Submission Agreement

Thank you for considering submitting your work to The Ditsy. This document sets out the agreement between you and us when you submit. We've tried to keep it short and write it in plain English. If anything is unclear, please email us at hello@theditsy.com before submitting.

The Ditsy is operated by Fiona Johnston, an individual based in New York, United States. References to "we," "us," and "The Ditsy" in this agreement refer to that operation. References to "you" refer to the maker submitting.

By submitting through the form on theditsy.com, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to the following.

1. You are an adult, and the work is yours

You confirm that you are at least 18 years old, and that the work you are describing — the products you make, the brand you operate, and the Instagram and Etsy accounts you have listed — is genuinely yours, made or directed by you. The Ditsy features independent makers, not resellers or drop-shippers, and your submission is a confirmation that you fit that description.

2. What you're giving us, and what we're not paying you for

The Ditsy is a free editorial publication. We do not pay makers for being featured, and being featured is not a paid arrangement on either side. We do not charge you for submitting or for being featured. If we feature you, you keep ownership of your work, your brand, your photographs, and your business — we don't acquire anything from you beyond the limited permissions described below.

3. We decide what to feature

Submitting does not guarantee a feature. We have full editorial discretion over what we publish, when we publish, and how we publish. We may decline any submission for any reason, and we are not required to give a reason. We may also delay a decision indefinitely, hold submissions on file, or come back to you months after you've submitted.

If we do choose to feature you, we'll be in touch by email — usually using the address you provided in the submission form — to confirm details and any next steps.

4. Permission to use your public Instagram photographs

This is the most important part of the agreement, and the part that protects both of us. Please read it carefully.

You grant The Ditsy permission to use photographs you have publicly posted to your own Instagram account, for the purpose of featuring your work editorially. Specifically:

• We may repost your publicly posted photographs on The Ditsy's Instagram account, with credit to you and a tag to your Instagram account.
• We may include or reproduce your publicly posted photographs in editorial features on theditsy.com, with credit to you and a link to your Instagram and Etsy.
• This permission is non-exclusive (you keep all your own rights), royalty-free (we don't pay for the use), and worldwide (so we don't have to worry about geographic restrictions).
• This permission is limited to editorial use about you and your work. We won't use your photographs for unrelated promotion, won't sell them, won't license them to anyone else, and won't use them in any way that implies you endorse anything other than your own work.

You may withdraw this permission at any time by emailing hello@theditsy.com. When you do, we will remove the relevant content from theditsy.com and The Ditsy's Instagram within a reasonable time, typically within 30 days. We can't recall content that has already been seen, shared, screenshotted, or archived by other people — that's outside our control.

5. You confirm you have the rights to those photographs

This is the protection in the other direction. You confirm that:

• The photographs on your public Instagram account are either taken by you, or you have permission from the photographer to use and share them in this way.
• Any people pictured in the photographs (including children) have given appropriate consent for those photographs to be shared publicly, and to be reposted in the way described above. For minors, this means the parent or guardian has given consent.
• Using your photographs as described in Section 4 will not infringe anyone's rights — not the photographer's, not anyone pictured, not any third party.

If a third party objects to a photograph we have used in reliance on this confirmation, you agree to assist us in resolving the issue, and you accept responsibility for the use of any photograph you didn't actually have the right to grant us permission for. (In plain English: if someone comes after us because a photo you said was yours actually wasn't, that's on you, not on us.)

6. Editorial framing is ours

If we feature you, we'll write about your work in our own editorial voice. We may quote you (with reasonable accuracy — we'll always try to represent what you said fairly), summarize your work, describe your process, and add context. We're happy to share a draft of the written piece with you before publishing if you'd like — just ask, and we'll do our best — but the editorial framing, headline, and final wording are ours. We will not knowingly misrepresent you or your work.

7. We may take features down

We may remove, update, edit, or take down any feature, post, or other content at our discretion, for any reason. Reasons we might do this include: the maker's brand changes substantially; the maker stops operating; we update our editorial standards; we discover an issue we didn't know about at the time of publishing. We don't owe you an explanation, but we'll usually give one if you ask.

8. You may ask to be removed

You may request that a feature be taken down at any time by emailing hello@theditsy.com. We will remove the feature from theditsy.com and the corresponding posts from The Ditsy's Instagram within a reasonable time, typically within 30 days. As noted above, we can't recall content already shared, screenshotted, or archived elsewhere.

We may keep a minimal record of the fact that you were featured (for our own editorial records and to honor the takedown request properly), but we will not republish your content after a takedown.

9. Not employment, not partnership, not endorsement

Featuring you does not make you our employee, agent, partner, or contractor, and does not make us yours. It doesn't mean we endorse your products beyond having chosen to write about them. It doesn't mean you endorse The Ditsy. We're two separate entities, briefly meeting in an editorial context.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Ditsy and Fiona Johnston from any claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from a third-party claim that the information or photographs you submitted, or the photographs we used in reliance on this agreement, infringe someone's rights or otherwise violate any law. This is the formal version of Section 5: if it turns out you didn't have the right to grant us the permission you granted, you're responsible for sorting it out.

This indemnification applies only to claims arising from your submission and the rights you granted. It doesn't cover claims arising from our own editorial choices about how to frame or present your work.

11. The site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use also apply

Your submission, and our use of your information, is also governed by The Ditsy's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. If there is a direct conflict between this agreement and those documents about how your submission specifically is handled, this agreement controls.

12. Governing law

This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. Any disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in New York.

13. The whole agreement, and changes

This is the entire agreement between you and us regarding your submission. It replaces any prior discussions on the same topic. We may update this agreement from time to time; the version that applies to your submission is the version in effect at the time you submitted, unless we agree something different in writing.

Contact

For any questions about this agreement, before or after submitting, email hello@theditsy.com.

The Ditsy is operated by Fiona Johnston, an individual based in New York, United States.