Invite authors, earn and unlock your plan
Everyone with an X-Live Books account, author or reader, has a personal link and QR code. When someone you invite becomes an author and pays for a plan, they get 20% off their first payment. Join the affiliate program, free and with no paid plan needed, and you earn 20% of each subscription payment for their first 12 months. Every inviter, affiliate or not, also unlocks plans: 3 paying authors unlock Pro, 5 unlock Studio.
Authors find it in the CMS. Readers find it in My library, under Account.
How it works
Share your link
Copy your personal link, print your QR code, or send it from the share buttons. Authors can also leave a small “Create yours” line on their public author page, which credits them.
They become an author
Someone opens your link and, within 60 days, creates an author account. If they open several people's links, the last one they opened counts.
They pay, you earn and unlock
As an affiliate you earn 20% of every qualifying payment for their first 12 months. Once they pay and the 14 days of trial and refund window have passed, they also count towards your plan for as long as they keep paying.
Two rewards, added together
Commissions (affiliates)
Join the affiliate program from your referral page, or sign up as an affiliate: free, no paid plan needed, no approval. You earn 20% of what your invited authors pay for their first 12 months, set out below.
Plan unlocks (everyone)
Automatic, no application, on top of any commission. On the Free plan, 3 paying authors you invited unlock Pro and 5 unlock Studio. On Pro, each paying author gives you a free month of Pro, and 5 unlock Studio. The plan stays unlocked while they keep paying; if fewer pay, it stays until the end of that month and we tell you first. Your AI allowances are those of the unlocked plan.
What the author you invite gets
20% off their first payment for a paid plan, applied automatically at checkout. It is for a first subscription only: an account that has subscribed before does not get it.
They also get the same 7-day free trial as everyone else and the 7-day money-back guarantee on their first payment.
Affiliates: what you earn
- 20%of each payment, taxes excluded
- 12 monthsfrom their first payment
- 30 daysbefore a commission is payable
- €20.00minimum payout
Commissions are calculated on what the invited author actually paid, without VAT or other taxes. Each one waits 30 days, which covers the 7-day trial and the 7-day money-back window, and then becomes payable.
Payable commissions are paid out through Stripe Connect once your balance reaches €20.00. Below that, the balance carries over. Before your first payout we check your details with you.
When a one-time payment package is available, an author you invite who buys it earns you a one-time 20% of that payment.
Where to find your link
Authors
CMS → Referral
Your link, your QR code, share buttons, and your clicks, signups and commissions.
Readers
My library → Account
Your link and QR code. You do not need to be an author to invite one.
Questions
Can I use my own link?
No. A referral never counts when it comes back to you: the same account, the same email inbox (including +tags and Gmail dots), the same payment card or the same device. Someone who was already an author before opening your link cannot be referred either.
What happens if they get a refund?
A refund, full or partial, or a chargeback voids the commission on that payment. If it was already paid out, it is taken back from your payout.
Do I have to pay tax on commissions?
Possibly. Commissions can be taxable income where you live, and VAT or withholding may apply depending on your country and status. Declaring them is your responsibility, and we may ask you for tax details before paying you. This is not tax advice.
How long does my link count after a click?
60 days, and the last link clicked wins. If the person has accepted marketing cookies, the click is remembered in a cookie on their browser, holding only your code, the kind of link and the time of the click (see our Cookie Policy). If they have not, your link takes them straight to the sign-up page, which carries your code, so it still counts when they create their account there.
Can I turn off the line on my author page?
Yes. The “Create yours” line on your public author page is on by default, and you can switch it off in Settings.
Referral program terms
Last updated:
Who runs the program
The X-Live Books referral program is run by XPublish Ltd (“XPublish”, “we”). These terms add to the X-Live Books Terms of Service. Where they differ on the program, these terms apply.
