Privacy Policy

This page explains what happens to your personal information when you visit Book Publishers Online or hire us to work on your book. We collect what we need to do the job, we don't sell it, and your manuscript stays between you and the people working on it.

Privacy policies have a habit of being long and dense. We've tried to keep ours readable without dropping any of the legal points. Using our website or services means you accept what's described below, so it's worth a few minutes of your time. Anything unclear? Section 17 tells you how to reach us.

Book Publishers Online is operated by Book Publishers Online Ltd, based at Peterborough Court, 133 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2BB, United Kingdom. Authors come to us for editing, cover design, formatting and publishing support.

In data protection terms, we're the "data controller". Put simply, we decide how your information gets used, and if something goes wrong with it, we're the ones accountable.

This policy covers our website, the contact and quote forms on it, the emails we send, and the work we do for authors. Other websites we link to have their own rules, which Section 15 explains.

Most of what we hold, you've handed to us yourself. Filling in a quote form gives us your name, email and phone number. Signing a publishing agreement adds your postal address. Then there's the work itself: your manuscript, a cover brief, an author bio, maybe a headshot for the back cover. We also keep the emails and chat messages you send us, along with your billing history.

If we pay you royalties or other earnings directly, we'll need tax and bank details too. We ask for those only when a payment is actually due.

Card payments go through Stripe or PayPal, not through us. All we get back is a confirmation and the last four digits of the card, which is enough to match a payment to an invoice and nothing more.

Some data arrives without you typing anything. Our website logs your IP address, browser, device, the pages you open and the site that sent you to us. Cookies collect most of this (see Section 8).

Now and then, information reaches us from someone else. A literary agent might pass on your contact details. Retailers send sales and royalty reports once your book is on sale, and our payment processor confirms each transaction.

Mostly, we use it to do the work you've hired us for. That covers answering your first enquiry, sending a quote, editing and designing the book, getting it published and listed, and keeping you posted along the way. Invoices, payments and tax records fall under this too.

We also use technical data to keep the website running and safe. If our contact form suddenly started receiving hundreds of fake sign-ups an hour, those logs are how we'd spot it and shut it down.

Your manuscript gets special treatment. Our team reads it to edit it, design around it and prepare it for print. It won't appear in our marketing, our portfolio or anywhere else unless you give us written permission.

We don't use automated systems or profiling to make decisions that have legal or similar effects on you. A person on our team makes those calls.

We don't send spam, and we never buy, rent or share email lists.

You'll only get marketing emails from us if you've opted in, for example by ticking the newsletter box on one of our forms. Emails about an active project, like a note that your proofs are ready, aren't marketing. Those keep coming until the project wraps up.

Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click takes you off the list, and we act on it within 10 working days at the latest. Your address then goes on a "do not contact" list. That might sound odd, but it's the only reliable way to make sure you never get added back by accident.

CAUTION: scammers sometimes pose as publishing companies. We will never ask for your password or full card number by email. If you get a message that claims to be from us and looks suspicious, or any email from us you didn't sign up for, forward it to info@bookpublishersonline.co.uk and we'll look into it.

If you live in the UK or the European Economic Area, the GDPR expects us to name a lawful reason for every way we use your data. Ours fall into four groups.

The first is our contract with you. We can't edit a book without the file, or send proofs without an email address.

Consent is the second, and it covers newsletters and non-essential cookies. You can take it back whenever you like, though anything we did before then stays lawful.

Third come our legitimate interests: running a secure website and stopping fraud. We rely on these only where they don't outweigh your right to privacy.

Last is the legal obligation. Tax law, for instance, makes us keep invoices for several years after a project ends.

We never sell, rent or trade your personal information. Publishing a book takes more than one pair of hands, though, so a few people outside our core staff do see parts of it.

Freelance editors, cover designers and illustrators work on many of our projects. They receive the files for your book and nothing else, and each of them has signed a confidentiality agreement with us.

Behind the scenes, a handful of companies keep the business running through a payment processor, an email platform, a web host and an analytics service. They handle data under written contracts and can't use it for anything of their own.

When your book goes on sale through Amazon KDP, IngramSpark or a similar platform, that platform needs your author name and the book's details to list it. Our accountants, auditors, lawyers and insurers may see records too, where needed to run our business.

We'll disclose information to authorities if a law or court order requires it, or to protect someone's safety. And if Book Publishers Online is ever sold or merged, your data would pass to the new owner, who'd be bound by this same policy.

Occasionally we publish numbers about our work, like how many books we released last year. Those figures are anonymous and can't be traced back to you.

A cookie is a small text file your browser stores when you visit a site. Ours do three jobs.

Essential cookies keep the basics working. Without them, the site would forget you were logged in every time you clicked to a new page. Analytics cookies, Google Analytics among them, tell us which pages get read and which get skipped. Marketing cookies let us show our ads to people who've already visited.

Only the essential ones load automatically. The rest wait until you accept them in our cookie banner, and you can change your mind later or block cookies in your browser settings. Our Cookie Policy goes into more detail.

We don't keep information forever. Here's how long each kind stays with us:

After that, we delete the data or strip out anything that could identify you.

Our site runs on HTTPS, so anything you send through a form is encrypted on its way to us. Client files sit in password-protected systems, and only the people working on your book can open them.

Nobody can promise perfect security online, and we won't pretend otherwise. If a breach ever puts your information at risk, we'll tell you and report it to the regulator within the time the law sets.

Some of our freelancers and service providers work outside the UK and EEA. When your data travels to a country with weaker privacy laws, we protect it with approved legal safeguards: the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, or the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum.

Your information belongs to you, and the law gives you real say over it. Depending on where you live, you can ask to see what we hold, correct anything that's wrong, or have it deleted. You can also object to how we use it, ask us to pause using it, or request a copy to take elsewhere. Any consent you've given can be withdrawn at any time.

To make a request, email info@bookpublishersonline.co.uk. It costs nothing. We may ask a couple of questions to confirm it's really you, and you'll hear back within one month.

One small favour we ask: if your email or address changes, let us know so our records stay correct.

Still not satisfied? You can complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, that's the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk). We'd rather fix the problem ourselves, though, so please give us the chance first.

Privacy laws in California and a number of other US states give residents a few extra rights. You can ask what personal information we collect and why, have it corrected or deleted, and opt out of its sale or its use for targeted ads.

We don't sell personal information, so there's nothing to opt out of on that front. Advertising cookies can be switched off through our cookie banner. Verified requests get a response within 45 days, and using any of these rights won't change how we treat you.

Our services are meant for adults, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. Teenagers who want to publish are welcome, but a parent or guardian has to run the project and sign the agreement. If you think a child has sent us personal details, tell us and we'll delete them.

Our pages link out to retailers, social media and partner sites. Once you leave our website, their privacy policy applies instead of ours, so check it before you hand over any personal details.

Laws change, and so do our services, so we'll update this policy from time to time. The date at the top always shows the latest version. For anything major, like a new use for your data, we'll email you before the change takes effect.

Got a question about this policy, or ready to make a request? Our privacy team is here:

Email: info@bookpublishersonline.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 4514 8383
Post: Book Publishers Online, Peterborough Court, 133 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2BB