Privacy Notice

Who we are

Pan Macmillan is a UK-based book publisher and is a trading division of Macmillan Publishers International Limited, which is part of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

Macmillan Publishers International Limited (“we”, “us”, or “our”) is a "data controller" for the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended from time to time) (“Data Protection Law”). This means that we are responsible for and control the processing of your personal information (which means information that identifies you or could identify you). For full details about how to get in touch with us see the “How to contact us” section.

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about the personal information we hold and how we use it. This Privacy Notice describes the ways in which we collect and use your personal information in connection with the publishing business of Pan Macmillan. It also tells you about your rights and how the law protects you. 

Please note that separate privacy notices apply to other trading divisions of Macmillan Publishers International Limited.

If you have come to this page because you would like to stop receiving marketing emails from us, you can unsubscribe at any time by following the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our emails or by visiting our email preference centre.

Personal information we hold and how we use it

The personal information which we hold and how we use it will depend on our relationship with you. To find out more, please go to the sections of this Privacy Notice which relate to you. 

Sharing your personal information 

We may share your personal information with selected third parties, although it is likely that the exact identity of the third parties with whom we share your personal information will change during your relationship with us. Depending on that relationship, it is anticipated that your personal information will be disclosed to the following categories of third parties:

• Third parties with whom you have consented to us sharing your information, for example, if you consent to our sharing your information with specific third parties for marketing purposes.
• Third parties who provide data processing and IT services to us including website hosting providers, data back-up, security and storage providers, cloud-based software providers, and providers of automated social media content moderation services.
• Other third party service providers who help us run and improve our business. For example providers of email services, marketing services, survey and market research providers, providers of fulfilment and postal services and travel service providers.
• Other companies which are related to us through common ownership which provide automated assistance tools, IT and system administration services, metadata analysis and improvement services and which undertake group level reporting.
• Our partners with whom we co-organise competitions, events and promotions.
• In the case of our authors and illustrators, we share personal information with providers of editorial and production services, including third party manuscript readers, translators, printers and typesetters, providers of image alt-text and ebook conversion services, with publishing partners such as the publishers of foreign editions of our books and with retailers and other commercial partners such as social media platforms for the purpose of publishing and promoting your books. 
• We may also share author and illustrator personal information with prize bodies for the purpose of prize submissions although we will only do this with your permission or the permission of your agent.
• Professional advisors such as external lawyers, external auditors, insurance or tax consultants and claims handlers.
• Third parties with whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets.
• Any other third parties (including regulatory authorities, the police, courts and government agencies) where necessary to enable us to enforce or protect our legal rights, or where such disclosure may be permitted or required by law.

The legal reasons for using your personal information

When we collect and use your personal information, we only do so in accordance with at least one of the legal reasons allowed by Data Protection Law.

One of these is where we have obtained your specific consent to use your personal information, such as when our newsletter subscribers consent to receiving email marketing communications from us or when you consent to the use of non-essential cookies on our website.

Another is where we need to use your information to perform the contract we have entered into with you, such as when we use personal information to pay our authors, illustrators or suppliers.

Another is where using your information is necessary to comply with a legal obligation. For instance, where we are ordered by a court or regulatory authority to disclose your personal information.

In certain circumstances we may collect and use personal information where this is necessary in our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party. This broadly means that we can use your personal information if we have a genuine legitimate reason and we are not harming your rights and interests in doing so.

 Some examples of our legitimate interests include:

• Promoting our books, authors and illustrators and growing our business. An example of this is when we share data with social media sites for advertising purposes, provide personalised content on our website and in our marketing emails and enable participation in prize draws, competitions and promotions.
• Making publishing decisions, for example when we collect information about authors and illustrators from third party sources.
• Evaluating and improving our business, products and service. For example when we carry out surveys and other market research, ask people to review our books and collect information about how users interact with our website and emails.
• Protecting against fraud and other risks to our business, for example when we collect personal information in the course of carrying out due diligence on our suppliers.
• Ensuring network and information security and the security of our premises, for example, when we use CCTV at our premises.
• Monitoring and improving equality of opportunity and the diversity of our lists, for example when we ask authors and illustrators to complete our anonymous Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Survey.

Whenever we process your personal information based on our “legitimate interests” we make sure that we take into account your rights and interests and will not process your personal information if we feel that there is an imbalance between your rights and interests and ours.

We collect special categories of personal information where there are substantial public interest reasons for doing so. Our processing for reasons of substantial public interest relates to the special categories of personal information we receive when we use CCTV to prevent or detect unlawful acts, when we carry out due diligence on our suppliers and service providers, when we facilitate whistle-blowing to investigate and address misconduct and when we survey our authors and illustrators so that we can monitor and improve equality of opportunity and the diversity of our lists, and when we moderate comments on our social media channels to safeguard our online communities from harmful or unlawful content.

