Sandy Lake Press
Artificial intelligence (AI) is now part of everyday life. It helps sort search results, recommend books and music, catch spelling mistakes, translate text, flag fraud, plan travel, automate routine work, and make sense of large amounts of information.
It is also a contentious issue.
AI can make work faster, improve accessibility, and support better organization. It can also produce errors, repeat bias, invade privacy, create uncertainty around copyright, and make people feel misled about who created something.
Sandy Lake Press does not treat AI as automatically good or automatically harmful. It is a tool. What matters is how it is used, what information it relies on, who remains accountable, and whether people are treated fairly.
Our approach
Our approach is straightforward:
- People remain responsible for decisions.
- AI may support work, but it does not replace human judgment.
- We are open about significant uses of AI.
- We protect privacy and personal information.
- We do not use AI to mislead readers, authors, customers, or partners.
- We review AI-assisted work for accuracy, bias, quality, and appropriateness.
- We keep human creativity, editorial judgment, and accountability at the centre of publishing.
How we may use AI
Sandy Lake Press may use AI-supported tools in practical parts of our business, including:
- Sales forecasting and market analysis
- Audience insights and campaign planning
- Marketing workflow support
- Website and customer-service automation
- Metadata review and catalogue organization
- Proofreading, formatting, grammar review, and editorial support
- Data analytics and reporting
- Internal administration and workflow planning
- Design exploration under human direction
- Research support and idea generation
For example, AI may help us identify broad sales patterns, organize campaign results, suggest possible reader audiences, or help us understand which catalogue pages are most useful to visitors.
A person remains responsible for deciding what those findings mean and whether any action should be taken.
We do not use AI to make high-impact decisions about people without human review. AI will not independently decide whether to publish an author, reject a manuscript, set contract terms, determine payment, or make decisions that could significantly affect a person's opportunities or reputation.
Privacy and personal information
We take privacy seriously.
Where AI tools collect, process, or analyse personally identifiable information, we will explain why that information is being collected and how it will be used. We will provide clear disclosure in everyday language and, where appropriate, offer meaningful choices to opt out, unsubscribe, withdraw, delete information, or stop participating.
Personal information may include a name, email address, mailing address, purchase history, browsing activity, survey response, or other information that could identify someone.
We aim to collect only the information reasonably needed for a stated purpose. We will not knowingly use personal information collected for one purpose in a materially different way without appropriate notice, consent, or another lawful basis.
Sandy Lake Press prefers to use our internal, self-hosted AI models and tools. This helps us keep sensitive business information, unpublished materials, and personal data within systems we control rather than sending it to public third-party AI services.
We also avoid entering confidential manuscripts, unpublished author materials, private correspondence, contract information, or sensitive personal information into public AI tools unless there is a clear business need, suitable safeguards, and permission to do so.
Sales, marketing, and automation
We may use AI to help understand general patterns in readership, sales, campaign performance, website activity, and customer engagement.
This may include reviewing aggregate information such as:
- Which genres are attracting attention
- How a newsletter subject line performed
- Which website pages visitors find useful
- How a campaign performed across different channels
- Broad purchasing or readership trends
Marketing should remain respectful and relevant. We do not use AI to create deceptive messages, fake endorsements, fabricated reviews, impersonations, spam, or misleading claims.
People should be able to unsubscribe from marketing communications and opt out of non-essential tracking or profiling where applicable.
Writing, publishing, and authorship
Books are human work. A manuscript submitted to Sandy Lake Press must be authentically human-written. The author must remain responsible for the work's ideas, voice, research, structure, language, and final expression.
Writers may use ordinary supporting tools such as spell checkers, grammar checkers, dictionaries, research databases, transcription tools, and, in some cases, AI chat bots to explore ideas or organize notes.
For example, a writer may use a grammar checker to catch a typo, a chatbot to generate possible research questions, or a transcription tool to organize an interview. These uses may support the work, but they do not make the tool an author. Assistance is not authorship.
We do not accept manuscripts that are substantially generated by AI and submitted as original human-authored work. We also do not accept AI-generated text used to imitate another writer, fabricate research, invent quotations, create false endorsements, or mislead readers about how a book was made.
Our standard is authenticity and intent. The final work must be an authentic human voice written to inspire, inform, challenge, entertain, or move the reader.
Bias, stereotypes, and fairness
AI systems can repeat patterns and assumptions found in the material used to train them. This can include stereotypes relating to race, gender, disability, culture, age, religion, sexuality, class, language, geography, and identity.
Bias is not always obvious. It may appear in the stories AI suggests, the voices it treats as "standard," the examples it offers, or the assumptions it makes about who belongs in a particular role.
For that reason, AI-generated suggestions must be reviewed critically. Authors, editors, designers, and staff are expected to use judgment, context, and care.
AI should not flatten cultural specificity, erase lived experience, or reinforce harmful stereotypes.
Copyright and rights
In Canada, copyright protects original literary, artistic, dramatic, and musical works. Questions around AI-generated material, including ownership, training data, permissions, infringement, and whether a work has enough human authorship to qualify for protection, are still developing.
Authors and creators should not assume that AI-generated text, images, or other material are automatically free to use, free from infringement risk, or eligible for exclusive copyright protection.
Before using AI-generated material in a book, cover, campaign, or other commercial project, Sandy Lake Press may require confirmation that:
- The material was created using a tool with terms appropriate for commercial use.
- No third-party rights have knowingly been infringed.
- The work does not imitate or misrepresent another creator.
- The use is consistent with contractual obligations.
- The material has been reviewed and approved by a human decision-maker.
International laws and standards
AI rules are changing quickly around the world. Different countries take different approaches, and organizations may need to consider the laws where they operate, where their customers live, and where personal information is processed.
In Canada, privacy expectations include clear notice, understandable explanations of why personal information is collected, and consent that people can reasonably understand. Where we use AI tools involving personal information, we will explain the purpose, describe the information involved, and provide appropriate choices to opt out, unsubscribe, or stop participating where possible.
Internationally, the European Union's AI Act is one of the most developed legal frameworks for AI. It uses a risk-based approach and includes obligations for certain high-risk systems as well as transparency requirements for some general-purpose AI models and systems.
Other countries are developing their own laws, guidance, and enforcement approaches. Global standards are also evolving around human rights, privacy, fairness, accountability, environmental impact, and human oversight.
Sandy Lake Press is based in Canada, but our authors, readers, partners, retailers, distributors, and service providers may be international. We will monitor important legal and regulatory developments and adjust our practices where appropriate.
Verification and transparency
We may ask authors, contractors, or vendors to explain whether AI was used in a way that materially affected a manuscript, illustration, cover concept, marketing asset, or other submitted work.
As is standard practice in publishing, Sandy Lake Press reserves the right to verify the originality and authenticity of work using editorial review, source checks, plagiarism detection, industry tools, and reasonable follow-up questions.
Our commitment
Sandy Lake Press will use AI where it is useful, responsible, and consistent with our values.
We will keep human judgment at the centre of our decisions. We will be careful with personal information. We will be transparent about significant uses of AI. And we will continue to protect the creative, intellectual, and human work at the heart of publishing.
This policy may be updated as technology, publishing practice, privacy expectations, and Canadian and international law continue to change.
Last updated July 6, 2026