Policies & Terms of Service*
*Updated August 2022, all previous contractual agreements will be honored. Please see your contract for additional information.
My goal is to be fully transparent in our work together so that we can hit the ground running and build the writing life you’ve been longing for.
An Important Note On Reaching Out To Me
If you have a question about a package I offer, lost the password to the Lotus & Pen newsletter perks portal, or are having technical difficulties with my site or offerings, please feel free to email me any time. I, of course, love hearing good news and updates from writers I know and have worked with, and emails with feedback on my books or offerings is always a joy (well, usually - ha!). If you’d like me to participate in an event or submit a piece of writing for your publication, I’m all ears, as well.
While I love being able to support my community as much as possible, I’m unable to offer free coaching to writers who reach out to me. Writers seeking my advice are welcome to purchase a coaching package that feels right for them and/or take advantage of the treasure trove of free offerings I have—worksheets, downloads, meditations, blog posts, and more. These offerings should be a great foundation for answering queries if coaching isn’t available to you, as everything I create is inspired by my own work and that of my students and clients. Someone has probably had your question or problem, and I likely have a resource to support that inquiry!
General Policies
Below are my general policies, whether it be 1:1 coaching, group coaching, courses, in-person events. These ground rules are designed to be supportive to both of us and respectful of the breadth and depth of the creative process. Please email me if you have any questions.
For specific coaching package stipulations, please scroll to the bottom of the page.
Terms for Well Gatherings, Courses, and other online spaces I moderate
All group calls (Well Gatherings, course lectures, etc.) are automatically recorded and will be made available publicly, as part of either free or paid services and are the property of Pneuma Creative, LLC (Heather Demetrios). By participating in this event, you agree to be recorded and to these recordings being used for future courses, workshops, and offerings paid or free, with no remuneration or notice for participants. You will be given access to this recording for your personal use, should you request it. (One-on-one calls are not recorded, unless the writer asks for a recording before we begin.)
The sharing or distribution of any materials provided here is prohibited and are under copyright.
Please show up with kindness, respect, and inclusivity. This is a heart-centered community where we support one another on the writer's path.
Thank you for allowing me to be part of your writing journey! Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.
1:1 work
Think of me as your writing therapist…but not as an actual therapist
The services to be provided by me to my clients is termed “coaching.” Coaching, which is not therapy or counseling, may address specific personal projects, business successes, or general conditions in the client’s life or profession. In agreeing to work with me, the client understand that I am not a licensed mental health professional. However, working with me might feel a bit like therapy, as you share personal experiences and I offer advice. It is not therapy. I encourage all my clients to seek professional support for their mental health in our work together. I am happy to offer mental health resources to clients in need to support their search for a mental health practitioner.
The coaching relationship can often be confusing, as it’s a newer form of working together. Most writers aren’t really sure what the healthy boundaries are, so this page is all about endeavoring to help you understand what our work together looks like. Think of me as a writing therapist. If you’re seeking support for your writing practice, I’d love to help! Please schedule a Breakthrough Call so that I can help you build the writing life you long for.
I, of course, cannot guarantee specific results.
Coaching Agreements
Effective April 2020, all 1:1 packages will require both of us to sign a coaching agreement before we begin our work, even if it’s one single call (I promise, it’s quick and painless). This agreement outlines everything below and will include stipulations specific to the individual package you signed up for. If you decide for any reason not to move forward with coaching after reading the agreement, you will receive a full refund, no questions asked.
Privacy
I respect your privacy and would never share your information with third-parties or disclose we are in a coaching relationship, unless you give permission.
Please note that in my teaching, I draw from the work I do with other writers. I create composites of writers, as in, “Many of the writers I work with struggle with their inner critic.” I will never share your private or personal stories, unless given permission.
I ask that you respect my privacy, as well. This includes not disclosing private or personal information I share with you, as well as not distributing or sharing any of the materials or passwords for private sites we use in our work. They are for your eyes only. You may be tempted to pass things along to your writer friends - I encourage you in the spirit of a fair exchange built on mutual regard and trust to instead encourage your fellow writers to sign up for my newsletter and / or get in touch with me personally. Thanks in advance for being mindful of respecting a creator’s work in the digital age.
Payments
The full amount of the client’s service is due on the day our work begins, except for packages with a monthly payment plan.
