Starbridge Media

— Legal

Privacy notice.

Last updated: 11 October 2026 · Version 2026-10-11

1. Who is responsible for your information

This website is operated by Starbridge Media, an independent publishing and creative studio in the United Kingdom, founded by Justin Marshall-Cutts. Starbridge Media decides how and why the personal information described in this notice is used, which makes it the “controller” under UK data-protection law.

For questions about your information or this notice, including author submissions, email authors@starbridge.media. For anything else, use the Contact page.

2. What personal information we may collect

If you use the Contact form: your name, email address and message. Your telephone number only if you choose to include it in your message.

If you email, telephone or text us: your contact details (your email address or telephone number), the content of your message and any details you choose to give us. We use them only to reply to you.

If you use the Author Submission form:

  • full name, pen name (if you give one), email address, telephone number (if you give one) and country;
  • website, author-page or social links (if you give them);
  • project title, project stage, audience, genre, intended formats, series status, and approximate word and page counts;
  • your story summary and what you would like help with;
  • publication history, including an ISBN, store link or publisher if you give them;
  • your manuscript sample (we ask for about the first 10 pages);
  • artwork, illustrations and cover files, if you choose to send them;
  • our later correspondence with you about your submission.

Technical and security information: your internet (IP) address and basic server and security logs, which are generated by our hosting provider; and a short-lived counter linked to your IP address, kept for about an hour, that helps us block spam and abuse. We do not currently record cookie-consent preferences because the website does not use optional cookies (see section 13).

Please do not include personal information about other people, sensitive personal information, identification documents or financial information in your submission unless it is genuinely necessary for your project enquiry. Our forms do not need them.

3. Why we use your information, and our lawful basis

  • To receive and respond to enquiries and messages

    Our legitimate interest in running the studio and answering people who contact us; and, for author submissions, taking steps you ask us to take before any agreement.

  • To review submitted projects and decide whether we may be able to offer services

    Taking steps at your request before entering a contract, and our legitimate interest in reviewing projects sent to us in a proportionate way.

  • To ask for more information, and to prepare proposals or quotes

    Taking steps at your request before entering a contract.

  • To manage a project or contract that we later agree with you

    Performing that contract.

  • To protect our forms, email and website from spam, misuse and security threats

    Our legitimate interest in keeping the website and mailbox secure.

  • To keep business, accounting and legal records

    Complying with legal obligations where the law requires records to be kept, and our legitimate interest in keeping proportionate records.

  • Marketing emails

    We do not currently send marketing emails. If we ever do, it will only be with your clear, separate, opt-in consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

  • Non-essential cookies or tracking

    We do not use any. If we ever do, it will only be with your consent.

4. Your work and your copyright

Submitting a manuscript, artwork or any other material to Starbridge Media does not transfer copyright or ownership to us. We receive only the limited permission reasonably needed to receive, store, open, review and respond to your submission.

Nothing is published, adapted or commercially used, and no ownership changes, simply because you submitted it. Any later rights or licences for a project would need a separate written agreement. See the Author Submission Terms.

5. Who we share information with

We share information only where needed to run the website and our email, and we do not sell it. The categories are:

  • Our website and email hosting provider (Hipposerve), which stores the website, the uploaded files and the authors mailbox and processes them for us;
  • other service providers that are genuinely needed to operate the website or email;
  • professional advisers (for example accountants or lawyers) where necessary;
  • authorities, where the law requires it.

Because our email and hosting providers handle your submission on our behalf, we cannot say it is never shared with anyone; it is only shared in these ways.

Artificial intelligence. The website does not send submissions, files or personal information to any AI service. No third-party AI processing of an author’s submitted work takes place automatically, or by default. If a third-party AI tool were ever proposed for part of an author’s project, it would first be discussed with that author and used only with their express agreement beforehand. Updating this notice or the Author Submission Terms would not, by itself, be permission. We do not say your work will be used to train AI.

6. International transfers

Our website and email run on our hosting provider’s servers. Outstanding: we have not yet verified where those servers are, so we cannot state it here yet. We will add it to this notice once it has been confirmed. If information is processed outside the UK, the provider is responsible for putting an appropriate safeguard in place under UK data-protection law.

The website does not load fonts or other resources from Google or any other third party, so your visit does not send your address to them. Links to other sites (for example Amazon or our Facebook page) take you to those sites, which are responsible for their own handling of your information.

7. How long we keep information

We do not delete information automatically. We keep it according to these criteria, and delete it by hand:

  • Enquiries and unsuccessful submissions are kept only for as long as reasonably needed to review them, reply, deal with follow-up questions and resolve any issues.
  • Active or accepted projects are kept for the length of our working relationship, and afterwards where reasonably needed for contractual, legal, accounting or dispute purposes.
  • Server and security logs follow the retention set by our hosting provider.
  • Records of consent, if we ever collect any, are kept as evidence of what you agreed to or withdrew.

You can ask us to delete your submission and files at any time. We will do so unless we have a legal reason to keep them.

8. How we protect your information

We take reasonable steps to protect your information:

  • the website, forms and file uploads are sent over an encrypted HTTPS connection;
  • the files from each submission are saved in their own private folder on our web hosting, which has no public web address;
  • the notification email we receive contains private links to those files that use long random codes which cannot be guessed, and the links download a file rather than display it;
  • only certain file types are accepted, they are checked on the server, and executable or script files are refused;
  • the forms include spam and abuse checks; and
  • only people with access to our hosting account or the authors mailbox can reach submissions.

No method of sending or storing information is completely secure, and we do not promise absolute confidentiality, because email and hosting systems are involved. Please do not send sensitive personal information.

9. Your rights

You have the right to be informed about how we use your information (this notice), and, in the circumstances the law sets out, the right to:

  • ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
  • have inaccurate information corrected;
  • ask us to delete your information;
  • ask us to restrict how we use it;
  • object to our use of it, including where we rely on legitimate interests;
  • receive information you gave us in a portable format, where that applies; and
  • withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent (we do not currently).

To use any of these rights, or to follow up on a submission, withdraw it, or ask us to delete the material you sent, email authors@starbridge.media. We aim to reply within one month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.

10. Children and under-18s

The Author Submission form is for people aged 18 or over. If the creator of a work is under 18, the submission must be made by a parent, legal guardian or other authorised adult. We do not intend to collect children’s personal information, and please do not send it unless it is genuinely necessary.

11. Automated decisions

We do not make decisions about you using solely automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. Our forms use automatic checks to block spam and abuse; they do not assess authors or their projects.

12. Marketing

Sending us a submission or a message does not sign you up to any marketing. We do not currently send marketing emails. Messages about your submission or project (for example an acknowledgement, questions, or a proposal) are service messages, not marketing.

13. Cookies and similar technologies

The website does not set cookies or use browser storage. See our Cookie Policy for the details.

14. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice. The date and version at the top show when it last changed (this is version 2026-10-11). If we make a significant change, such as adding analytics or marketing, we will update this page first.