Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy covers

This policy applies to the website at millsstoryhouse.com and to the email newsletter we send. It does not apply to other companies’ websites, even when we link to them. In particular, when you buy or borrow one of our books, that transaction happens entirely on Amazon and is governed by Amazon’s own privacy policy, not ours.

2. What we collect

Information you give us directly

• Newsletter signup. When you subscribe using the “Get Notified” form, we collect your email address. Our email provider may also record the date you subscribed and basic delivery information such as whether an email was opened or a link was clicked.
• “Tell us what to write next” form. When you send us a story idea, we collect your email address and the text of the message you write. That submission is emailed to our editorial inbox.
• Direct email. If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to include in your message.

Information collected automatically

Like every website, ours is delivered by a hosting provider that keeps standard server logs. These may include your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you requested, and the date and time. Our hosting provider uses this for security, abuse prevention, and delivering the site. Our fonts and icons are loaded from third-party content delivery networks, which likewise receive your IP address as a technical necessity of serving those files to your browser.

What we do not collect

• We do not run Google Analytics, advertising pixels, or any other analytics or tracking script on this site.
• We do not collect payment information. We never see your card details — purchases happen on Amazon.
• We do not ask for your name, postal address, phone number, date of birth, or any government identifier.
• We do not knowingly collect sensitive personal information as that term is defined under California law.
• There are no user accounts, logins, or passwords on this site.

3. How we use your information

• To send you our newsletter — new releases, pre-orders, and imprint news — when you have asked to receive it.
• To read, consider, and reply to story ideas and other messages you send us.
• To operate, secure, and troubleshoot the website.
• To comply with the law and to enforce our Terms of Use.

We do not use your information to build advertising profiles, and we do not make automated decisions about you that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

4. We do not sell or share your information

5. Service providers we use

We rely on a small number of third-party services to run the site and the newsletter. Each one only receives the information it needs to do its job, and each has its own privacy policy.

• Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — email marketing. Stores newsletter subscriber email addresses and sends our emails. kit.com/privacy
• Web3Forms — form delivery. Passes “Tell us what to write next” submissions from the website to our editorial inbox by email. web3forms.com/privacy
• Netlify — website hosting. Serves the site and keeps standard server logs. netlify.com/privacy
• Google Fonts — typography. Receives your IP address when your browser loads our fonts. policies.google.com/privacy
• jsDelivr — icon content delivery network. Receives your IP address when your browser loads our icon set. jsdelivr.com privacy policy
• Amazon / Kindle Direct Publishing — where our books are sold, borrowed, and read. If you follow a link from our site to Amazon, Amazon collects information under its own policy. We receive only aggregated sales and royalty reporting from Amazon; we do not receive the names, addresses, or payment details of individual readers. amazon.com/privacy

We may also disclose information if we are legally required to do so, or where necessary to protect our rights, our readers, or the public. If Mills Story House is ever sold or reorganized, information may transfer as part of that transaction, and this policy will continue to apply to it unless you are told otherwise.

6. Cookies and tracking

Mills Story House does not place advertising or analytics cookies on your device through this website. We do not use tracking pixels, session recording, fingerprinting, or third-party ad networks.

The third-party services listed above may set their own cookies or use similar technologies when your browser contacts them — for example when a font file loads, or when you submit the newsletter form. Those are governed by the providers’ own policies. Our newsletter emails may contain standard open-and-click tracking provided by Kit; you can prevent most of this by turning off remote image loading in your email app, or by unsubscribing.

Because we do not track visitors across sites, there is nothing for a “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control signal to switch off. We honour those signals by default.

7. How to unsubscribe

Every newsletter we send includes an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Clicking it removes you immediately — you do not need to give a reason and you will not be asked to confirm. You can also email editor@millsstoryhouse.com with the word “unsubscribe” and we will remove you.

8. How long we keep information

• Newsletter subscribers: we keep your email address until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. After you unsubscribe, our email provider retains a minimal suppression record so we do not accidentally email you again.
• Story-idea submissions and other email: kept in our editorial inbox for as long as it is useful to us editorially, and then deleted. These submissions are not stored in a customer database.
• Server logs: retained by our hosting provider on its own short rolling schedule.

9. Security

The site is served over encrypted HTTPS, and the services we use are established providers with their own security programmes. That said, no method of transmitting or storing information is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please do not send us sensitive personal information through our forms.

10. Where your information is handled

Mills Story House operates from California, in the United States. Our service providers are also primarily located in or process data in the United States. If you are reading from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country. Where required, our providers rely on recognised transfer mechanisms such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

11. Your privacy rights

If you are in California (CCPA/CPRA)

California residents have the right to:

• Know what personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties it was disclosed to.
• Access a copy of that personal information in a portable form.
• Delete the personal information we hold about you, subject to legal exceptions.
• Correct inaccurate personal information.
• Opt out of sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of — but the right stands.
• Limit the use of sensitive personal information. We do not collect sensitive personal information.
• Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights. We will never give you a worse experience, or withhold books or newsletters, because you made a privacy request.

The only category of personal information we collect under California law is identifiers (email address and IP address) and, for idea submissions, the content of electronic communications you choose to send us. We collect it for the business purposes described in section 3.

To make a request, email editor@millsstoryhouse.com from the address you are asking about, or write to us at the postal address below. We will verify your request by replying to that email address — because we hold so little information, matching the email address is normally the only verification possible. We respond within 45 days and will tell you if we need a further 45 days. You may use an authorised agent, in which case we will ask for written proof of their authority.

If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area (UK GDPR / GDPR)

If you are in the UK or the EEA, you have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to how we process it, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing that already happened.

Our lawful bases for processing are:

• Consent — for sending you the newsletter. You may withdraw it at any time by unsubscribing.
• Legitimate interests — for reading and replying to messages you send us, and for keeping the website secure and working. We have assessed these as low-impact and consistent with what you would reasonably expect.
• Legal obligation — where the law requires us to keep or produce information.

To exercise any of these rights, email editor@millsstoryhouse.com. We aim to respond within one month. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk); in the EEA, your national supervisory authority. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.

12. Children’s privacy

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site changes or the law changes. When we do, we will revise the effective date at the top of this page. If the changes are significant, we will say so in the newsletter. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the revised policy.

14. Contact us