For payment plans, the deposit (if applicable) + the first month of any payment plan must be paid before any creative season coaching begins.
Monthly payment plans are invoiced through Paypal.
All Breakthrough Calls must be paid for before the call takes place.
All courses must be paid in full before the first day of class.
All on-demand courses are paid in full before the course is sent to you.
Refund Policy
All deposits and payments are non-refundable unless I myself am unable to provide your services due to illness or other unfortunate factors. (This has never happened, but I want to have this in place, just in case!)
If you pay a deposit or paid in full on a service and haven’t begun work with me yet, we can discuss what other offerings might work better for you that the deposit funds could be put toward. The offerings are subject to my discretion and availability, as well as to package “expiration” dates.
If work with me has begun and you choose to “quit” the process for any reason, then any payments made are non-refundable and the writer will lose the coaching time remaining on her package. In some cases, such as writers who opt for monthly payment plans, a cancellation fee is applied (fees vary depending on the plan).
If, for some reason, I cancel your coaching package during the process (extremely unlikely unless in the case of illness or emergency), you will receive a refund for your remaining time (prorated).
Please see the “Postponements” section below for more specifics on cancellations or postponement policies.
If a package has “expired,” there are no refunds and it is non-transferable or renewable.
Postponements
I deal with postponements on a case-by-case basis and reserve the right to approach each individual situation according to what’s best for me at the time, and what I think will be a fair exchange and support for the client.
Often, I’ll have clients who sign up for a critique or calls and then life stuff comes up, or they have a massive creative block and can’t finish the manuscript. Sometimes they signed up to work with me before they were quite ready because they wanted to take advantage of a sale or discount I was offering. I make every effort to meet my clients where they’re at: life and writing are both very unpredictable. However, it’s important for me to set healthy boundaries around our work together and to not fall down on the job as a coach: I wouldn’t be a very good mentor if I wasn’t holding you accountable to your intentions. Likewise, I wouldn’t be modeling a healthy creative life if I wasn’t setting boundaries around my own personal bandwidth.
One thing I’ve noticed is that writer’s sometimes like to kick the can down the road a bit too long. That’s probably part of why they hired me: fear, procrastination, and other wee beasties that plague the writer soul. I get it. But in order to do my own work and hold space for my clients, I do need to be firm about my policies. I know you understand, being a writer yourself. This is how we respect one another’s creativity.
Every coaching package I offer has an “expiration date.” This is the firm end date that the package must be used by, no exceptions. If it’s not used by the client by the expiration date or arrangements haven’t been made with me to transfer the package (if applicable) to another service, then the client forfeits any monies paid and they are non-transferable. There are no exceptions to this policy.
The general policies about postponements will be in your client agreement for your package. The best thing to do is to be in communication with me. Don’t wait until the last minute to cancel a call or tell me your book isn’t ready when we’d agreed you would submit it. I have a lot of clients and it’s a bit of a juggling act. I want to make sure you get the support you need, and I want to do the same for my other clients.
The rule of thumb for my most common postponement situations are as follows:
Manuscript Full or Partial Critique: None. I do not accept a critique unless the work is ready to be delivered.
Scheduled Calls:
All solo Breakthrough Calls must be used within 30 days of purchase, unless you have a package of multiple calls. If the call isn’t used, there is no refund and the investment of the call is non-transferable.
All call packages (multiple calls) must be used within 60 - 90 days of purchase. If you miss your calls, you won’t be able to reschedule them, tack them on to other packages, or receive a refund.
Creative Seasons (IGNITE & FLOURISH)
When you sign up for a creative season, we agree on a start date. Because of my schedule, I am not always able to accommodate changing this date, so we’ll be sure it’s good for you before we begin!
I have a “pause” option for my creative season offerings. Each client gets one opportunity to put a pause on their coaching (to be resumed with a “pause” fee at a later date) when a life event necessitates this. See your coaching agreement for details.
Rates
I reserve the right to change the fees/packages offered at any time, but I will honor rates that I quote a client individually and via email between the two of us for any package we discuss in the quote for 60 days after the quote is given. After the 60 days, the client will need to pay the current rate of the package.
Should a client opt for additional coaching work with me after the completion of a package, there’s no guarantee the rates or offerings of the packages they were previously interested in will be the same. See above for my policy.
