Terms of Use

By browsing this site, sending us a message, or submitting your work, you’re agreeing to these terms. If you don’t agree with them, please don’t use the site.

We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top tells you when they last changed, and continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated version.

The books, the illustrations, and the Mikey the Purple Monkey character are protected by copyright. Book text and illustrations are © 2026 Michael Mason. The website — its writing, design, and layout — is © 2026 Shepherd’s Pen Publishing.

You’re welcome to link to our pages, quote a short passage with credit, and share our books with the people in your life. You may not reproduce, republish, or sell our content, illustrations, or characters, or use them to train a machine learning model, without written permission from us first.

This is the part authors care about most, so plainly:

• Submitting doesn’t guarantee publication. We read everything that comes in, but we can only publish a small number of the books we love.
• Your work stays yours. Sending us a manuscript, concept, or story does not transfer any ownership or rights to us. We claim no ownership of submitted materials. If we want to publish your book, that happens through a separate written agreement you would sign.
• We review submissions confidentially. We don’t share your manuscript outside the people who need to read it to make a decision.
• Response time is typically 2-4 weeks.

Please only send us work that’s actually yours to send, and that doesn’t infringe anyone else’s rights. We can’t take responsibility for unsolicited material that goes astray, so always keep your own copy of anything you send.

Our pre-order buttons and retailer links take you to Amazon and other third-party sites. We don’t operate those sites, and we’re not responsible for their content, their prices, their availability, or how they handle your information.

Once you leave this site, that company’s terms and privacy policy apply, not ours.

This site is provided as it is. We work to keep the information here accurate and the site available, but we don’t promise it will always be error-free or uninterrupted.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Shepherd’s Pen Publishing and Michael Mason are not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of this site. Nothing here limits any liability that can’t legally be limited.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, without regard to its conflict of law rules. Any dispute arising from them belongs in the state or federal courts located in Maryland.

Questions about these terms, or want permission to use something? Email hello@shepherdspenpublishing.com.

Shepherd’s Pen Publishing — a sole proprietorship operated by Michael Mason — Baltimore, Maryland.