Manuscript Submission, Assessment & Confidentiality Terms

Exisle Publishing, EK Books and related brands

These terms apply to manuscripts, proposals, synopses, sample chapters, illustrations, supporting materials and other content (“Materials”) submitted to Exisle Publishing, EK Books, or any related brand, program or service operated by us (“we”, “us” or “our”).

They apply whether Materials are submitted for consideration for publication, editorial review, manuscript assessment, consultation, a competition or submission opportunity, or through one of our publishing programs, including Children’s Publishing Academy.

By submitting Materials to us, you agree to the following terms.

1. Your ownership of the Materials

You retain ownership of and copyright in your Materials. Submission to us does not transfer copyright or other intellectual property rights to us.

You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to receive, store, copy, access, process and share the Materials to the extent reasonably necessary to evaluate them, provide an assessment or service, administer the relevant program, and communicate with you about your submission.

This licence does not give us the right to publish, sell or otherwise commercially exploit your manuscript without a separate agreement with you.

2. Who may review your Materials

We may share your Materials, in whole or in part, with people we reasonably consider appropriate to the assessment or evaluation process.

This may include our employees, editors, publishers and other members of our team, as well as external editors, assessors, consultants, freelancers, contractors, specialists and other professional advisers or service providers engaged by us.

This allows us to draw upon the people and expertise we believe will provide the most useful, informed and commercially realistic assessment of your work.

3. Our approach to artificial intelligence

We do not use generative AI to create or develop Exisle Publishing, EK Books or related titles.

Our books are developed through the work of authors, illustrators, editors, designers and other publishing professionals. We do not use generative AI as a substitute for authorship, illustration or professional editorial development, including to write, rewrite, generate or materially develop the creative content of books we publish.

We may, however, use digital, automated or AI-assisted tools for limited analytical, administrative, research or assessment purposes where we reasonably consider them useful. These may include:

• plagiarism and similarity-detection software;
• AI-detection and authorship-analysis tools;
• spelling, grammar, proofreading and language-analysis tools;
• research and fact-checking tools;
• market, audience and comparable-title research tools;
• search, indexing, transcription, data-processing and administrative tools; and
• other technologies that support, rather than replace, professional editorial and publishing judgement.

These tools may assist us in assessing matters such as originality, structure, positioning, market potential, suitability for publication, potential use of AI-generated material and other editorial or commercial considerations.

A manuscript will not be accepted, rejected or assessed solely by artificial intelligence. Editorial and publishing decisions remain human decisions made by our team and the professional assessors we engage.

Where a third-party technology is used for an analytical or administrative purpose, Materials or extracts from Materials may be processed by that provider to the extent reasonably necessary for that purpose.

We do not knowingly authorise unpublished Materials submitted to us to be used to train a public or general-purpose artificial intelligence model.

Third-party technologies are governed by their own technical systems, privacy practices and terms of service, which may change from time to time. We therefore select and use such services with reasonable professional care but cannot make representations about matters outside our control.

4. Confidentiality and reasonable handling

We recognise that unpublished manuscripts and creative works are valuable to their authors and will treat submitted Materials with reasonable professional care.

We will not intentionally make an unpublished manuscript publicly available merely because it has been submitted for assessment or consideration.

However, submission should not be understood as creating a fiduciary relationship, agency relationship, formal duty of confidentiality, or publisher-author relationship beyond the obligations expressly stated in these terms.

Where Materials are shared with members of our team, contractors, freelancers, assessors or service providers, they may access and process those Materials for purposes connected with the relevant assessment, service or submission process.

5. Automated detection and analysis are not definitive

You acknowledge that plagiarism detection, AI detection, authorship analysis and similar technologies are imperfect and may produce false positives, false negatives or uncertain results.

Any output from such a tool may therefore be considered as one source of information rather than conclusive proof of how a manuscript was created.

Where we provide an assessment or publishing decision, technological analysis may inform, but does not replace, the professional judgement, experience and opinions of our editors, assessors and other experts.

6. Nature of manuscript assessments

An assessment represents professional opinion and judgement. Publishing is inherently subjective, and different editors, publishers, agents, booksellers and readers may reach different conclusions about the same work.

We do not guarantee that an assessment will identify every issue in a manuscript or that following our feedback will result in publication, representation, commercial success, sales or any particular publishing outcome.

Where we comment on marketability, commercial potential, audience, comparable titles or prospects for publication, these comments represent an assessment based on the information and circumstances available at the time.

7. Publication decisions

Submission of Materials, including submission through a paid assessment, course, academy or other service, does not guarantee publication or create an obligation on us to offer a publishing agreement.

Where a program provides priority consideration, priority submission or another publishing opportunity, that opportunity remains subject to our normal editorial and commercial judgement unless expressly stated otherwise.

Any offer to publish a work will be governed by a separate publishing agreement.

8. Your responsibilities when submitting

By submitting Materials, you confirm that:

• you have the right and authority to submit them;
• to the best of your knowledge, doing so does not infringe another person’s copyright or other rights;
• you have obtained any permissions reasonably required for third-party material included in the submission; and
• the information you provide to us in connection with the submission is substantially accurate.

Where relevant to an assessment or submission process, we may ask you to disclose whether and how generative AI or other technologies were used in creating the Materials.

9. Similar works and ideas

Publishing businesses routinely receive works containing similar subjects, concepts, themes, settings, titles, characters, arguments or ideas.

Submission of Materials does not prevent us from considering, developing, acquiring or publishing another work that contains similarities to your Materials, provided that we do not unlawfully copy protected expression from your work.

10. Storage and deletion

We may retain copies of submitted Materials, assessments and related correspondence for reasonable administrative, legal, editorial and record-keeping purposes.

We may also delete Materials when they are no longer reasonably required.

Where Materials have been processed through third-party services or technologies, deletion from our own systems may not necessarily remove copies or processing records retained independently by those providers in accordance with their own policies and legal obligations.

11. Children’s Publishing Academy and other programs

For the avoidance of doubt, these terms apply to manuscripts and other Materials submitted for assessment, feedback, review or publishing consideration through Children’s Publishing Academy, including paid manuscript assessments and Materials submitted as part of courses, workshops, mentorships, certification programs or related services.

Participation in such a program constitutes agreement that Materials may be reviewed and processed in the manner described in these terms.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time to reflect changes in our services, publishing practices, technology, applicable law or the tools used in manuscript assessment.

The terms applicable to a submission will ordinarily be those made available to the author at the time the relevant Materials are submitted.

13. Questions

If you have questions about how your manuscript or other Materials may be handled as part of an assessment or submission process, please contact us before submitting your Materials.