Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of these terms

These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Precipice Research (“DearAgent”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). By creating an account, accessing, or using the DearAgent website and any related services (together, the “Service”), you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated here by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation to these Terms, and “you” refers to both you and that organisation.

2. Who we are

DearAgent is a service of Precipice Research, a company organised in the United Kingdom. The Service helps authors research literary agents, manage book profiles, draft query letters, and track submissions. You can reach us at [email protected].

3. Preview status of the Service

The Service is currently in a pre-launch preview. Features may be added, removed, changed, or broken without notice; some features described on the site (including AI matching, query-letter tools, submission tracking, and paid tiers) are still being rolled out. We do not guarantee availability, uptime, performance, or backwards compatibility. You use preview features at your own risk.

4. Accounts

• You must be at least 16 years old (or the age of digital consent applicable in your jurisdiction, if higher) to create an account.
• You must provide accurate information when you register and keep it current.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your sign-in credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.
• One account per person. Do not share your account or transfer it to someone else without our written consent.
• We may suspend or terminate your account if you materially breach these Terms or if we are required to do so by law. You may close your account at any time; see section 18.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to, and not to permit anyone else to:

• Scrape, crawl, or bulk-copy agent data or any other content from the Service by automated means, except via any documented API we expressly provide for that purpose.
• Use information from the agent directory for bulk unsolicited communications, resale, redistribution, or to assemble or augment a competing directory or mailing list.
• Harass, threaten, defame, or otherwise abuse any literary agent, user, or other person through or in connection with the Service.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service, another account, or any underlying system; probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service without our prior written permission.
• Circumvent plan limits or rate limits, resell access to the Service, or share paid features with others.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the Service, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law.
• Upload content that is unlawful, infringing, harmful, or that contains malware; impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation.
• Use the Service in a way that violates any applicable law or regulation.

We may investigate suspected violations, remove or disable access to content, and suspend or terminate accounts as we reasonably consider appropriate.

6. Your content and ownership

You retain all rights to the query letters, book profiles, notes, and other materials you create or upload to the Service (“Your Content”). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.

You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, modify (for example, to format, resize, or translate for display), transmit, and display Your Content in connection with operating, providing, securing, improving, and promoting the Service. This licence includes the right to transmit Your Content to the service providers described in our Privacy Policy to the extent necessary to run the Service, including sending content to our AI provider when you invoke an AI-assisted feature.

We do not sell Your Content or publish Your Content publicly. The licence ends when you delete the content or close your account, subject to the retention periods described in the Privacy Policy and to residual copies held in backup or archival systems.

You are responsible for Your Content. You represent that you have the necessary rights to submit it and that it does not infringe anyone else's rights or violate any law.

7. AI-assisted features

Some parts of the Service use artificial intelligence to provide feedback on query letters and related content. These features are optional and run only when you invoke them. When you do, we send relevant inputs (for example, your query letter, book-profile context, and targeted agent preferences) to our AI provider as described in the Privacy Policy.

AI output is generated probabilistically. It may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or substantively similar to content generated for other users. We do not guarantee that AI-generated suggestions are correct or that following them will lead to any particular outcome, including agent representation or publication. You are responsible for reviewing AI output and deciding whether and how to use it. You should not treat AI output as legal, financial, editorial, or professional advice.

8. Agent directory disclaimer

Directory entries are compiled from publicly available professional sources and are provided for informational purposes only. We do not guarantee that any entry is accurate, complete, or current, that any listed agent is currently open to submissions, or that an agent will respond to a query.

Literary agents listed in the directory are not our employees, agents, partners, or affiliates, and we do not endorse any of them. Your decision to contact or submit work to any agent is entirely your own, and your interaction with an agent is between you and that agent.

9. Paid plans (not yet live)

Paid tiers (currently marketed as Pro and Plus) are not yet available. When they launch, the specific billing terms — including price, billing cycle, trials, refunds, cancellation, tax, and the use of Stripe or another payment processor — will be presented to you at the point of purchase, and you will need to accept those supplemental terms before you are charged. Any pre-launch references to founding-member perks or early-signup benefits are non-binding until paid plans go live and the relevant supplemental terms are accepted.

