These terms cover only the free private alpha. No payment button, subscription, royalty agreement, or paid promotion is active.
Accepting these alpha terms
By accessing Lantern, creating an account, commenting, or submitting material during private alpha, you agree to these terms and the linked Privacy Policy, Community Standards, Copyright Policy, Content Guide, and Submission Guidelines. If you do not agree, do not use the alpha.
Adults only
You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to agree to these terms. Lantern may suspend an account when it reasonably believes this requirement is not met.
A free and unfinished service
Private alpha access is free. Payments, subscriptions, paid promotion, author royalties, and Stripe onboarding are not open. Features may be incomplete, changed, paused, reset, or removed; stories and accounts may be unavailable; and Lantern does not promise continuous access or preservation of alpha data. Keep your own copies of everything you submit.
Accounts and invitations
Provide accurate contact information, use only accounts and invitation codes you are authorized to use, and do not impersonate another person. You are responsible for activity through your sign-in links and should promptly report suspected unauthorized access. Invitation-only access may not be sold or publicly distributed.
Authors keep ownership
You retain copyright in material you submit. For the alpha, you grant Fantasy Slayer Publishing LLC a limited, nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, format, display, moderate, and technically adapt that material only as needed to operate, test, promote the presence of your Lantern story, and improve Lantern. This license does not transfer ownership, prevent publication elsewhere, or authorize Lantern to sell your work during the free alpha. It ends after removal except for reasonable backups, records, previews already shared with your permission, and legal needs.
Your promises about submitted material
- You own the material or have every permission required to submit and display it.
- It is not plagiarized, scraped, impersonated, or unauthorized fan fiction.
- Images, video, maps, covers, music, and AI-assisted elements are rights-cleared for this use.
- Labels and content notes are honest enough for readers and moderators to make informed choices.
- Private or identifying information about other people is included only with lawful permission.
AI-assisted work
Lantern does not ban responsible creative tools during alpha. The submitting author remains accountable for originality, coherence, disclosure when moderators request it, and every necessary right. Fully automated spam, scraped imitation, fabricated author identities, or mass-generated nonsense may be rejected or removed.
Serialization and completion
Alpha authors are expected to submit stories they genuinely intend to complete, provide a reasonable episode estimate and target date, maintain an honest release cadence, and communicate material delays. Private-alpha authors may have one actively publishing serial at a time. A new serial may enter review after the prior serial is marked complete, unless Lantern approves a written exception for circumstances such as coauthorship or an established production plan. Lantern may label a delayed or inactive serial accurately, pause new submissions, or remove abandoned work after reasonable outreach.
Comments, profiles, and feedback
You retain rights in original comments, profile text, and feedback. You grant Lantern permission to display approved public contributions and to use alpha feedback without restriction or payment to diagnose, design, and improve the service. Do not include confidential ideas or information in feedback.
Moderation and removal
Lantern may review, reject, limit, label, unpublish, preserve as evidence, or remove content or accounts that violate these terms, create safety or legal risk, or undermine the alpha. Moderation is not a guarantee that published material is lawful, accurate, safe, or suitable for every reader. Authors may request withdrawal, but Lantern may retain limited records and must consider access already promised to readers before any future paid removal process.
No warranties; limited responsibility
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Lantern is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of uninterrupted operation, fitness for a particular purpose, noninfringement, commercial success, readership, discoverability, preservation, or error-free service. Fantasy Slayer Publishing LLC is not responsible for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or lost-profit damages arising from the free alpha. Nothing here excludes rights or liabilities that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Ending access and changing these terms
You may stop using Lantern and request account or material removal. Lantern may suspend or end alpha access for violations, legal risk, security, inactivity, or service changes. Material changes will be dated and, when appropriate, announced before continued use is treated as acceptance. Paid-launch terms and author agreements will be presented separately; these alpha terms do not silently convert into a paid publishing contract.