Printer Partnership Agreement

In short: we offer you paid orders and you choose whether to accept each one within 24 hours. You print to the specification, pack the book and hand it to our courier with the prepaid label we supply. You keep authors' files secret and delete them. We pay your own printing price every month, by the 10th. Neither side is exclusive, there is no minimum number of orders, and our 30% platform fee never comes out of your price.

The same text as the Printer Partnership Agreement printers sign; a Sinhala version is part of that document. If the two differ, the English version controls.

1. How this partnership works

Sri Sinharaja is an online marketplace where authors sell print-on-demand books. Readers pay us for the book and, separately, for delivery. We offer each paid order to one approved printer. You print, bind and pack it and hand it to our courier, and we pay you your agreed printing price. In this agreement:

• Order means one print job we offer you: the book, the quantity and the specification.
• Specification means the size, page count, paper, black-and-white or colour printing, cover, finish and binding.
• Printing price means the price for an order from your price schedule, shown in the offer and fixed when you accept.
• Deadline means the dispatch date stated in the order. Handover means giving the packed order to the courier named on our prepaid label.
• You are an independent business and this agreement is non-exclusive: you may print for other customers, and we may use other printers.

2. Approval, your profile and capacity

• You receive orders only after we approve your registration and sample prints.
• Keep your printer profile accurate: the sizes, bindings, papers and cover finishes you print, page limits, colour printing, daily capacity, usual turnaround time, production location and handover point. Tell us about holidays, breakdowns or a full order book before they affect orders.
• You print only at the production location in the Schedule, unless we agree another location in writing.

3. How orders are assigned

• We offer each order to the approved printer we reasonably judge most suitable for it, considering printing price, print quality, distance to the reader, turnaround time, shipping performance, capacity, reliability and past complaints.
• No printer has exclusive, priority or preferred rights to any book, area or type of order. Earlier bids or awards give no continuing right.
• We do not promise any minimum number of orders, minimum income or exclusive territory.
• You accept or decline each order within 24 hours of our offer. If you do not answer in time, the order counts as declined and we may offer it to another printer. You may decline any order; how often you accept and answer on time is part of reliability.

4. Your printing prices

• You set your own printing prices in your price schedule, by size, page count, paper, black-and-white or colour, cover, binding, quantity and other approved options.
• The printing price for an order is shown in the offer and is fixed once you accept it.
• You may change your prices with 14 days' notice in your printer account. Changes never affect orders already accepted.
• We may compare printers' prices, but we never show your prices to other printers without your permission.
• Our 30% platform fee is charged on the book's selling price under our agreement with authors. It is never deducted from your printing price.

5. Making each order

• Print exactly to the approved files and the specification: the right paper, page count, size, binding, cover finish and good, clear print quality.
• Before printing, check the order and the files. If something looks wrong (for example the page count, size or cover does not match, or a page in the file is blank or damaged), stop and tell us. Never change a file yourself.
• Dispatch by the deadline. If you see you cannot meet it, tell us at once (clause 8).
• Do not pass an order or a file to another printer or subcontractor without our prior written permission.

6. Packing, shipping labels and handover

• Pack every book so that it is reasonably protected from damage, damp and bending in transit.
• We give you a prepaid shipping label for every order, so you never pay for postage. Use only our label and hand the parcel to the courier named on it.
• On the day of handover, record the courier and tracking number on the site, and keep the courier's receipt, scan or a photo of the labelled parcel for 90 days as handover evidence.
• Once a correctly packed parcel is handed over, you are not responsible for loss, damage or delay caused only by the courier; we deal with the courier. If we ask you to print a replacement, it is a new paid order.

