Privacy Policy

Author's Corner Studio ("we", "us") is a web app for writing, designing and self-publishing books, based in the United Kingdom. We are responsible for the personal information described here. If you have any questions, email Authors-corner-Studios@hotmail.com.

• Account details: your name and email address from signing in with Google, Apple or email, plus the display name, pen name and bio you add.
• Your writing: books, chapters, characters, scrapbook notes, covers and images you create or upload, and voice memos you record along with their transcripts.
• Chats with Chris: your conversations with Chris, our AI writing partner, and the session notes he saves to your books.
• Bedtime stories: stories you create and any child profiles you add. A child profile can include a child's first name, age and favourite things such as an animal, colour or place.
• Orders: when you order printed copies, the name, delivery address, phone number and email needed to print and deliver them, plus order and tracking details. Card payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
• Marketplace: books you list for sale, books you buy, and reviews you write.
• Your plan and usage: your plan, AI credits, referral codes, achievements and how many bedtime stories you've made.
• Messages to us: feedback and support messages you send.

The app also saves a few settings in your browser on your own device, such as dark mode, your progress through the publishing guides and, if you choose to download it, the natural reading voice. These stay on your device.

• To run your account and provide the features you use, such as saving your writing, Chris, covers, bedtime stories, the Marketplace and printing.
• To take payments, manage your plan and AI credits, and process print orders.
• To answer your messages and give support.
• To keep the app secure, prevent misuse and fix problems.
• To improve the app.

We use your information because we need it to provide the service you signed up for, because we have a legitimate interest in running and improving a safe service, because the law requires it (for example, keeping payment records), or because you have agreed to it.

When you use Chris or other AI features, such as covers, character portraits, outlines, blurbs and bedtime stories, the text you send and the relevant parts of your book are sent to AI service providers through our hosting platform so they can produce a result. Voice memos are sent to OpenAI to be turned into text.

We don't sell your writing, and we don't use it to train AI models. The natural reading voice runs on your own device: it is downloaded once from Hugging Face, and your book's text isn't sent anywhere when it reads to you.

• Base44, which hosts the app, stores its data, handles sign-in and connects our AI features.
• AI providers, including OpenAI, to produce AI results and transcribe voice memos.
• Stripe, to take payments securely.
• Lulu, our print partner, which receives your print files and delivery details to print and post your books.
• Google or Apple, if you use them to sign in.
• Other users and visitors, who can see what you choose to publish on the Marketplace, such as the listing, cover, pen name and your reviews.

We don't sell your personal information. We may share information if the law requires it, or to protect our users or the service. Some of these providers are based outside the UK, mainly in the United States. Where that happens, your information is protected by the safeguards UK data protection law requires.

We keep your information while you have an account. If you ask us to delete your account, we delete your personal information and content, except for records we must keep by law, such as payment and order records for tax purposes, which we keep only as long as the law requires.

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of your personal information
• correct information that's wrong
• delete your information
• limit how we use it, or object to how we use it
• send your information to you or another service in a usable format

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. To use any of these rights, email Authors-corner-Studios@hotmail.com. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

You must be 18 or over to create an account. Magic Bedtime Stories are made by parents and guardians for their children. If you add a child profile, please only include what's needed to personalise the stories, such as a first name and favourite things. We use those details only to create your stories.

Your information is stored with our hosting provider, sent over encrypted connections, and protected by access controls so that other users can't see your private content. No online service can be completely secure, so please keep your login details private.

We may update this policy from time to time. We'll change the date at the top when we do, and tell you in the app if the changes are significant.

For anything to do with your privacy, email Authors-corner-Studios@hotmail.com.