Permissions and submissions

 Copyright and permissions requests || Manuscript submission

Copyright policy and permissions requests

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 (strictly no more than 100 words), 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.

Submissions that do not fit these parameters will not be considered. 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.