover art, image, audio, voice recording, metadata, description, instruction or other material supplied by or on behalf of a user.
Free Chapter – the sample first chapter (or another sample portion selected by us) produced before the full Production Fee is payable.
Project – the production of an Audiobook from Content supplied by an Author.
Production Fee – the price for the standard production service stated on the Website at the time the Author proceeds after the Free Chapter.
Qualifying Store Receipts – the amount actually received or receivable from a Store sale for the Audiobook, excluding VAT, GST, sales tax or similar taxes and reduced only by refunds, reversals and chargebacks relating to that sale. Payment-processing, BookFunnel-delivery, ordinary store administration and compliance costs are borne by FAB from FAB's share and are not deducted before calculating the Author's 50% share.
Services – all services supplied by or on behalf of FAB, including production, store, fulfilment and promotional services.
Store – the First Audiobooks online audiobook store, whether hosted by FAB, Shopify or another platform.
Store Customer – a person who purchases, streams or downloads an Audiobook from the Store.
Third-Party Provider – a supplier or platform used in providing the Services, including production technology, hosting, payment, e-commerce, fulfilment, email or promotional services.
Voice – a natural or synthetic voice used in a Project, including a Cloned Voice.
Website – firstaudiobooks.com and any FAB-controlled subdomain or replacement website used for the Services.
1. Acceptance, eligibility and authority
You must be at least 18 years old and have legal capacity to enter into these Terms. If you act for a company, publisher, author, rights-holder or other person, you warrant that you have authority to bind that person.
You accept these Terms when you create an Account and tick the acceptance box, upload Content for a Project after being presented with these Terms, place an order, purchase an Audiobook, or otherwise use a Service in a manner that requires acceptance.
We may keep an electronic record of the version of the Terms accepted, the date and time of acceptance, relevant Account identifiers, and project approvals. Those records may be used to evidence the agreement between us.
2. Website use and Accounts
You must provide accurate, current and complete information, keep your credentials confidential, and promptly tell us if you believe an Account has been compromised.
You must not use the Website to break the law; interfere with security or operation; introduce malicious code; scrape or extract content by automated means without permission; impersonate another person; or attempt unauthorised access.
We may suspend or restrict an Account where reasonably necessary to protect users, rights-holders, our systems or Third-Party Providers, or where we reasonably suspect fraud, unlawful activity or breach of these Terms.
Service and administrative messages about your Account or Project are not marketing. Marketing communications will be sent only where permitted by law and, where required, with separate consent. You can withdraw marketing consent at any time.
3. The Free Chapter and deciding whether to proceed
An Author must create a free Account and accept these Terms before uploading a manuscript for a Free Chapter.
Subject to acceptance of the Project, we will produce a Free Chapter without charging the Production Fee. The Free Chapter is intended to demonstrate the proposed production approach and may use provisional voices, music or sound design.
The Free Chapter will ordinarily be made available for listening through the Author Account and is not offered as a normal downloadable master file before payment. No technical system can guarantee that streaming audio cannot be copied or captured, and we do not give such a guarantee.
Producing a Free Chapter does not oblige the Author to proceed with the full Project and does not oblige FAB to accept a Project for full production. If the Author does not proceed, FAB may delete project materials after a reasonable period in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
4. Production price, payment and included changes
For manuscripts up to 50,000 words, the standard Production Fee is US$695. Each additional 5,000 words or part of 5,000 words is charged at US$50. The word count used by FAB for pricing purposes will be the manuscript word count determined by our processing system, acting reasonably.
The standard price includes the production workflow described on the Website, including character analysis, voice casting, narration, music and sound effects, assembly and final master files, subject to these Terms.
The Author may request up to two alternative AI voice suggestions without additional charge. They are offered one at a time; if the first replacement does not suit the Author, a second can be prepared. Each additional AI voice suggestion after those two is US$50. Up to two authorised voice clones are included; each additional voice clone is US$50. The first five requested music or sound-effect track changes are included; each additional track change is US$50.
Corrections of clear production errors attributable to FAB are not counted as paid creative changes. A request to change an approved voice, artistic choice, music cue, sound design or other creative element is a change request even if the existing element is technically correct.
The Production Fee is payable before full-book production begins, after the Author has had the opportunity to hear the Free Chapter. Additional charges are payable before the relevant additional work is undertaken unless we agree otherwise in writing.
Prices are shown exclusive or inclusive of taxes as stated at checkout. Where a checkout provider is legally responsible for collecting tax, the amount charged and tax treatment shown by that provider will apply to the transaction.
