Terms of Service

Effective date: May 29, 2026 Last updated: May 29, 2026

Welcome, and thank you for reading. This publication, Mike Writes (”the Publication”), is written and operated by Michael Williams (”I,” “me,” “my,” or “the Author”) and hosted on Substack. By accessing, subscribing to, reading, or otherwise using the Publication, you (”you,” “the reader,” or “the user”) agree to these Terms of Service (”Terms”). If you do not agree, please do not use the Publication.

These Terms apply to all content published here, including serialized fiction (including the novel A King’s War and any related works), personal essays, newsletters, Notes, comments threads, and any other material I post.

1. Ownership and Copyright

All written content, characters, settings, plots, magic systems, world-building, cover art, illustrations, and any other creative material published in the Publication is the original work of the Author and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. © 2026 Michael Williams. All rights reserved.

Nothing in these Terms transfers any ownership, license, or right in the content to you, except the limited permission to read it as described in Section 3. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by the Author.

2. No AI Training, Scraping, or Automated Data Mining

This is a deliberate and explicit reservation of rights.

The content of this Publication may not be used, in whole or in part, for any of the following without my prior, express, written permission:

• Training, fine-tuning, developing, evaluating, or improving any artificial intelligence, machine learning, large language model, or generative system;

• Text and data mining (TDM) of any kind, including for commercial or non-commercial research;

• Automated scraping, crawling, harvesting, indexing (other than standard search-engine indexing for the purpose of linking back to the original), or bulk downloading;

• Inclusion in any dataset, corpus, or repository intended for the purposes above.

I expressly reserve all text and data mining rights under all applicable laws (including, where relevant, Article 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market and equivalent provisions elsewhere). This reservation is made in both human-readable and machine-readable form and applies regardless of how the content is accessed.

Any use of this content to train or operate an AI system violates these Terms and my copyright, and I reserve every available legal remedy.

3. Permitted Use

You are welcome to:

• Read the content for your own personal, non-commercial enjoyment;

• Share links to posts freely (linking is encouraged);

• Quote brief, reasonable excerpts for the purposes of commentary, criticism, review, or reporting, provided you include clear attribution to the Author and a link back to the original post.

That’s it — the spirit here is simple: enjoy the work, point people to it, and credit it.

4. Prohibited Use

Except as allowed in Section 3, you may not:

• Reproduce, republish, repost, copy, or redistribute any content in whole or in substantial part;

• Sell, license, sublicense, or otherwise commercially exploit any content;

• Create derivative works — including adaptations, sequels, fan fiction published for profit, translations, audio recordings, or other adaptations of the characters or stories — without my written permission;

• Remove, alter, or obscure any copyright notice, attribution, or AI-training reservation;

• Use any content in a way that is misleading, defamatory, or that implies my endorsement of something I have not endorsed.

5. Fiction Disclaimer

A King’s War and all other works of fiction published here are works of the imagination. Names, characters, places, organizations, and events are either products of the Author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

6. Personal Essays and Opinions

Personal essays and non-fiction posts reflect the Author’s own views, experiences, and recollections at the time of writing. They are offered for reflection and entertainment and do not constitute professional, legal, medical, financial, or other advice. Where essays touch on real people or events, they represent the Author’s perspective and good-faith memory.

7. Reader Comments and Conduct

If commenting is enabled, you are responsible for what you post. By submitting a comment, you grant me a non-exclusive license to display, retain, or remove it at my discretion. I may moderate, edit, or delete comments — and restrict or remove access for any user — particularly where content is abusive, harassing, hateful, spam, off-topic, infringing, or otherwise inappropriate. You retain ownership of your own comments, but must not post anything you do not have the right to share.

8. Subscriptions and Payments

Some content may be free, and some may be reserved for paid subscribers. Payments, billing, and subscription management are handled by Substack and its payment processor; your use of those services is also subject to their terms. Subscription fees are charged on the cadence shown at sign-up and renew automatically unless canceled. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings. Refunds, where offered, are at my discretion and subject to Substack’s policies.

9. Third-Party Platform

The Publication is hosted on Substack. Your use of the Publication is therefore also governed by Substack’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. I am not responsible for the availability, security, or practices of Substack or any third-party service, and outages or changes to that platform are outside my control.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Publication and its content are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. I do not warrant that the content will be uninterrupted, error-free, or continuously available, and I may add, change, or remove content at any time.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Author shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss arising out of your access to or use of (or inability to use) the Publication or its content.

12. Changes to These Terms

I may update these Terms from time to time. Changes take effect when posted, and the “Last updated” date is updated accordingly. Your continued use of the Publication after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

13. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms, or requests for permission to use the content (including any AI, licensing, or adaptation request), can be sent to:

mike@mikewrites.info

By reading, subscribing to, or otherwise engaging with this Publication, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms of Service.