7. Printing defects

• You are responsible for defects caused by your production: missing or repeated pages, wrong binding, wrong paper or size, damaged covers, wrong trimming, poor print quality, or a wrong version printed when we supplied the correct file.
• You reprint each such book at your own cost. We supply a new label, and the reasonable extra shipping cost is charged to you on your statement. Authors never pay for printing defects.
• Mistakes inside the author's own file (spelling, layout, low-quality images, wrong content) are not printing defects, unless the problem was obvious and you printed without telling us (clause 5).
• How complaints work: readers may report a defect within 14 days of delivery, with photos. We send you the report and evidence, and you reply within 2 working days, accepting it or showing why it is not your fault. We may ask for the copy back. We decide fairly on the evidence and tell you our reasons. If you disagree, clause 18 applies.

8. Delays and failed orders

• If you cannot complete an accepted order by the deadline, tell us as soon as you know. We may reassign it to another printer.
• If the failure is your fault, we may recover the reasonable, documented extra costs it directly caused (for example a higher printing price elsewhere or extra shipping). We show you the costs and evidence first, and you may dispute them under clause 10. There are no fixed fines or penalties.
• You are not responsible for delays caused by late or faulty files from us, missing information, or the events in clause 17.

9. Cancellations

• Readers can cancel only until you accept an order. After that, a reader's change of mind does not reduce your payment.
• If we cancel before printing starts, you stop and nothing is owed either way.
• If we cancel during production, we pay your reasonable, documented cost of the work already done, up to the full printing price, and you destroy the printed copies (clause 11).
• After handover an order cannot be cancelled, and you are paid in full.

10. Payment

• You earn the printing price for each order you complete to the specification and hand over correctly. It becomes payable when delivery is confirmed, or when you have valid handover evidence and the parcel was then lost, damaged or delayed by the courier through no fault of yours.
• Each month we send a statement listing every payable order, any deductions under clauses 7 and 8, and the total. We pay by bank transfer to the account in the Schedule by the 10th of the following month.
• If you disagree with a statement, tell us within 30 days. We reply within 10 working days. We pay any undisputed amount on time and correct errors, either way, in the next statement.
• A reader's chargeback, fraud or refund that has nothing to do with your printing does not cancel your payment.
• We deduct only amounts you have agreed, or that were decided fairly under clauses 7 and 8 and shown on a statement.

11. Author files and copyright

• Authors keep their copyright. You receive no ownership, licence or publishing right in any book, only permission to print the quantity of each accepted order.
• Files reach you through personal links that expire, and every download is recorded.
• Every file carries an embedded copyright code for that order. You may not publish, change, edit or reprint any part of a book, and may not remove or hide the code or the imprint line. If anything needs changing, ask Sri Sinharaja first.
• Never print extra copies, and never sell, share, distribute or keep any book or file.
• No AI training: never use any file to train or improve an AI system, or let anyone else do so, without the author's separate written permission.
• Only staff who need a file for the order may open it. Keep files on password-protected devices and systems, and never upload them to public or shared services.
• Delete every electronic copy within 7 days of dispatch, unless the law requires you to keep it. Shred or pulp defective, excess and unauthorised printed copies.
• Tell us within 24 hours if you discover a suspected leak, loss, hacking or unauthorised copy, and help us investigate copyright complaints. Misuse breaks the author's copyright under the Intellectual Property Act No. 36 of 2003 and this agreement (clause 16).

12. Readers' personal data

You receive a reader's name, address and phone number only to deliver that order. Keep them secure, share them only with the courier, never use them for marketing or any other purpose, and delete them within 90 days of delivery. Tell us within 24 hours of any data breach. Follow our written instructions as the party responsible for the data, and the Personal Data Protection Act No. 9 of 2022 (amended by Act No. 22 of 2025) as its parts come into force.

13. Confidentiality and fair dealing

• Keep confidential our business information, systems, order volumes and anything about authors and readers you learn through us. We keep your prices and business information confidential too. This lasts while the agreement runs and for 2 years after it ends; for files and personal data it has no time limit.
• Never print or sell, outside Sri Sinharaja, any book or file you received through us, and never use our information to approach our authors or readers. You stay free to print for any author who hires you directly with their own files, as long as you use nothing obtained through Sri Sinharaja.

