Terms of service
What you're agreeing to when you order. Written to be read, not to be survived.
These terms cover The Dewey Decimail Club (“we”, “us”) and this website. Placing an order means you accept them. The seller of record is The Dewey Decimail Club.
1. What we sell
A monthly mailer: an envelope of handmade items chosen to go with one book. The book itself is never included. We say this on the home page, in the FAQ, on a stamped callout, and now here, because it is the single thing most likely to be misunderstood. If you ordered expecting a book, see refunds — we will make it right.
Contents vary month to month. Every month includes original art and original writing; everything else depends on the book. One item per envelope is deliberately not described in advance.
2. Ordering
- Ordering opens on the 1st of each month and closes at the end of the last day, US Pacific time. Orders are made after the window closes, in one batch.
- Each order is a one-time purchase. This is not a subscription and nothing recurring is ever charged.
- Prices are shown before you pay and include the mailer plus flat-rate postage. The price is recomputed on our server when you check out, so what you are charged is always the listed price.
- We may cancel and fully refund an order if something is mispriced, out of stock, or undeliverable. If we cancel, you pay nothing.
3. Payment
Card payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. Your order is only confirmed once Stripe tells us the payment succeeded.
4. Shipping
Everything for a given month ships in one batch on that month’s stated ship date. It travels as ordinary stamped mail: no tracking number, typically 5–14 days within the US and 2–6 weeks internationally.
You are responsible for the address you enter. International customers are responsible for any customs charges, though at this value they are unusual.
Delivery estimates are estimates. Mail is genuinely unpredictable, and that is the trade for something that costs a stamp instead of a shipping label. Lost mail is replaced free — see refunds and replacements.
5. Refunds
Refunds, replacements and the case-by-case exceptions are set out in full on the refunds page, which forms part of these terms.
6. What you may do with what we send you
The art and writing in each envelope are original and remain ours. You bought a copy, and you can do the things you’d expect to do with a thing you own: keep it, frame it, give it away, post a photo of it, stick the sticker on your laptop.
Please don’t reproduce the artwork or writing for sale, print it at scale, or use it commercially without asking. Asking is usually fine — write to hello@thedeweydecimailclub.com.
Books discussed on this site belong to their authors and publishers. We quote briefly and with attribution, and we don’t distribute anyone’s text.
7. The Discord
The reading room is free to join and moderated. Be decent to people. Spoilers go behind tags. Spam, harassment and bigotry get you removed, and being removed does not entitle you to a refund on a mailer you already received.
8. Age
You need to be 18 or older to order, or have a parent or guardian do it. Some months’ books deal with adult subject matter; the book description on each volume’s page is written to tell you honestly what you are getting into.
9. Things we can’t promise
The site is provided as is. We can’t promise it will never be offline or never contain a mistake. To the extent the law allows, our total liability for any order is limited to what you paid for that order. Nothing here limits liability for anything that can’t legally be limited.
10. Changes
We may update these terms. The version in force for your order is the one published when you placed it, and the date at the top of this page tells you when it last changed. Substantive changes get mentioned in the monthly email.
11. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of California, USA. If we disagree about something, email first — it has always worked so far.