Where we store your personal information

Pan Macmillan is based in the UK, but we are part of a global publishing group and we also use third party service providers located in other countries to help us run our business. As a result of this we may transfer personal information of individuals located within the European Economic Area (the European Economic Area being the European Union and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, which is also referred to as the “EEA”) outside of the EEA and may also transfer personal information of individuals located within the UK outside of the UK.

Countries outside of the EEA and the UK may not have data protection laws that provide the same level of protection as those within the EEA and the UK and so whenever we transfer your personal information outside the EEA or the UK we take steps to ensure that all personal information is protected with adequate safeguards, such as by entering into approved standard contractual clauses.

Please contact us if you would like further information on the specific mechanism we use when transferring your personal information out of the EEA or the UK or wish to request a copy of the relevant safeguards which we have put in place.

How we keep your personal information safe

We take looking after your information very seriously. We have implemented appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we have under our control, both on and off-line, to protect it from improper access, use, disclosure, alteration, destruction and loss.

We have also put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long we hold your personal information

We will retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for each purpose which we use it for. We take a number of factors into account when determining the appropriate retention period for personal information, including the nature of the data, the business purposes for which it was collected, any legal or contractual obligations which require us to retain it, whether retention is necessary for the purpose of exercising or defending our legal rights and whether we are permitted to retain it for the purposes of literary expression or archiving.

We operate a Personal Data Retention and Disposal Policy. Please contact us if you would like to be provided with the details of the retention periods for specific aspects of your personal information. 

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. 

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites, for example to enable you to “click to buy” our books from third party retailers.  Please be aware that this Privacy Notice does not apply to such websites and that we are not responsible for your information that third parties may collect through these websites. We encourage you to be aware of this when you leave our website, and to read the privacy and cookie policies of other sites that collect or use personal information. 

Your legal rights

You have various rights in law in respect of the personal information we hold about you which are set out in more detail below: 

• Access: You have the right to request confirmation that we are holding your personal information and to access a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. This is known as a “data subject access request” and enables you to check that we are handling your personal information lawfully.
• Correction: You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
• Erasure: You can ask us to delete or remove your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, you have withdrawn consent, or where we have no lawful reason for keeping it.
• Objection: You can object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest if there is something about your particular situation which makes you believe it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. 
• Withdraw consent: If you have given us your consent to use personal information you can withdraw your consent at any time.  We generally only process personal information on the basis of consent in the context of our consumer e-mail newsletters. If you would like to stop receiving marketing emails from us, you can unsubscribe at any time by following the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our emails or by visiting our email preference centre.
• Transfer: You can ask us to provide the personal information which you have provided to us back to you or to a third party in a structured, commonly used, electronic form, so it can be easily transferred.
• Restriction: You can ask us to suspend the processing of your personal information, for example if you want to establish its accuracy or where you have objected to our use of it.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, you can do so by contacting us.

Please note that some of these rights only apply in certain circumstances and we may not be able to fulfil every request. If this is the case you will be notified of this at the time of your request. If you make a request we may require specific information from you to help us confirm your identity. This is to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to anyone who does not have the right to receive it.

If your personal information changes

It is important that the personal information which we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes.

If you don’t provide us with your personal information

Where we need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that information when requested, we may not be able to perform our contract with you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.

Complaints

We hope that you won’t ever need to, but if you would like to complain about our use of your personal information, please contact us using the contact details set out below.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority. If you are located in the UK the competent data protection authority is the Information Commissioner's Office (“ICO”). For further information on your rights and how to complain to the ICO, please refer to the ICO website.

How to contact us

Macmillan Publishers International Limited (trading as Pan Macmillan) is a company registered in England. Our company number is 02063302 and our registered office is at: Cromwell Place, Hampshire International Business Park, Lime Tree Way, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG24 8YJ.

If you would like to stop receiving marketing emails from us, you can unsubscribe at any time by following the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our emails or by visiting our email preference centre.

For further information about our privacy practices, to request to exercise any of your privacy rights described in this notice or to make a complaint please use the postal address of the Pan Macmillan office:

Pan Macmillan
The Smithson
6 Briset Street
London
EC1M 5NR

FAO: The Legal Team

or send an email to webqueries@macmillan.co.uk

Updates to this Privacy Notice

We may make changes to this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post any changes to on our website, or notify you of any material changes directly.

This Privacy Notice was last updated on 6 January 2026.

(Version 3.5)