Privacy Policy

Last updated: 14 August 2026

1. Who we are

Road Song Books Ltd (“Road Song Books”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is an independent book publisher and the operator of roadsongbooks.com.

For the purposes of UK data-protection law, Road Song Books Ltd is the controller of the personal information described in this policy.

Company number: 17130777
Registered office: 55 High Street, Bideford, England, EX39 2AN
Email: info@roadsongbooks.com
Website: https://roadsongbooks.com/

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we use it, how long we retain it, with whom we share it and the rights available to you.

2. Information we collect

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

Information you provide

• Your name, email address, telephone number and correspondence.
• Your billing and delivery address when you place an order.
• Details of products ordered, payments, refunds and order history.
• Information submitted through our contact form.
• Introductory letters, manuscripts, proposals and other materials submitted for publication.
• Purchase screenshots or other evidence supplied with a submission.
• Information included in applications, contracts or correspondence if you become an author, contractor or business partner.
• Marketing preferences and any consent you give us.

A manuscript or accompanying correspondence may contain personal information about its author or other people. Please avoid including unnecessary sensitive or third-party personal information. If you provide information about another person, you should have a lawful basis for doing so and, where appropriate, tell them how their information will be used.

Information collected automatically

When you visit our website, we and our service providers may collect:

• Your IP address.
• Browser, device and operating-system information.
• Pages visited, links used and approximate location derived from your IP address.
• The date, time and duration of your visit.
• Cookie identifiers and information about your cookie choices.
• Technical and security logs.

Payment information

Payments are processed by the payment provider displayed during checkout. We do not ordinarily receive or store your complete payment-card number or security code. We receive information needed to confirm and administer the transaction, such as the payment status, transaction reference and limited payment details.

3. How and why we use your information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether our interests are proportionate and whether your rights override them.

We will not use your personal information for a materially different purpose without an appropriate lawful basis and, where required, notifying you.

4. Manuscript submissions

When you submit a manuscript or proposal, we use the submission and your contact details to:

• Verify that the submission meets our published requirements.
• Read, assess and discuss the work internally.
• Correspond with you or your agent.
• Perform reasonable originality, plagiarism and editorial checks.
• Decide whether to pursue publication.
• Keep an appropriate record of our decision and previous correspondence.

A submission does not guarantee publication and does not create a publishing contract.

If we use an external plagiarism-checking or editorial service, relevant parts of the submission may be securely disclosed to that provider. We will require the provider to protect the material and use it only to deliver the relevant service. We will not knowingly use unpublished manuscripts to train generative artificial-intelligence models unless we first explain the proposed use and obtain any consent required by law.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.

Strictly necessary cookies support functions such as security, shopping baskets, checkout and remembering privacy choices. These do not normally require consent.

Optional cookies may be used for analytics, embedded media, social-media features or advertising. Where required, we will obtain your consent before placing or accessing these cookies.

You can accept or reject optional cookies through our cookie controls. You can also remove or block cookies through your browser settings, although blocking necessary cookies may prevent the shop or other parts of the website from working properly.

Further details about the specific cookies and services used should be provided in our cookie banner or cookie notice.

6. Embedded and third-party content

Pages on our website may include content or links from third parties, such as Instagram or other social-media services. If you interact with embedded content, or consent to the relevant cookies, the third party may collect information about your device and activity.

Third-party websites operate under their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for their independent privacy practices.

7. Who receives your information

We may disclose relevant personal information to:

• Website hosting, maintenance and security providers.
• Online-shop and order-management providers.
• Payment processors.
• Delivery companies and postal services.
• Email, file-storage and communications providers.
• Accountants, professional advisers and insurers.
• Freelance editors, designers, proofreaders or other publishing professionals where necessary.
• Plagiarism or originality-checking providers used to evaluate submissions.
• Analytics or social-media providers, where you have consented to their technologies.
• Regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies or other parties where disclosure is required by law.
• A buyer, investor or successor if our business or assets are sold or reorganised.

Our service providers may use personal information only as needed to provide their services to us, subject to appropriate contractual and security obligations.

We do not sell personal information.

8. International transfers

Some providers may process information outside the United Kingdom. Where personal information is transferred to a country without UK adequacy regulations, we will use an approved safeguard, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or another legally recognised mechanism. We will also apply any supplementary measures reasonably required to protect the information.

You may contact us for further information about safeguards applying to a particular transfer.

9. How long we retain information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, accounting and dispute-resolution requirements.

Our usual retention periods are:

• Order and financial records: up to six years after the end of the relevant financial year, or longer where legally required.
• General enquiries: normally up to two years after the last meaningful contact.
• Unsuccessful manuscript submissions: normally deleted within 12 months after our final decision, except that we may retain a short record of the submitter, title, submission date and outcome to manage repeat submissions and protect our legitimate interests.
• Successful submissions and author records: for the duration of the relationship and ordinarily up to six years after the relevant agreement ends, with longer retention where necessary for copyright, royalty, publishing-history or archival purposes.
• Marketing records: until you unsubscribe or we determine that the information is no longer current, while retaining a minimal suppression record so that we honour your request.
• Security logs: for a proportionate period based on operational and security requirements.

We may retain information for longer if a complaint, dispute, investigation or legal claim is reasonably anticipated.

10. Marketing

We may send you news about our books, events or publishing activities if you have asked to receive it or where the law otherwise permits us to do so.

You may unsubscribe at any time by using the link in a marketing email or contacting info@roadsongbooks.com. Unsubscribing from marketing will not prevent us from sending service messages about an order, submission or contract.

11. Security

We use reasonable organisational and technical measures designed to protect personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure. No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

If we become aware of a personal-data breach, we will investigate it and notify affected individuals and the Information Commissioner’s Office when required by law.

12. Your rights

Subject to applicable law and certain exceptions, you may have the right to:

• Ask for access to your personal information.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Ask us to erase your information.
• Ask us to restrict how we use your information.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing.
• Receive certain information in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing carried out before withdrawal.
• Complain to a supervisory authority.

To exercise a right, email info@roadsongbooks.com. We may need to verify your identity before completing the request. We normally respond within one month, although the law permits an extension in some circumstances.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office:

Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you contact the ICO.

13. Automated decision-making

We do not currently make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about you solely through automated processing.

14. Children

Our website and publishing services are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children through the website. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us without appropriate permission, please contact us so that we can investigate and, where appropriate, delete it.

15. External links

Our website may link to websites operated by other organisations. Their collection and use of personal information are governed by their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review those policies before providing personal information.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy to reflect changes to our services, providers or legal obligations. The latest version will be published on this page with a revised “last updated” date. We will provide additional notice where a change materially affects your rights or how we use your information.

17. Contact us

Questions, requests or complaints concerning this policy or our use of personal information should be sent to:

Road Song Books Ltd
55 High Street
Bideford
England
EX39 2AN

Email: info@roadsongbooks.com