This is the agreement between you and us when you order a book. We wrote it to be read, not skimmed past. It is short, and the parts that matter most are the ones about your recipes.
Butter & Ink is a small business based in Colorado, in the United States, that turns families' handwritten and printed recipes into custom hardcover recipe books. You can reach us any time at [email protected]. A person reads every message and answers within five business days, usually the same day.
When you place an order, buy a gift certificate, or send us recipes, you are agreeing to these terms. If anything here does not sit right with you, write to us before you order. We would rather answer a question than lose you over a paragraph.
A book made once, for you, from your own recipes. The price of your tier covers reading every recipe, rebuilding the typed ones, preserving the handwritten ones as scans, designing the pages, a digital proof, printing by our print partner, and shipping to your door. What each tier includes, and how many recipes it holds, is listed on the pricing page on the day you order, and that is what we go by.
If you send more recipes than your tier holds, additional recipes are $3 each, up to 25 over. Past that, moving up a tier is better value and we will say so.
Because every book is made to order, we cannot resell one. That is why the refund rules change the moment a book goes to press, and it is why we make sure you approve a proof first.
Everything you send us stays yours. We do not take any ownership of your recipes, your photos, your handwriting, or your family's words, and we never publish any of it without asking you first and getting a yes.
In return, you confirm that you have the right to send us what you upload, and that making a book from it for your own family does not break anyone else's rights.
Families often include a page torn from a published cookbook or magazine. Here is how we handle that. The ingredients, quantities, times, and yields are facts, and we transcribe them. The method we write in our own words, and we print a credit to the source on the recipe. We never print a publisher's prose word for word. If something arrives that we cannot reproduce fairly, we will tell you which page and why, and leave it out or keep it as a scan of your own copy if you prefer.
We keep the right to decline any order, or any part of one. We use it rarely, and only when we could not make a book we would be proud to send you. If we decline before printing, you get a full refund.
You give us permission to copy, scan, transcribe, edit, lay out, store, and send to our print partner the material you upload, for one purpose only: making your book, and any copies or reprints you ask for later. That permission ends when you ask us to delete your files. How long we keep them, who else touches them, and how to have them deleted is all on the privacy page.
Before anything prints, you get a digital proof of the whole book. Please read it as carefully as you would want us to. Check that every recipe made it, that names and dedications are spelled the way you want, and that nothing was misread. When you are happy, reply "approved" by email. That written reply is what sends the book to print.
Approval means we print exactly what you approved. Anything that appears in the approved proof, including a spelling, a quantity, or a line in the dedication, is yours from that point, and a change after printing is a reprint at your tier's extra-copy price. Our errors are different. If the printed book differs from the proof you approved, or the printing or binding is faulty, we reprint it free. That promise has no small print.
Each tier includes a number of revision rounds: one for The Keepsake, two for The Heirloom, and as many as it takes for The Legacy. Fixing something we got wrong never counts as a round. If you want more rounds than your tier includes, they are $25 each, or you can take the full refund instead.
Most books arrive about three weeks after you tell us your photos are in, and about four weeks for The Legacy. Those are honest estimates, not guarantees. The clock starts when you press "everything is in" on your order page, and it pauses while the proof is with you, since we cannot print what you have not yet approved. Printing and shipping slow down in November, December, and the two weeks before Mother's Day, so order early for those dates.
Rush service moves your book to the front of the line: ten business days from "everything is in" to the day it ships, again pausing while the proof is with you. If we miss a rush date and the delay was ours, we refund the rush fee and the book still ships.
We ship printed books within the United States, to all fifty states and Washington, DC. Digital PDF orders and gift certificates can be bought from anywhere, since nothing physical is sent. Every book ships tracked, and we send you the tracking link when it leaves the printer.
Books go to the address you give at checkout. We check it before printing and we will ask if something looks off, but please look it over too. If a book is delivered to a wrong address that you gave us, a replacement is at your tier's extra-copy price. If you spot a mistake in the address, tell us straight away and we will fix it before the book ships.
If a book arrives damaged, has a printing fault, or never arrives at all, send us a photo within 14 days of delivery and we reprint it free. The details are on the refund policy.
Mail-in scanning is an optional add-on, $49, for cards that are too precious or too fragile to photograph well. We know what we are being handed. Here is exactly how we treat it.
Mail carries risk that no amount of care removes. If a carrier loses or destroys a package in either direction, we will refund everything you paid us for the order, and we will pass the carrier's insurance payment to you in full. That is the limit of what we can make right, and we are being honest that it is a small thing next to what was lost. Please photograph every card before you mail it. It takes ten minutes, and it means that whatever happens in transit, nothing is gone.
A gift certificate carries the dollar value you paid, and it never expires. The recipient redeems it by emailing us, and it can go toward any tier or add-on, with any balance carried forward. It is not redeemable for cash, except where the law requires it. If a certificate is lost, we re-send it free, since it lives in our records and not on a piece of paper. Refunds on certificates are on the refund policy.
A discount code is entered at checkout and cannot be applied afterwards. One code per order, and codes cannot be combined. A code has no cash value and cannot be used to buy a gift certificate. We may end or change a promotion at any time, though an order already placed keeps its price. If we share a code with friends and family, it is meant for the people we gave it to, and we may cancel a code that has been posted publicly.
Prices are in US dollars. Payment is taken by Stripe, and we never see your full card number. Sales tax, where we are required to collect it, is added at checkout. We may change prices from time to time, but the price you paid is the price of your order.
If something goes wrong, we fix it, reprint it, or refund it, as set out here and on the refund policy. Beyond that, our total responsibility to you for an order is the amount you paid us for it, plus any insurance payment we pass on. We are not responsible for indirect losses, like a gift missing an occasion, however sorry we are when it happens. Some states do not allow limits like this, in which case it applies only as far as the law lets it.
A few honest disclaimers. Printed colour never matches a screen exactly. A scanned card can only be as clear as the photo or the original. And the recipes are your family's, not ours: we transcribe them faithfully, but we do not test them, and we cannot vouch for what half a cup of butter does to anyone.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado. If we have a disagreement, write to us first. We will do our best to sort it out with you directly, and we usually can. If we cannot, the courts of Colorado will decide it. Nothing here takes away any rights you have as a consumer under the law where you live.
If part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands.
We will update this page and change the date at the bottom. The terms that apply to your order are the ones on this page on the day you placed it. If a change would actually affect an order in progress, we will email you rather than quietly editing this page and hoping you notice.
Write to [email protected]. A person reads it.