The agreement, in words you can actually read.

1. Who this agreement is with

These terms are between you and MATVAN INC., trading as Mini Storyteller, registered in Delaware, United States. By creating an account or a book you agree to them.

You must be at least eighteen and the parent or guardian of any child you make a book about. This is a service for adults buying for children, not a service for children.

2. Your account

• You sign up with an e-mail address and a password, and you are responsible for keeping the password to yourself.
• When you create an account you tick one box, and ticking it states two things: that you are the parent or legal guardian of the child the account is for, and that you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy. What we do with a photograph of your child — what it is used for, that we keep it, where it sits, and how to have it destroyed — is set out clause by clause in the privacy policy, and you are shown those clauses again, in full, if they ever change.
• You must verify your e-mail address before you can upload a photograph or create a book. That verification is also how we record parental consent.
• One household, one account. You may add more than one child to it.
• You can delete your account at any time, and deletion is immediate and complete.

3. What you may upload

• One photograph of your own child, uploaded by you as their parent or guardian.
• You confirm you have the right to upload that photograph. Do not upload a photograph of someone else’s child.
• Do not upload anything unlawful, and do not upload a photograph of an adult in an attempt to make a book about them.
• We may refuse to generate a book, and will refund anything paid, if an upload is refused by the safety checks the image provider and we both apply.

4. Making a book, and reading it

The first half of the finished book is free to read, and completely clean: every page of it, no watermark, nothing blurred. The rest of the story is behind either keepsake — the digital file or the hardcover — and nothing is charged until you choose one.

Creating a book is free and unmetered for now. Because each book costs us real money to illustrate before anyone pays, we may introduce a fair-use limit on how many books one household can create in a month. If we do, we will say so before it applies to you.

5. Prices, shipping and tax

Prices are in US dollars and are shown on the pricing page. The price you see when you order is the price you pay.

Shipping is quoted live from the printer for your address and passed on at exactly their price — no markup, ever. The carrier, the amount, the tax and the delivery dates are all on screen before you enter a card.

Sales tax is calculated for your address at checkout and remitted to the relevant authority.

6. Approval, and what gets printed

Before a printed book can be ordered you page through a print proof showing the real trim, safe area and gutter, and you may download that proof to inspect it yourself before paying anything.

One action — Approve and order — records a fingerprint of the exact book and a hash of the exact file. What the press receives is checked against that hash and refused if it does not match, so a regenerated approximation can never be manufactured.

If anything changes afterwards — a name, a dedication, a word of the story — the approval is void and you approve again. Your digital keepsake is unaffected.

7. Cancellation, reprints and refunds

For two hours after you order a printed book, you can cancel it yourself from Orders and billing, in one press, for a full refund. Nothing has gone to the press yet: that window is the production delay. You do not need to give a reason and you do not need to ask anybody.

After that the book is manufactured, and our thirty-day promise takes over: if you are not happy with what arrives, for any reason, tell us within thirty days of it landing and we will reprint it or refund it in full. We do not ask you to post it back, and we do not ask what was wrong with it.

The same thirty days apply to the digital keepsake, from the day you buy it — downloading it does not end them. If you would rather not have it, say so and we will refund it.

We will also refund a printed book that arrives damaged or mis-bound, or that is not the book you approved, outside those thirty days — that is a defect, not a change of mind, and there is no deadline on us having made a mistake.

8. Sharing, and gifts

• You can create a private link to any of your books. Anyone with the link can read the book, including your child’s first name, so send it only to people you mean to.
• A link expires within fourteen days and you can revoke it in one action.
• Somebody who opens your link can buy a keepsake of that book as a gift. The keepsake is granted to your family, not to them, and buying it gives them no access to your account, your other children or your other books.
• They can also start a book for a child of their own. Nothing about your child travels with them when they do.

9. Who owns what

You own your child’s name, your photograph and your dedication. You give us only the permission we need to make and deliver your book — and, because we keep the photograph, to draw your child again from it when you ask for another book. That permission ends when you delete the account, or sooner if you have the photograph deleted on its own.

We own the stories, the characters, the house illustration style, the typesetting and the software. Your finished book is yours to read, print, keep and give away for personal use; it is not yours to resell or to publish commercially.

We will not use your book, your child’s likeness, your child’s name or your dedication in any advertisement or public material. Ever, and not by default — there is no setting that turns it on.

10. Using the service properly

• Do not attempt to reach another family’s books, children or orders.
• Do not scrape, resell or automate the service.
• Do not use the service to make material that is unlawful or that sexualises, endangers or degrades a child. Accounts that try are closed without refund and reported where the law requires it.

11. What we are and are not responsible for

We are responsible for delivering the book you approved, to the specification published on the pricing page, within the window quoted at checkout, and for the guarantee above.

We are not responsible for a carrier losing a parcel beyond replacing the book, for a delay caused by an address you entered incorrectly, or for anything outside our control. Where the law allows us to cap what we owe you, our liability is capped at what you paid us for the book in question.

Nothing in these terms takes away a right you have under consumer law where you live.

12. Changes, and governing law

These terms last changed on 18 August 2026. If we change them materially, we will ask you to accept the new version before you create another book.

These terms are governed by the laws of Delaware, United States, and disputes belong to the courts there.

Anything unclear, write to hello@ministoryteller.com and a person will answer.