5. Payment providers, Paddle and Shopify
We may use different payment channels for different territories or products. The identity of the seller or reseller for a particular transaction will be shown at checkout.
Where Paddle is identified at checkout as seller or reseller, Paddle acts as merchant of record/reseller for that transaction and its applicable buyer terms and privacy notice also apply to payment, tax, invoicing, refunds and order support. FAB remains responsible for supplying the underlying production or digital-content service except to the extent the applicable Paddle terms provide otherwise.
Where a purchase is completed through our Shopify Store without a merchant-of-record reseller, FAB is the seller/merchant for that sale. Shopify provides the commerce platform and related services and may process customer data as described in our Privacy Policy and Shopify's applicable notices.
We do not intentionally store complete payment-card numbers on our own servers. Card and payment credentials are handled by the relevant authorised payment provider.
6. Production workflow, AI technology and Author approvals
We may use AI and automated tools to analyse the manuscript, identify characters, propose voices, generate speech, create or select music and sound effects, and assist with editing, mixing and quality control. We may also use human review where we consider it appropriate.
AI-generated material can contain inaccuracies, unexpected results, pronunciation errors, inconsistencies or other defects. We will use reasonable care in producing the Audiobook, but no AI-based process can be guaranteed to be error-free.
The Author is responsible for listening to and reviewing material presented for approval and for raising material issues within a reasonable time. Approval of a voice, pronunciation, chapter, music cue, sound-design approach or other element allows us to rely on that approval when completing later stages.
We may use third-party production technology, including Midsummerr or a successor/equivalent provider, as part of our back-office production workflow. Use of those services does not transfer ownership of the Author's manuscript to the provider, but the provider may receive the limited rights and data necessary to process the Project.
Delivery dates and production times are estimates unless expressly agreed in writing to be binding. We are not liable for reasonable delays caused by processing queues, service outages, Author changes, Third-Party Providers or matters outside our reasonable control.
7. Author warranties about manuscripts and other Content
By uploading or supplying Content, the Author warrants that the Author owns it or has all rights, licences, permissions and consents required for FAB to use it for the Project, produce and exploit the Completed Audiobook as contemplated by these Terms, and grant the Store licence in clause 12.
The Author warrants that Content and the intended Audiobook do not infringe copyright, trade marks, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, contract or other rights; are not defamatory or unlawful; and may lawfully be distributed in the territories in which the Author expects them to be distributed.
If Content identifies real people, reproduces their voices or likenesses, incorporates third-party recordings, music, images or other protected material, the Author must have the necessary permission. A musical composition being in the public domain does not by itself make a particular recording of that composition free to use.
We may request evidence of ownership, permission or consent and may pause or refuse a Project until reasonably satisfactory evidence is supplied.
We may refuse, remove or stop processing Content that we reasonably believe is illegal, infringing, fraudulent, malicious, defamatory, intended to deceive or impersonate without consent, or inconsistent with a Third-Party Provider's mandatory content rules. We will not knowingly process sexualised depictions of minors or child sexual abuse material, and we may report suspected unlawful material where required by law.
8. Voice cloning and use of Voices
A Cloned Voice may be created only with the explicit authority of the person whose voice is used, or another lawful basis that clearly permits the proposed cloning and audiobook use. By supplying voice material, the Author warrants that all necessary consent has been obtained and may be required to provide evidence of it.
A Cloned Voice supplied for an Author Project may be used by FAB and its production providers only to produce, revise, store and deliver the authorised Project or other projects expressly authorised by the voice owner. It must not be used to deceive, defraud, impersonate without consent or create unlawful deepfakes.
The Author obtains rights in the Completed Audiobook, not ownership of any underlying third-party voice model, AI model, software, platform, isolated voice file or production technology. Voices may not be extracted, reverse engineered, separately resold or used to train another model unless the relevant rights-holder expressly permits it.
Where the Author personally supplies their own voice, accepting these Terms authorises us to process that voice for the authorised Project. Where another person's voice is supplied, the Author is responsible for obtaining an express consent that is sufficient for the intended production, distribution and commercial exploitation of the Audiobook.
The former FAB voice-provider promotional arrangements, if any, remain governed by any separate agreement made with the relevant voice provider and are not created or extended by these Terms.
9. Music, sound effects and other production elements
Music and sound effects may be generated, selected or licensed through Third-Party Providers. Subject to full payment, the Author may commercially exploit those elements as incorporated in the Completed Audiobook, but does not acquire any right to extract, resell or separately exploit an underlying track, stem, sample, model or library asset unless expressly stated.