Who can take part
Anyone aged 18 or over with an X-Live Books account, author or reader, who accepts these terms. To earn commissions you join the affiliate program, for free and with no paid plan needed: from your referral page, or by signing up as an affiliate. Plan unlocks need no joining. To be paid you need a Stripe Connect account linked to your X-Live Books account and verified by Stripe. We may refuse or end someone's participation if they break these terms.
We may pause an affiliate's participation while we check something. While it is paused, payments from your invited authors earn no commission and nothing is paid out; commissions earned before the pause are kept.
Your link and how a referral is credited
You get a personal link and QR code. When someone opens it, the click is remembered on their browser for 60 days. If they open several referral links, the last one counts.
A referral is credited when that person creates an author account, or switches a reader account to an author account, within that period. It is credited once per account and cannot be moved to someone else afterwards. Only new authors count: someone who was already an author before the click cannot be referred.
Authors' public pages show a small “Create yours” line that credits that author. It is on by default and can be switched off in Settings.
What the invited author gets
20% off their first payment for a paid X-Live Books plan, once per account, only if the account has never subscribed before.
Commissions
As an affiliate you earn 20% of each subscription invoice the invited author pays within 12 months of their first payment.
After those 12 months: while you pay for a plan of your own (a plan unlocked by invitations does not count), each payment of that author keeps earning you 20%. If you do not pay for a plan of your own, the rate depends on how many invited authors made their first payment in the previous 12 months, checked once a month: 100 or more: 20%; 50 to 99: 10%; fewer than 50: 5%.
Commissions are calculated on the amount actually paid, after discounts and excluding VAT and other taxes. Nothing is earned on a free trial, an unpaid invoice or a payment that fails.
When a one-time payment package is available, an invited author who buys it earns you a single commission of 20% of that payment, and no further commission on that author.
Hold period
Each commission is pending for 30 days after the payment it comes from, so that it is never paid on money that can still be refunded on request. After that it becomes payable.
Refunds, chargebacks and clawback
If a payment is refunded, in full or in part, or disputed, the whole commission on that payment is voided. If it was already paid out, we take it back from the payout (for example by reversing the transfer) or deduct it from your future commissions, and we may ask you to repay it.
Payouts
Payable commissions are sent to your Stripe Connect account once your payable balance reaches €20.00. Smaller balances carry over. Before your first payout we check your identity and tax details with you, and payouts start once that check is done. Commissions are in euro; a payment made in another currency counts for what we actually receive for it in euro. Commissions have no cash value until they are payable.
Fair play
No self-referral: a referral does not count, and any commission or plan reward on it is voided, when the invited author is you, uses your email inbox (including aliases), pays with a card you also use, or signs up from a device you use.
No fake accounts, no spam or unsolicited messages, no misleading claims, and no paid ads that bid on “X-Live Books”, “XPublish” or similar terms, or that send people to your link from them. Do not present yourself as XPublish or promise anything that is not in these terms.
If we have good reason to think these rules were broken, we may void the commissions concerned, hold payouts while we check, and end your participation.
Taxes
Commissions may be taxable income for you. You are responsible for declaring them and paying any tax due. Depending on your country and status, VAT may apply or we may have to withhold tax. We may ask for tax information (such as your tax residence, tax ID or VAT number) before paying, and hold payouts until we have it. Nothing here is tax advice.
Changes and ending the program
We may change these terms or end the program. We will tell you in advance, and commissions earned before a change keep the terms they were earned under. What happens to an unpaid balance when the program ends or you close your account will be set out in the final terms.
Your relationship with us
Taking part does not make you an employee, agent or partner of XPublish, and you cannot act or make commitments on our behalf.
Your data
To run the program we record the clicks on your link (code, kind of link, time and campaign tags), the referrals credited to you, and your commissions and payouts. The Privacy Policy explains how we handle this data.
Law and disputes
These terms are governed by the same law as the Terms of Service. Consumers keep the protection of the mandatory law of the country where they live.
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