If the client pays a deposit on a package and pays in full for the package within 3 months of placing the deposit, the coach will honor the price if the price of the package has gone up in the interim. However, if it’s past 3 months of the client placing the deposit and the price of the package has gone up, then the client will be responsible for paying the updated price of the package or can choose to allocate their deposit to a different package, at my discretion and availability.
Scheduling
I make every effort to accommodate your schedule, but I do not do any calls on weekends. I also do not schedule calls in advance of 24 hours before the call time. There are no exceptions here (setting boundaries around your creativity is important!).
Should you pay for your package, but postpone the work, please know that priority will be given to current clients in terms of call slots and editing work.
Communication
The coaching relationship can often be confusing, as it’s a newer form of working together. Most writers aren’t really sure what the healthy boundaries are, so this page is all about endeavoring to help you understand what our work together looks like. Think of me as a writing therapist. Would you email your actual therapist (in a traditional doctor-patient relationship) seeking therapy via email or would you have to wait until your session to receive their help? It’s the same with me. If you’re seeking support for your writing practice, I’d love to help! Please schedule a Breakthrough Call so that I can help you build the writing life you long for.
Throughout the working relationship, we will engage in direct and personal conversations and communication. All information shared with me will be kept strictly confidential.
While I love being able to support my community as much as possible, I’m unable to offer free coaching to writers who reach out to me. Writers seeking my advice are welcome to the treasure trove of free offerings I have—worksheets, downloads, meditations, blog posts, and more—and that should be a great foundation for answering queries if coaching isn’t available to them.
I may take up to 48 hours to get back to you (though M-F, I can often get back to you right away or within 24 hours). I don’t coach at all on Saturdays or check mail / messages. On Sundays I may get back to you, but if you email me on a Friday, you will often not hear back until Monday.
Please see your individual package for more information about my availability.
Calls
We agree to provide each other with at least twelve hours notice if a call or agreed-upon deadline needs to be rescheduled.
Calls cannot be scheduled less than 24-hours in advance of the call start. All calls are scheduled via Calendly and take place on Zoom (audio only).
If you do not use your calls for the month, any calls not used are forfeit. There are no exceptions to this policy. Client recognizes that missed calls means you decrease the chances of your creative season being truly transformative
Both of us agree to keep ourselves free from distractions during calls so that our complete focus is on the work we’re doing together.
Calls can be recorded, if you wish, but please let me know you want that before the session begins!
Notes On Specific Packages
Breakthrough Calls
Single Call Expiration Date: Your solo Breakthrough Call is good for 30 days after purchase for a single call.
Call Package Expiration Date: If you buy a call package (multiple calls), those are good for up to 60 Days, and can be used at any time.
Any sessions not used within these expiration dates are forfeit. This is for my benefit and yours! To get you where you need to be, we have to bring intentionality, energy, and momentum to your writing practice. And for me, I need to have clear parameters around our work so I can do my own creative and coaching work well. I don’t want my clients to be lost in the ether!
Note that none of the Breakthrough Calls include me reading your work, but we can certainly talk about the challenges in your work until the cow’s come home.
Breakthrough Calls do not include me reviewing any assignments I give you.
Breakthrough Calls do not offer back-and-forth emailing. I will ask you to send me an email before you call to let me know what you might want to explore (optional for you) and then I will send you one email after our call. If you have a question based on my email, feel free to send that in, but if you would like additional coaching, you’ll need to sign up for another call or a coaching package.
I cannot guarantee publication of the manuscripts which are being discussed.
Your call gives you lifetime access to my Meditation Portal and Client Craft Portal.
Shine
Shine Expiration Date: Effective May 2021, I will no longer be accepting manuscript critique deposits or payments unless the manuscript is finished and ready to be delivered.
I ask for one month from the time I receive the manuscript to critique it and give it back to you.
I cannot guarantee publication of the manuscripts which are being discussed or worked on.
Our call policies are the same as the Breakthrough Calls, but you have two 90-minute calls with me. The first is after you receive your critique and the second must occur within two months of our first call. After those two months, if the call isn’t used, then it’s forfeit.
Note that Shine does not include me reviewing your side writing, outlines, or other materials, with the exception of your initial email telling me about your project and any concerns you have. You’ll also be doing an extensive intake with me (a long questionnaire).