We may substitute production elements where reasonably necessary because a provider withdraws an asset, a licence changes, a technical issue arises or we reasonably believe substitution is required to avoid infringement or platform rejection.
10. Completion, corrections and delivery
A Project is complete when we have supplied or made available the final master Audiobook after implementing the included corrections and agreed paid changes and when all sums due have been paid.
The Author must notify us promptly of any clear technical defect, missing audio, material file corruption or production error discovered after delivery. We will use reasonable efforts to correct verified defects attributable to us without additional charge.
The final master files will be made available for download through the Author Account or another secure delivery method. The Author is responsible for retaining their own archival copies once delivery has occurred.
We may retain working files for a limited period after delivery and may then delete them. We are not an archival service unless we expressly agree otherwise. Store masters and fulfilment copies may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to continue Store sales and honour prior customer purchases.
11. Ownership of the Completed Audiobook
Subject to full payment, the Author owns the copyright and title (to the extent capable of ownership) in the Completed Audiobook created from the Author's Content, excluding underlying rights that belong to FAB or Third-Party Providers in software, voice models, isolated voice assets, music or sound-effect libraries, production tools and other pre-existing materials.
FAB grants, or will procure for the Author, the rights necessary to commercially distribute, sell, stream and otherwise exploit the Completed Audiobook as an integrated work, subject to these Terms and any mandatory restrictions attached to third-party components.
Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of the Author's underlying manuscript, characters, cover artwork or other pre-existing Author Content to FAB.
12. Mandatory non-exclusive First Audiobooks Store licence
As a condition of commissioning a full Project, the Author grants FAB a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-bearing licence to host, reproduce, encode, stream, market, promote, advertise, sell, distribute and deliver the Completed Audiobook through the Store and through Third-Party Providers used for Store operation, payment and fulfilment.
The Store licence is non-exclusive. The Author remains free to sell, license and distribute the Completed Audiobook through any other lawful channel and retains ownership of it.
Store pricing. The Author may nominate the standard retail price of the Completed Audiobook in the FAB Store, subject to a minimum retail price of US$9.99. During the Store licence term, the Author must not knowingly set a lower standard retail list price for the same Completed Audiobook through another retail outlet under the Author's control. This restriction does not apply to temporary promotions, retailer-controlled discounts, subscription or credit pricing, library lending, bundles, taxes or other pricing arrangements over which the Author has no direct control.
FAB may use reasonable extracts, cover art, title, author/pen name, descriptions, metadata and promotional materials to advertise the Audiobook and the Store.
The Author authorises FAB to provide the Audiobook and necessary metadata to BookFunnel or another fulfilment provider, and to grant that provider the limited sublicences necessary to deliver the Audiobook to Store Customers and maintain customer libraries.
The Store licence continues for a fixed term of five (5) years from the date on which the Completed Audiobook is first listed in the Store, unless the parties agree in writing to extend or renew it. The Author may terminate the Store licence before expiry by giving FAB not less than three (3) months' written notice only where FAB has wilfully failed to perform a material obligation owed to the Author under these Terms and, where that failure is capable of remedy, FAB has failed to remedy it within 30 days after receiving written notice from the Author specifying the breach and requiring its remedy. Where the failure is not capable of remedy, the Author may give the three-month termination notice after written notice identifying the wilful failure. Expiry or termination does not affect rights already granted to Store Customers, the ability of a fulfilment provider to re-deliver purchases made before expiry or termination, or any accrued rights or sums already due.
13. Store royalties and accounting
For each qualifying sale of the Author's Completed Audiobook through the Store, FAB will credit the Author with 50% of Qualifying Store Receipts. FAB retains the other 50%.
FAB will bear ordinary payment-processing fees, BookFunnel-delivery charges, store administration and compliance costs from FAB's 50% share. Taxes collected from the buyer, refunds, reversals and chargebacks are not revenue and are excluded before the 50/50 split is calculated.
If a sale is refunded or charged back after an Author royalty has been credited or paid, the corresponding royalty may be deducted from future royalties or otherwise recovered from the Author to the extent reasonably necessary to reverse that sale.
Royalty statements will be made available quarterly and undisputed amounts will be paid within 30 days after the end of the relevant quarter, provided that balances below US$25 may be carried forward until the threshold is reached. The Author must keep valid payment details in the Account and is responsible for taxes due on royalties received.
