The Holland Press

Living Stories is a publishing program of The Holland Press, the publishing home of author Victor Holland. Readers are invited to suggest ideas for works in progress — a character, a complication, a historical detail, a setting. These terms govern every suggestion submitted through the site. By submitting, you agree to them.

1. The author decides

Every creative decision belongs to the author alone. A submission is an offer of raw material, nothing more. Most submissions will not be used. The author owes no explanation, feedback, or response for any submission, used or not. Nothing on this site creates a promise that a submission will be read by a deadline, used, credited, or paid for.

2. What you grant when you submit

When you submit an idea, you grant Victor Holland and The Holland Press a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide right to use, adapt, change, and incorporate that idea — in whole or in part — into any work, in any medium (print, ebook, audio, film, or formats not yet invented), without payment, further permission, or obligation to you. If you do not want an idea used on those terms, do not submit it.

3. Credit is acknowledgment, not ownership

Ideas the author uses may be acknowledged in the Contributors’ Ledger, by the name you provide with your submission. Credit is granted at the author’s discretion and may be given or withheld for any reason. A Ledger credit is a thank-you. It does not make you a co-author, collaborator, owner, or partner in the work, and it creates no claim to royalties, profits, copyright, or creative control — whether or not your idea appears in a published work.

4. Submit only what is yours

By submitting, you state that the idea is your own original contribution and that, to your knowledge, it does not infringe anyone else’s copyright or rights. Do not submit passages of other people’s writing, song lyrics, or material you do not have the right to offer.

5. Similar ideas

These stories are in active development, and the author works from manuscripts, notes, and plans readers never see. A published passage may resemble your submission because the author arrived at it independently, or because readers often think alike. Resemblance alone creates no claim, and by submitting you waive any claim based solely on similarity between your submission and the author’s work.

6. Not confidential

Treat every submission as public and non-confidential. Do not submit anything you regard as a trade secret or private information. The name and hometown you provide with a submission may be displayed in the Contributors’ Ledger if your idea is credited.

7. Who may submit

You must be 18 or older to submit, or have a parent or guardian submit on your behalf.

8. Conduct

Submissions that are abusive, unlawful, or unrelated to the work may be discarded without notice. Repeated abuse may bar further submissions.

9. Changes

These terms may be updated. A submission is governed by the terms in effect when it was submitted.

10. Contact

Questions about these terms may be sent through the contact address on this site.