Privacy || Pricing || Returns || Copyright || Manuscript submission

Privacy

Matthias Media respects, and is committed to protecting, your privacy. Information submitted to us through our online store or other websites will only be used lawfully by Matthias Media, and will not be disclosed or provided to any other party except with your explicit written consent.

Our online store order form requires the submission of some mandatory information (name, address, email, phone number, payment details), and some voluntary information, for the purpose of placing an online order with us. The online store (and order form) has security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information as it is submitted and under our control. The online store also uses cookies to enable the functionality of the shopping cart, giving you a unique identification number so that it can track what you have added to your cart.

Matthias Media may use your data to send you promotional material regarding new or existing products and special offers via post, email, social media or other means. All emails sent have an easy ‘unsubscribe’ link to allow you to indicate that you no longer wish to receive such emails. If you do not wish to receive promotional material by post, simply contact our office and we will remove you from any future mailings.

We may revise our Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do so, this information will be updated.

Pricing policy

We want to put it on record that it is not our goal to make money. We are a not-for-profit company, and money is merely a means to an end—providing quality evangelical resources for making disciples.

We are also technically a non-profit company—that is, we cannot distribute profits to any person or organization by way of dividends.

However, this does not mean that we do not seek to make a ‘profit’ in the accounting sense—at least some of the time. We aim to be self-funding, and this means not only meeting today’s financial commitments, but also putting aside money to allow us to fund the production of new resources. Profitability is the main way that we can generate funds to do this.

As we are not here to make money, we are able to take into account of people’s inability to pay when requested to do so. We would prefer that money alone not be a barrier to any person benefiting from the resources we publish. However, whilst dealing with cases on their own merits, we do take into account some other principles, such as:

• Equity: We try to treat customers fairly and not give unjustified benefits to some customers over others.
• Need for support: Whilst we will consider supporting people in their ministries, and will aim to do so generously as we are able, it has to be remembered that just about all ministries we deal with are ‘worthy’, and almost all struggle for funds. While we would love to support them all, it is important that ministries raise their own finances to meet their ministry needs. We obviously can’t afford to offer discounts to every worthy ministry.
• Those being ministered to: Naturally, if the end-users of our resources are financially disadvantaged as a group, we will take that into account. People and organizations ministering to such groups clearly bear a greater financial burden than those who minister to people who can afford to buy the resources they benefit from.

Returns policy

At Matthias Media we hope that you will be happy with our resources when you receive them. If not, you may return them to us unused and in good condition within 30 days for a full refund (less the cost of postage and handling). Postage on returns is your responsibility, unless we got your order wrong or they arrived damaged. Please contact us to let us know that you wish to return resources, so that we can know to expect them back and can process your refund without delay on their arrival. This guarantee is in addition to any statutory warranties and common law rights you may have as a consumer.

Copyright policy

We love to make our resources widely available, and are greatly encouraged when we hear from brothers and sisters who want to partner with us and extend the usefulness of the resources we publish by reproducing them in other languages or sometimes for other special purposes.

We are also a largely self-funded ministry. So, although we are a not-for-profit organization, we do need to earn income—not only in order to meet today’s financial commitments (staff, rent, etc), but also to put aside money to fund the development and production of new resources (funding ongoing growth).

Consequently, we ask those who seek permission to reproduce resources to, whenever possible, help us to continue our mission by financially contributing towards our ministry (1 Cor 9:7-9).

Due to the nature of our publishing, almost all of those who contact us for permission are not doing so for ‘commercial’ reasons, but are generally seeking to resource their own Christian ministry or ministry by others in their local context. Frequently, the goal is to make the resources available as cheaply as possible (even giving them away for free). But the fact that their usage is non-commercial does not, of itself, remove the responsibility on those who benefit from Matthias Media’s ministry to help support the ministry financially if they can.

We recognize that not all users will be able to contribute equally: God has placed us all in different economic circumstances. However, we hope and trust that those seeking copyright permission will understand our need for income and so will support and encourage our publishing ministry.

We try to set what we believe to be reasonable rates that are fair and that will help us to meet our financial obligations to staff and suppliers and invest in new resources. But it is impossible to anticipate every circumstance of those seeking permission, and so we have also tried to provide a reasonably efficient process for applying for such permission. We also try to have a generous spirit as we conduct our ministry, and naturally we aim to not “put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ” (1 Cor 9:12) in asking people to support us.

Do bear all these factors in mind as you complete the permissions application form. And if you have any questions or comments, please email: copyright@matthiasmedia.com.au. Please note, we are happy to answer questions or receive comments about the application form by email, but we really need you to complete the form in order for us to process or answer questions about your request.

Finally, please also bear in mind that we are a small publishing ministry team, and we can’t afford a dedicated ‘permissions department’—but as we get better known throughout the world we are receiving a growing number of permission requests. So we ask that you leave plenty of time for the processing of your application, and please be patient with us. We will do our best to meet your specified deadlines (see Part 2), but please understand our limitations

Manuscript submission

If you have an idea for a resource that you believe would be a good fit with our mission and convictions, please email submissions@matthiasmedia.com.au. Your email should contain:

• the working title for the resource
• a very brief description of yourself, including the church you attend
• a brief description (strictly no more than 150 words) of the resource’s content, purpose and target audience
• an estimated word count
• an indication of when you could complete a first draft.

Please do not send anything further unless we invite you to submit a proposal. If we have not contacted you within six weeks, this means we have decided not to request a proposal. Please do not contact us again to check on the progress of our assessment process.

What kind of material is Matthias Media interested in?

We are passionate about publishing resources that fuel, promote and support gospel growth and disciple-making—whether books, Bible studies, tracts, training courses or any other kind of ministry resource. Our publishing criteria for any project is threefold:

• Does it further our mission, align with our convictions, and meet a real gospel ministry need (that is, a ministry need that is shared by enough people to make it viable to publish a resource and distribute it around the world)?
• Is the content faithful to the Bible?
• Is the quality of a high standard?

What kind of material is Matthias Media not interested in?

We have very limited resources to invest in new projects, so there are various kinds of books that we don’t publish, including:

• end-times or prophecy books
• collected sermons
• contemporary/popular biographies
• exposés of well-known Christians
• personal-experience stories
• poetry
• art books
• fiction.