FAB may withhold amounts that are reasonably disputed, subject to a refund/chargeback reserve, or which FAB is legally prohibited from paying, but will account for undisputed amounts.
14. Promotion
The standard production service includes the Launch Visibility package described on the Website at the time the Author purchases the full Project. Optional promotional packages may be purchased at the prices displayed on the Website.
Third-party promotions, group promotions, advertising platforms and retailer features are subject to their own eligibility requirements and editorial decisions. A reference to submission, targeting or promotion does not guarantee acceptance, placement, audience size, sales or any particular commercial result.
Where a promotional package includes a stated advertising budget, that budget forms part of the package price. Once advertising spend or third-party promotional work has begun, the corresponding part of the promotional fee is non-refundable except where required by law.
15. Store purchases, listener licence and BookFunnel delivery
A Store Customer receives a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to listen to the purchased Audiobook for private, non-commercial use. The Customer must not resell, redistribute, publicly perform, broadcast, share access credentials, remove technical protection or make the Audiobook available to others except as permitted by law or by an express licence from the rights-holder.
Store delivery may be provided by BookFunnel or another fulfilment provider. Delivery links, reader libraries and re-downloads may therefore also be subject to that provider's reader-facing terms and privacy practices.
A Store Customer must provide a functioning email address and is responsible for protecting any account credentials or delivery links. If a delivered file is corrupted or technically unusable, we will use reasonable efforts to re-supply a working copy.
All copyright and other intellectual-property rights in a Store Audiobook remain with the relevant Author, publisher, FAB and/or other rights-holders. Purchase does not transfer copyright.
16. Refunds, cancellation and statutory rights
The Free Chapter is provided without the Production Fee so that an Author can assess the production approach before committing to full production.
Once an Author has paid the Production Fee and expressly authorised full production to begin, we may start work immediately. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the fee is not refundable for work already performed or digital production already supplied, but this does not affect mandatory statutory rights or any remedy for our breach.
Where consumer law gives a cancellation or withdrawal right and permits that right to be lost or reduced when digital content or services begin immediately, we may ask the consumer at checkout to expressly request immediate performance and acknowledge the effect on that right. Any mandatory local consumer rights continue to apply.
For Store sales made directly by FAB through Shopify or another FAB checkout, refund requests are handled by FAB subject to applicable law and the nature of digital content. For a transaction where Paddle is the reseller/seller, Paddle may determine and process refunds in accordance with its buyer terms and legal obligations.
A change of mind, disagreement with a creative element previously approved, or failure to exploit or market an Audiobook successfully does not by itself entitle the Author to a refund of production fees already earned or work already performed.
17. Third-Party Providers
We may use Third-Party Providers, including Midsummerr for production technology, DigitalOcean or other infrastructure providers for hosting, Shopify for e-commerce, Paddle or other providers for payment/reseller services, and BookFunnel for digital fulfilment and reader delivery.
Third-Party Providers may change from time to time. We remain responsible for our own contractual obligations to you, but we are not liable for a provider outage or failure that is outside our reasonable control, provided that we take reasonable steps to restore or provide an alternative service where appropriate.
Where use of a Third-Party Provider requires the user to accept separate buyer, listener or platform terms, those terms apply in addition to these Terms to the relevant service. If there is an unavoidable conflict, mandatory law and the terms of the provider responsible for the relevant checkout or delivery function prevail for that function only.
18. AI transparency, metadata and watermarks
We may add or retain metadata, disclosures, labels, provenance information, watermarks or other technical measures where we reasonably consider them necessary to comply with law, platform rules, anti-piracy measures or AI-transparency requirements.
You must not remove or falsify a disclosure, provenance marker or other label where its retention is legally required or a condition of lawful distribution. Nothing in this clause authorises us to represent that any particular watermark is legally required unless that is in fact the case.
19. Copyright and rights complaints
We respect intellectual-property rights. A rights-holder who believes material on the Website or Store infringes their rights may send a notice to info@firstaudiobooks.com identifying the right relied upon, the work concerned, the allegedly infringing material and its location, contact details, and sufficient supporting information for us to assess the complaint.
We may temporarily disable access to disputed material while investigating. We may request further evidence from the complainant and the Author and may restore, remove or continue to restrict material according to our reasonable assessment and any applicable legal process.
An Author is responsible for losses reasonably suffered by FAB as a direct result of the Author knowingly or negligently supplying Content without the rights or permissions warranted under these Terms, subject to applicable law and the limitations in clause 22.
