The service
Bokhedds is a literary correspondence platform. It provides the infrastructure for pen-pal matching, a curated bookshop, Literary Circles for collective reading, a press for essays and reviews, and small events held in independent bookshops worldwide.
Use of Bokhedds requires a paid membership. There is no free tier. This is intentional: it keeps the community serious and the experience considered.
Your account
Each person may hold one account. Accounts are personal and non-transferable. If you share your account with another person, we reserve the right to suspend it without refund.
You are responsible for the correspondence you send through Bokhedds. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure. Bokhedds does not read your letters; they are end-to-end encrypted. This means that if you lose access to your decryption key, we cannot retrieve your letter history on your behalf.
Acceptable use
Bokhedds is built for genuine literary correspondence. Use it to write letters about books, ideas, and the texture of a reading life. Do not use it to send unsolicited commercial messages, to harass other members, or to pursue any purpose unrelated to literary exchange.
Bastienne, our Trust and Safety Lead, enforces these terms. Reports of misuse are reviewed personally. Members who violate the spirit of the platform, not merely the letter of these rules, may be suspended at Bastienne's discretion.
Memberships and billing
Bokhedds offers monthly and annual membership plans. All billing is handled by Stripe. By subscribing, you authorise Stripe to charge your payment method on the applicable billing cycle.
You may cancel your membership at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. You will retain full access until that date. We do not offer pro-rata refunds for unused time, except where required by law.
Intellectual property
Your letters are yours. The words you write in correspondence on Bokhedds belong to you and to the person you address them to. Bokhedds makes no claim over private correspondence.
Content you publish in the Bokhedds Press under your own name remains yours. By publishing it, you grant Bokhedds a non-exclusive licence to display, archive, and share that content as part of the Press. This licence ends if you request removal of the piece, which we will honour within a reasonable time.
Termination
We reserve the right to terminate or suspend accounts that violate these terms. In cases of serious violation, such as harassment, sustained misuse, or fraudulent activity, suspension is immediate and without prior notice.
In cases of lesser or ambiguous violation, we will generally contact you before taking action. Bastienne makes these calls. If you believe a suspension was made in error, write to legal@bokhedds.com.
Contact
Questions about these terms should be directed to legal@bokhedds.com. We read everything sent there and will respond within a reasonable time.