10. Usage limits and fair use

The Service includes plan limits (for example, on saved agents, book profiles, or AI-feedback sessions) described on the pricing page. We may rate-limit, throttle, or suspend access where usage appears automated, abusive, or otherwise inconsistent with normal individual use.

11. Our intellectual property

The DearAgent name and logo, the Service's design and user interface, the organisation and compilation of the agent directory, our matching algorithm, our AI prompts and workflows, our example library, and all related copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual-property rights are owned by Precipice Research or its licensors and are protected by applicable law.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use (or your internal business use, if you signed up on behalf of an organisation), consistent with these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

12. Third-party services

The Service relies on the third-party providers described in our Privacy Policy. Those providers have their own terms and privacy practices that apply to their services. We are not responsible for third-party services or outages outside our reasonable control.

13. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise. We disclaim all warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, and quiet enjoyment. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, error-free, or secure; that defects will be corrected; or that any AI output, match, or directory entry is accurate or reliable.

Nothing in this section limits or excludes any warranty or condition that applicable law does not allow us to limit or exclude.

14. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

We will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, business opportunities, or anticipated savings, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) US$100 and (b) the amounts you paid us in the twelve months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, gross negligence, or death or personal injury caused by negligence, or rights that consumers have under mandatory consumer-protection laws (for example, under the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015, applicable EU consumer legislation, or California consumer law).

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Precipice Research and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, losses, and reasonable expenses (including legal fees) arising out of or relating to (a) Your Content, (b) your use of or conduct on the Service, (c) your breach of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any law or the rights of a third party. We will provide you with reasonable notice of any such claim and reasonably cooperate at your expense. You may not settle any claim in a way that imposes obligations on us without our prior written consent.

16. Dispute resolution and governing law

Informal resolution first

Most disputes can be resolved quickly and informally. Before starting a formal proceeding, you agree to send us a written notice describing the dispute and the relief you seek to [email protected]. You and we agree to negotiate in good faith to resolve the dispute for 30 days after notice is received.

Mediation

If the dispute is not resolved within 30 days of notice, you and we agree to submit it to non-binding mediation before a mutually agreed mediator (for example, through JAMS or a comparable provider) seated in New York County, New York. Each party bears its own costs, and the mediator's fees are shared equally, except where applicable law requires us to pay them for consumers.

Individual claims only

You and we agree that any claim will be brought only in an individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Governing law and venue

These Terms and any non-contractual obligations arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. Subject to the mediation requirement above, the state and federal courts located in New York County, New York, will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, and you and we consent to personal jurisdiction there.

Mandatory local-law rights

If you are a consumer located in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, California, or another jurisdiction whose laws grant you rights that cannot be waived by agreement, nothing in this section 16 deprives you of those rights. In particular, consumers may bring claims in the courts of their country of residence and benefit from the mandatory provisions of their local consumer-protection laws.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we revise these Terms we will update the “Last updated” date above. We may, at our discretion, provide additional notice of material changes (for example, by email or an in-app notice) before they take effect. If you do not agree with the updated Terms, you should stop using the Service. Your continued use after the effective date of an update constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

18. Termination

You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time from your dashboard or by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time if you breach these Terms, if we reasonably believe you are using the Service in a way that puts it or other users at risk, if we are required to do so by law, or for any other reason that we reasonably consider appropriate.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including sections 6 (ownership), 11 (our IP), 13 (disclaimers), 14 (limitation of liability), 15 (indemnification), 16 (dispute resolution), and 19 (miscellaneous) — survive. After your account closes, content retention is handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

19. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy (together with any supplemental terms presented when a paid feature launches) are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service and supersede any prior agreements.
• Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest of the Terms remain in effect and the unenforceable provision is enforced to the maximum extent permitted.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
• Notices. We may give you notices through the Service or by email to the address on your account. You must send notices to us at [email protected].
• Relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and us.
• Language. These Terms are written in English. If we provide a translation, the English version controls in the event of a conflict.

20. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Email [email protected].

Precipice Research
Operator of DearAgent
71-75 Shelton Street
Covent Garden
London WC2H 9JQ
United Kingdom

See also our Privacy Policy.