20. Privacy and data protection
Our separate Privacy Policy forms part of the contractual framework for the Services and explains how personal data is processed, including use of Midsummerr, BookFunnel, Shopify, Paddle, hosting and other service providers.
Where an Author supplies personal data about another person, including voice data, the Author must have a lawful basis to do so and must provide any notice or obtain any consent required by applicable data-protection law.
21. Suspension, refusal and termination
We may refuse a Project or suspend an Account where reasonably necessary because of suspected illegality, infringement, fraud, unauthorised voice cloning, prohibited Content, non-payment, abusive use, security risk, a Third-Party Provider requirement or material breach of these Terms.
If a remediable material breach occurs, the party in breach will ordinarily be given reasonable notice and an opportunity to remedy it where practicable. Immediate suspension or termination is permitted where delay would create legal, security, payment, rights-holder or platform risk.
Termination does not affect accrued payment obligations, ownership already vested, Store Customer licences already granted, provisions intended to survive, or any right or remedy arising before termination.
22. Liability
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, wilful misconduct, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
Subject to the preceding paragraph and to mandatory consumer law, neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill or loss arising from a failure to keep an independent backup where such loss was not reasonably foreseeable when the contract was made.
Subject to the preceding paragraphs, FAB's aggregate liability arising from a particular Project or Store purchase will not exceed the amount paid to FAB (or to a reseller on FAB's behalf) for the particular Project or purchase giving rise to the claim, except to the extent a higher amount is required by law.
The Website and AI-assisted Services depend on complex software and third-party systems. We do not warrant uninterrupted availability, but this does not reduce any obligation to supply Services with the standard of care required by applicable law.
23. Force majeure
Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including serious network or cloud failure, natural disaster, war, terrorism, government restriction, industrial dispute or widespread service-provider outage. The affected party must take reasonable steps to mitigate the effect.
If a force-majeure event materially prevents performance for more than 60 days, either party may terminate the affected uncompleted Project by written notice. Fees for work already performed and unavoidable committed costs remain payable, subject to mandatory law.
24. Changes to these Terms and prices
FAB may, in its discretion, amend these Terms from time to time. Any revised Terms will be published on the Website and, subject to any mandatory legal requirement for prior notice or a later effective date, will take effect immediately upon publication. The revised Terms will apply to use of the Website and Services from that time. No amendment will retrospectively alter a completed purchase, deprive any party of an accrued right, or vary any Project-specific term already expressly agreed in writing, unless the parties agree otherwise or applicable law permits.
Prices may change prospectively. The price accepted for a paid Project is not increased after payment merely because our published prices later change, although separately requested additional work is charged at the price agreed for that work.
25. Notices and communications
Notices to FAB may be sent to info@firstaudiobooks.com. We may send notices to the email address registered to the Account. Operational messages and project approvals may also be recorded within the Account.
An email notice is treated as received when it would ordinarily be available to the recipient, unless the sender receives a failure notification, subject to any mandatory legal rule requiring another method of service.
26. Entire agreement; waiver
These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the order/checkout information and any written Project-specific variation expressly agreed by FAB form the agreement between the parties concerning the relevant Services and supersede prior discussions about the same subject matter.
A failure or delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. A waiver of a particular breach is not a waiver of a later breach.
27. Assignment
FAB may assign these Terms to an affiliate, purchaser of the business or successor, provided that this does not materially reduce the user's accrued rights. The user may not assign a paid Project or Account without our prior written consent, but an Author may assign ownership of the Completed Audiobook subject to the Store licence and existing Store Customer rights.
28. Severability and third-party rights
If a provision is invalid or unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary or, if that is not possible, treated as deleted without affecting the remainder.
Except for a Third-Party Provider to the extent expressly stated and any rights that cannot lawfully be excluded, a person who is not a party to these Terms has no right to enforce them.
29. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms and any non-contractual obligations arising from them are governed by the laws of Gibraltar.
Where the customer acts in the course of a business, the courts of Gibraltar have exclusive jurisdiction, without preventing FAB from seeking urgent intellectual-property or injunctive relief in another competent court.
Where the customer is a consumer, nothing in this clause deprives the consumer of mandatory protections or jurisdiction rights that apply under the law of the consumer's country of residence.
30. Contact
First Audiobooks Limited
Suite 4.3.02, Eurotowers
Gibraltar GX11 1AA
Email: info@firstaudiobooks.com
Last updated: 14 September 2026