This page is intended to let you know what personal information I collect about you, why I collect it, what I will do with it, and how you can choose how I use it. Privacy is very important, and I take your privacy seriously. This policy will provide you with what information I’ll ask you for, and how I’ll use it.
Cookies
This website uses cookies, as well as products that use cookies and other data collecting tools (Google Analytics, Mail Chimp, Social Media share buttons, Securi Security settings, GoDaddy security, commenting, and others). Most of this is running in the background to help me use, maintain, and keep the site secure, as well as how to improve it, and protect the site when necessary, from spammers, trolls and others with ill intent. The cookies and information collected do not allow me to collect any personal information about you. Regarding the use and collection of cookies, I cannot identify you using these cookies, nor would I want to. That’s super intrusive and so not cool! You should see a pop up accept these cookies when you first visit my site. If you object to the use of these cookies, you can change your preferences at any time.
Some other instances where cookies are collected are if you leave a comment on our site, or try to contact me, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. (More on this below.)
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
If you log in to any areas of the site or where there is a ‘log in required’ plug-in, this may also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. (Note: this info is NOT collected or maintained by me. I have no access to it. GoDaddy or the plug in you’re logging in to, would have this information.)
Emails and/or newsletters sent to those of you on my mailing list, and any sign up pop-up on my page, contain cookies, too. I use Mailchimp and they have a a privacy policy going into depth about how they use information when helping me send out newsletters/emails. These cookies identify things like: whether you have opened an email and/or clicked a link within the email. These cookies record things like: your email address, IP address, date and time you opened an email and/or clicked a link. I use this information to help me figure out what kind of information you, as a subscriber, are interested is so I can tailor future newsletters to what subscribers seem to like and take out what’s not working. They also tell me whether a newsletter has performed well or if I need to make some changes in the emails I send you. If you object to the use of these cookies, you must unsubscribe from my newsletter. The link to be able to do this is at the bottom of every email I send you.
For additional information please see the following for more information on what is collected by some of the services this site uses to find out what information they collect and how they use it: MailChimp
Comments
When leaving a comment on this website, you may be asked for the following:
- your name, which will be used to identify you within the discussion. Anyone who comments, or otherwise views the post, or comment, will see this
- your email address, which helps prevent spam as well as allowing you to use services like Gravatar to show a photo next to the comment. No one would see this other than myself, and perhaps those who help keep my site on the internet such as GoDaddy and/or other sites similar to this (or any I change to in the future.) Without them, I can’t keep the site live, so they may use information that is on my site to help me optimize that, but never to contact you.
- your website URL, which is an optional field.
- This information may also be used by the spam filter to help stop my site from being flooded by spam, trolls, and spammers.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. (Note, I can delete the comment so it’s not viewable, but that doesn’t mean the metadata goes away.)
In addition, if visitors leave comments on the site the site the data collected includes the information in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. (This is one way how some products tell your real comment from fake accounts/spam.)
Mailing list & Email Communications
From time to time, you may see my email sign up on my site—as a pop up, on the side bar and using the embedded Google Form(s). When you sign up to my mailing list, I ask you for a variety of information including but not limited to:
- your name, so I know what to call you
- your email address, so I know where to send the email
- when you sign up, you will be asked to provide your consent to what kind of information you want to receive (email, direct, customized online ads, etc). Your information will be stored by Mailchimp, in accordance with their privacy policy. You can change your preferences at any time by updating your profile. The link is at the bottom of every newsletter I send to you. Also, if you want to unsubscribe, you can do that by clicking the link in the email, too. You can also contact me directly.
If you agree to receive email communications, your name and email address will be used to send you my email newsletter, using a third party newsletter service. I tend to send out a newsletter and/or email when I have a new book out, when I’m running a deal on a book I’ve already published, have excerpts or deleted scenes to share, cover reveals, publishing news, or if I’m involved in an ebook promotion, among other reasons. You can unsubscribe from my newsletter at any time by updating your profile, unsubscribing, or contacting me.
Contact Forms
If you provide contact me via this website or a contact form on it, personal data may be captured. I will only keep the contact form info for business purposes, and hold on to it as long as I need it for that reason only. For example, if you, a reader, contacts me to discuss a book, then I’ll keep it so that I can continue our email chain conversation. If someone uses a form on the site, or the newsletter to send me spam messages, it gets deleted. If someone uses a contact form to tell me they don’t like my book(s), well I don’t read reviews (authors never should), that would be deleted, immediately. (Reviews are for readers–not authors!). Bottom line is, I keep it only as needed and I do not, and will not ever, use the information submitted through them for marketing purposes unless that purpose is expressly stated such as a newsletter sign up form wherein you will have to opt-in to receiving same. See mailing list section, above for more information on that.
Media
A note about media. Through my blog and website, I don’t have it set where others can upload media. So, you won’t find that, or that option here. (It just slows down the site, in my experience.) However! If media is ever uploaded here by someone other than me, please be aware that: (1) I will delete it immediately; and (2) if you upload images to the website, you are potentially uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. So, don’t do that!! Be smart and careful, online. Protect your data and your privacy–ALWAYS!
Embedded Content & Links
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites (not this one) may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that embedded website. (Example, clicking on an embedded Youtube video–Youtube would be the ones collecting the above, and maintaining it per their policy, not me!)
Customized Online Advertising
I don’t really use customized online advertising because I have no idea what it is. But as I sell more books, this could, in theory, happen. So, if I do begin to use custom advertising, and you have agreed to this option in the newsletter sign up form, I may use your email address to help better target ads on Facebook, Google, Amazon, and/or other social media sites, or to show you ads on these platforms. You can object to the use of your information in this way at any time by updating your preferences by clicking on this option at the bottom of any newsletter you receive from me.
Please note that opting out of customized online advertising doesn’t mean you’ll never see ads for my website, or my books, or for anything else for that matter. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, and similar platforms can still show you ads of all sorts unless you amend your preferences on those specific sites, which I can’t control. I don’t have any control over what social media sites decide to show you so if you object to what you see there, you need to change your preferences within those platforms and/or contact them directly per their separate privacy policies.
In Summary:
- This site collects certain information (cookies, emails given with consent) in order to improve the site, and better understand how effective the content is, as well as to advertise certain products (mostly books, but not all books).
- Your privacy is important to me, and it will always be the most important consideration when I use your information. I won’t share your data other than described herein. Not ever.
- I will only use your information with your explicit consent. (Like if you sign up for my newsletter, as an example.)
- Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
If you have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us, if it remains available and has not been deleted already. (Note: if the comment has been deleted from the site it may not be available through me any longer since the comment itself would not be on the site, any longer. Also, this website has been deleted in its entirety and started from scratch, several times in the last three years. Any of that data no longer exists.) You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you, if we have any. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
You can provide or withdraw your consent at any time, or ask that your information be erased, by contacting me or, by changing your newsletter preferences. (This is the easiest way!) You can message me on social media–see links on this site–or by responding directly to one of the newsletters I send to you.
The only times I will use your information without your consent is if I have a legal, security, or contractual obligation to do so. Once again, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. Thanks for stopping by!