Privacy Policy

Last updated: 12 November 2026

At Slow River Books, we respect your privacy and believe in being clear about how we use your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you visit our website, contact us, submit a manuscript or enquire about our editorial services, and how we look after it.

1. Who We Are

Slow River Books is an independent publishing house based in London, United Kingdom.

We are responsible for the personal information collected through our website and our direct communications.

Website: www.slowriverbooks.com
Email: hello@slowriverbooks.com
Postal address: [To be confirmed before publication]

For any questions about this policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us at the email address above.

2. Information We Collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

  • Contact information: your name, email address and any details you choose to include when contacting us.

  • Manuscript submissions: your name, contact details, biography, synopsis, writing samples and other information you voluntarily provide.

  • Editorial enquiries: information about your manuscript, publishing plans or editorial requirements.

  • Website information: technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device information and website activity, which may be processed by our website provider.

We generally receive this information directly from you or through the services used to operate our website.

Please avoid including unnecessary sensitive personal information in emails or submissions.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use personal information to:

  • Respond to enquiries and correspondence.

  • Receive, read and assess manuscript submissions.

  • Communicate with authors about potential publication opportunities.

  • Discuss and provide editorial services.

  • Manage professional relationships with authors, clients and collaborators.

  • Maintain the security and functionality of our website.

  • Meet applicable legal and accounting obligations.

We do not use manuscript submissions to train artificial intelligence models.

We do not sell your personal information.

4. Our Legal Basis for Processing

Under UK data protection law, we rely on different legal bases depending on the circumstances.

Legitimate interests: We process contact details and correspondence to respond to enquiries, assess unsolicited manuscripts, maintain professional relationships and operate our publishing business. Our interests include communicating with people who contact us and considering work submitted for potential publication.

Contractual necessity: Where you request editorial services or enter into a publishing or other professional agreement with us, we may process information necessary to take steps towards or fulfil that agreement.

Legal obligations: We may retain information where required by applicable laws, including accounting and tax requirements.

Consent: Where we introduce activities that require your consent, such as optional email marketing, we will request it separately. You may withdraw consent at any time.

5. Manuscript Submissions

When you send a manuscript or publishing proposal to submissions@slowriverbooks.com, we use the information you provide to consider your work for possible publication.

Submissions are reviewed by Slow River Books and, where appropriate, may be shared confidentially with people assisting us in the editorial assessment process.

Submitting a manuscript does not transfer copyright or ownership of your work to Slow River Books.

If we decide not to proceed with publication, we will retain or delete the submission in accordance with our retention practices, described below.

We will not add you to a marketing mailing list simply because you have submitted your work.

6. How Long We Keep Your Information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

Our intended retention periods are:

  • General enquiries: normally up to 12 months after the last relevant correspondence, unless an ongoing relationship requires longer.

  • Unsuccessful manuscript submissions: normally up to 12 months after our final response.

  • Publishing and editorial business records: for the duration of the relevant professional relationship and afterwards where needed for contractual, legal or accounting purposes.

  • Financial and accounting records: for the period required by applicable law.

We may retain information for longer where reasonably necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

When information is no longer required, we aim to delete it securely or anonymise it.

7. Service Providers and Sharing Information

We use trusted third-party services to operate our website and manage communications.

These currently include:

Squarespace — Our website hosting provider, which may process website visitor information and information submitted through contact forms.

Google Workspace — Our email and business communication service, used to receive, store and respond to correspondence, including manuscript submissions.

Google reCAPTCHA — A service used on our contact form to help protect against spam and automated abuse. It may process technical information about visitors.

We may also share relevant information with professional advisers, publishing collaborators or service providers where reasonably necessary for our work, subject to appropriate confidentiality and data protection arrangements.

We do not share submitted manuscripts publicly without the author's permission.

8. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers may process or store personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we take steps to ensure that the transfer is covered by an applicable lawful mechanism and appropriate data protection safeguards.

You can contact us if you would like further information about relevant international transfers and safeguards.

9. Cookies and Website Analytics

Our website is built using Squarespace, which may use cookies and similar technologies to operate the website, maintain security and understand how visitors use it.

Some cookies are necessary for the website to function. Other cookies or tracking technologies may require your consent, depending on their purpose and the applicable legal requirements.

Where consent is required, we will provide an appropriate choice through our website's cookie settings.

You can also manage cookies through your browser settings.

For more information about Squarespace's data practices, please visit www.squarespace.com/privacy.

10. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you may have the right to:

  • Request access to the personal information we hold about you.

  • Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.

  • Request the deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances.

  • Ask us to restrict how we use your information.

  • Object to processing based on our legitimate interests.

  • Request the transfer of certain personal information to another provider.

  • Withdraw consent where we rely on consent.

These rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions.

To exercise your rights, please contact hello@slowriverbooks.com.

You also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection authority, at www.ico.org.uk.

11. Keeping Your Information Secure

We take reasonable organisational and technical measures to protect the personal information we receive against unauthorised access, loss or misuse.

Access to personal information is limited to those who need it for legitimate business purposes.

However, no method of transmitting or storing information electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

12. External Websites

Our website may contain links to external websites, including booksellers, distributors and social media platforms.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those external websites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies when using their services.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, website or legal obligations.

The latest version will always be available on this page, together with the date of its most recent update.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle personal information, please contact:

Slow River Books
hello@slowriverbooks.com
www.slowriverbooks.com