How this works

Taps & Tropes, LLC. One person, a bar, and a reading problem. Reach me at hello@tapsandtropes.com or through the contact page.

Everything starts by getting in touch. A commission is booked when I've confirmed I have room for it and the deposit has cleared — not when you first write to me. I have to turn work down sometimes, usually because of timing.

I read your book. That's the part that makes the card worth having, and it's also the part that takes the longest, so please give me your release date early.

You'll see a “preview” of the drink and the card design before anything is printed, for multiple reasons. It's there for you to a) get a sneak peek, b) verify information and SPELLING, and c) be a second or third pair of eyes. Any changes need to be made at that point, because changes after print submission mean a reprint, at reprint prices.

Every package includes up to 2 revisions, at my discretion.

When you're planning to book a commission, I'll send you a quick form to fill out about your book, with some baseline questions. Sometimes I may message you during the process (if you're open to it) to see if you have a preference on this or that, but overall, I still want to keep the authenticity of my work and design.

If you have the exact drink in mind and simply want me to do a drink card for you, I have a package for that specifically — and it's the only package where I don't require reading your book first.

• I don't read the book for this package.
• The card still includes my company logo; I can leave off the pairing language.
• Includes a preview before sending.
• Deposit is non-refundable once I buy the drink ingredients (I'll let you know when I do).
• You get the files, and you can print as many as you like to promote your book. Selling the card or putting it on merch needs digital rights (see “Who owns the card”).
• Drinks aren't exclusive (see “Who owns the card”).

50% deposit to book your spot, balance due before I submit anything to print. Printed cards ship or deliver 1–3 business days after that.

The deposit covers concept creation, drink building and photography, and design execution — so it stops being refundable once I've started reading the book. If you cancel before I start, you get it back. If I have to cancel, you get it back whatever stage we're at.

YOU ARE NOT PAYING ME TO READ YOUR BOOK. I read it because I can't build an honest drink for a book I don't know — but that reading is my research, not a service you're buying, and it is never a paid review or a guaranteed one. What you are paying for is the card.

Add-ons need a base package — either one you're booking now or one I've already made for you. They aren't sold on their own. Prices are on the drink cards page and the ones quoted to you at booking are the ones that hold, even if the page changes later.

You can always use your card to promote your book — post it, share it, hand it out, put it in a newsletter. That doesn't expire and you don't owe me anything further for it.

Printing it yourself depends on which package you bought.If you bought the Digital package, you have the files and digital rights to go with them. If you bought Design Only, you have the files and can print as many as you like to promote your book — signings, giveaways, book boxes — but selling the card or putting it on merch needs digital rights. If you bought physical cards only, the design stays with me for printing, and more copies come from me rather than from your own printer. Past clients can add digital rights to an order they already placed.

With digital rights:

• What you get— unlimited prints, and any use, including resale and merch.
• Scope— this book, in any edition, box set, or translation.
• Credit— required whenever the drink or pairing is used.

I keep the copyright in the card design itself, and the right to show it as my own work — in a portfolio, on this site, at an event. That's how the “cards I've made” section exists. Digital rights are permission to use the design as above, not a transfer of the copyright.

Your drink is yours. I won't use the exact same drink, same recipe and version, on another paying author's card. I may make another margarita someday, but never your margarita. This doesn't apply to Design Only packages: when you bring me the drink, it isn't exclusive, and a similar drink may show up on another card. Every card design is always its own.

What I don't do is resell your card, license it to anyone else, or use it to promote a different author's book. It's yours in every way that matters.

Your book — the cover, the title, your characters, your name — stays entirely yours. You're giving me permission to use them on the card and to show the finished card, nothing more. Tell me at any point that you'd rather I stopped showing it and I'll take it down.

If you say something kind, I'll ask before putting it on the site, and I'll credit you the way you ask to be credited. You can have it changed or taken down at any point without giving a reason.

Recipes on this site and in the book are for people of legal drinking age — 21 in the US. Please don't use them if you're not, and please don't use them and then drive.

Check the ingredients against your own allergies and anything your doctor has told you. I don't know what's in your kitchen or your medical history, and a cocktail recipe is not health advice. Nearly everything has a mocktail version — ask.

Make them for yourself and your friends as much as you like. What you can't do is republish the recipes wholesale as your own, or reproduce the book.

The words, the photographs and the card artwork are mine unless they're obviously somebody else's. Quote a bit and link back, by all means.

If you're attempting to use any information from this site or about me in a malicious manner, then no, you don't have permission to use anything from this site — don't be a dick. If you have any concerns, feel free to send me an email and we can resolve it there.

The newsletter is covered by the privacy page, and there's an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every one.

Tell me. Most things are fixable and I'd rather fix them than argue about them. If it's a printer or shipping mistake, send me a photo and I'll reprint it. If there's an error on the card that was found after you approved the preview, reprinting costs apply.

Beyond putting the work right or refunding what you paid for it, what I can be held liable for is limited to what you actually paid me. I can't be responsible for a launch that didn't go the way you hoped, or for a courier losing a box.

I'm in Colorado, and these terms are governed by Colorado law.

The date at the top changes with them. Whatever was in force when you booked is what applies to your commission — I don't get to change the deal halfway through.