14. Quality checks and complaints

• We may order test copies at your normal price, check sample copies, and, with 2 working days' notice, visit your production location during business hours to check quality and file security.
• We may ask for confirmation that files were deleted and unwanted copies destroyed.
• Complaints about your work are investigated fairly. You are always told what the complaint is and may respond.

15. Your business, licences, legal duties and tax

• You hold every business registration and licence your work needs, including the declaration for your press under the Printing Presses Ordinance No. 16 of 1902.
• Keep the imprint line we put in each book ("Printed by [you], [town]. Published through Sri Sinharaja"). [Lawyer to confirm the imprint the law requires.]
• The Printers and Publishers Ordinance No. 1 of 1885 can require printers to deliver copies of books printed in Sri Lanka and to send a monthly declaration. You make the declarations that apply to you, and we give you the author and publisher details you need. [Lawyer to confirm how this applies to print-on-demand copies, and who supplies and pays for any deposit copies.]
• You pay your own taxes. VAT is added to your printing price only if you are VAT-registered and give us a valid tax invoice. If the law requires us to withhold tax, we deduct it and give you a certificate. [Accountant to confirm.]

16. Suspension and ending this agreement

• We may pause new orders to you for serious or repeated problems (for example defects, late dispatch, slow replies or complaints). We tell you why, and you may respond and show how you will fix it.
• Either side may end this agreement with 30 days' written notice.
• We may end it at once for misuse of files or readers' data, deliberate copyright infringement, fraud, or repeated serious defects.
• When it ends, accepted orders are completed and paid unless we agree to reassign them. You delete all files and personal data and confirm this in writing. We pay your remaining balance in the next monthly settlement, less amounts properly due under clauses 7 and 8. Clauses 11, 12, 13 and 17 continue to apply.

17. Responsibility and events outside our control

• Each side is responsible for losses directly caused by its own breach of this agreement.
• You indemnify us and the author against claims and losses caused by your misuse of files, unauthorised copies, data breaches or fraud. We indemnify you against claims that a book you printed correctly, from files we sent, infringes someone else's rights.
• Neither side is liable for indirect loss, such as lost profit or lost business. Otherwise each side's total liability is limited to the printing prices paid or payable to you in the previous 12 months. This limit does not apply to unpaid printing prices, deliberate copyright infringement, fraud, serious negligence, breaches of confidentiality or data protection, or anything the law does not allow us to limit.
• Neither side is responsible for failures caused by events outside reasonable control (for example floods, epidemics, curfews, government orders, power, internet, bank or courier shutdowns). The affected side tells the other promptly, we may reassign affected orders, and if it lasts more than 30 days either side may end this agreement. Money earned is still paid.

18. General: relationship, changes, signing, law and language

• This agreement does not create employment, agency, franchise, partnership or a joint venture. Neither side may bind the other. You may not transfer this agreement without our written consent.
• We tell you of any change by email and in your printer account at least 30 days before it applies, and you may end the agreement before then. Changes never apply to accepted orders. Each version carries a number and a date, and we keep a record of the version you accepted.
• You may sign on paper or accept online. Online acceptance and electronic signatures are valid under the Electronic Transactions Act No. 19 of 2006 (amended by Act No. 25 of 2017).
• This agreement, its Schedule and your price schedule are the whole agreement between us, and replace version 1.1.
• It is governed by the laws of Sri Lanka. A dispute is first raised in writing and talked through for 30 days, then taken to mediation if both agree, and then to a competent court in Sri Lanka.
• The English and Sinhala versions say the same. If they differ, the English version controls.

Sri Sinharaja Printer Partnership Agreement v2.0, 12 October 2026. Replaces v1.1. A draft for review by a Sri Lankan lawyer and accountant before signing; it has not been legally approved. Items in [square brackets] are still open.