Shine does not include email support. You’ll send me your pages, the intake, and an email about your project / concerns. I’ll do the critique. We’ll have our call a week or so after you receive your notes, which gives you time to come up with questions and clarification. I’ll send you an email after the call with resources and final thoughts. If you wish to get more feedback and have follow-up questions, you’re invited to sign up for additional coaching packages to support you.
Lifetime Access to my Meditation Portal
For Novels Over 80K:
Once you’ve checked out and paid the base payment, send me your manuscript and I’ll do a word count and bill you for any words over 80K. My per-word fee is 3 cents/word over 80K words.
Work on the manuscript will begin once that is paid. All payment is up front.
Ignite
IGNITE is a very intensive process and highly personalized. I’m often able to create unique coaching structures that suit your needs, so email me if the below doesn’t work for you.
IGNITE Expiration Date: We will agree on a start date before beginning this process and you will have the option to “pause” for up to one month, should a life event come up that requires you to step away from our work. This option to pause can only be used once during our 6-month coaching period.
IGNITE has 2 monthly calls (60 minutes each) each month for 6 consecutive months (each call must be used in its month or it is forfeit)
Full-access coaching throughout the full six months via email and/or text
Free access to my Mindfulness For Writers Immersion Course and my Meditation Portal, as well as my Client Craft Portal
Monthly packets I'll review of your writing and assignments (max 40 pages per month).
As with my other packages, I may take up to 48 hours to get back to you (though M-F I can often get back to you right away or within 24 hours). I don’t coach at all on Saturdays or check mail / messages. On Sundays I may get back to you, but if you email me on a Friday, you will often not hear back until Monday.
Please see the IGNITE contract for further info on call policies, etc.
FLOURISH
We will agree on a start date before beginning this process and you will have the option to “pause” for up to one month, should a life event come up that requires you to step away from our work. This option to pause can only be used once during our 3-month coaching period.
FLOURISH has 2 monthly calls each month (60 minutes each) over the course of three consecutive months. Each call must be used in its month or it’s forfeit.
Full-access coaching throughout the full six months via email and voice messaging.
A critique of the first 25 pages of your work-in-progress.
As with my other packages, I may take up to 48 hours to get back to you (though M-F I can often get back to you right away or within 24 hours). I don’t coach at all on Saturdays or check mail / messages. On Sundays I may get back to you, but if you email me on a Friday, you will often not hear back until Monday.
Lifetime access to my Meditation Portal
FLOW
Three 60-minute calls over the course of six weeks
Full-access coaching throughout the full six months via email and voice messaging.
Lifetime Access to my Meditation Portal
Expiration: 6 weeks after our work begins. There is no “pause” option for this package.
There is no editorial component to this package - I will not be reading your work.
Writer Wellness
Option 1: Unlimited voice messaging and email support
Option 2: Everything in option #1 + a 60-minute Breakthrough Call
Option 3: Everything in #1 and #2 + 20 pages of editorial critique per month (could be from your WIP, sidewriting, craft exercises, anything!)
This package is only available to writers who have completed a full creative season or full manuscript critique with me.
This is a month-to-month option. All services are forfeit if not used by the end of the month.
There is no “pause” option for this package. You can simply not renew for the following month if you wish to discontinue our work.
Legal Jargon…..sorry, but we gotta have it here!
Indemnification
Client / participant (hereafter known as “Client”) agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Pneuma Creative, LLC, (Heather Demetrios for any claims, liability, damages, losses, harm, costs and expenses, including legal fees and expenses, or any other detriment incurred by the Client in relying upon or taking action based on any coaching or instruction received. Client is fully responsible for making their own decisions in this coaching or teaching relationship with Heather Demetrios. The Member’s individual responsibility includes determining the appropriateness or applicability of any coaching / advice / instruction received in the course of the coaching relationship as suitable for the purposes for which the Client wants to use it. To be clear, Client agrees that Heather Demetrios / Pneuma Creative, LLC will not be held responsible for any decisions made by the Client during or following our work together. Heather Demetrios / Pneuma Creative, LLC reserves the right to employ separate counsel and assume the exclusive defense and control of the settlement and disposition of any claim that is subject to indemnification by Client.
No Joint Venture
Client / Participant (hereafter known as “Client”) agrees that no joint venture, partnership, employment or agency relationship exists between themself and Heather Demetrios / Pneuma creative, LLC.
Thank you for letting me be part of your creative journey! It’s an honor.
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