A short, honest disclaimer. The kind that exists not to protect the writer from the reader, but to be plain about what this publication is, what it is not, and how to read it without expecting the wrong things.
01What this is
HanhDBrown is a personal publication of essays, conversations, and the occasional letter, written by one person, for whoever finds it useful. It is not a magazine. It is not a media company. It is not, despite occasionally being mistaken for one, an authority on anything in particular except possibly my own changing mind.
Reading the essays here is the same kind of activity as reading a friend's email at length, or a stranger's notebook left on a park bench. Receive what is useful. Disregard what is not. Treat the rest as one writer's attempt to make sense of something for herself.
02Opinions, not advice
Everything written here is opinion, observation, or conjecture, unless explicitly labeled otherwise. The essays are not professional advice in any field. Specifically, nothing here should be read as:
- Legal advice. If a piece of writing touches on rights, contracts, or copyright, it reflects how I think about my own work, not how the law applies to yours. For that, please consult a lawyer.
- Financial advice. If money or career choices come up, they come up the way they come up at dinner with a friend. Make your own decisions and consult professionals where the stakes warrant it.
- Medical or psychological advice. If I write about anxiety, exhaustion, or the slower kinds of grief, I am writing about my own experience. Your experience is yours, and the people qualified to help with it are not me.
- Career advice for writers. What worked for me may not work for you. The publishing industry, the market, and the slow pace of one's own development are too variable for any one writer's path to be transferable.
03Accuracy and revision
I do my best to be accurate. I check facts before I publish, I cite sources where it matters, and I correct mistakes when they are pointed out. That said, the essays are written by a fallible person, often late at night, and sometimes I get things wrong.
If you find an error, please tell me. I will correct it, note the correction at the bottom of the piece, and write you a thank-you. Corrections are how a publication earns trust.
I also reserve the right to revise old essays when my thinking has changed. When I do, the revision date is added to the piece. The original is preserved in my files but not necessarily on the public site, because the published version should reflect what I currently believe to be true.
04External links
I link to other writers, books, podcasts, and resources I have found valuable. A link is a recommendation in spirit, not an endorsement of every word the linked source has ever published. People are complicated. Their writing is more so. Read with the same care you would bring to anything else.
I do not control external sites. If a link breaks, the destination changes, or a referenced resource turns out to be different from what it appeared to be, I am not responsible for that. Tell me, though, and I will update or remove the link.
05Podcast guests
The conversations on In Conversation represent the views of the guest at the time of recording. Guests speak for themselves. I publish their words faithfully, edited only for length and clarity, but their thinking is theirs and may have evolved since.
If a guest has expressed views in a particular episode that I personally disagree with, the disagreement is part of the conversation, not a hidden subtext. I do not edit out friction.
06Quotes from readers
Occasionally I quote messages readers have sent me, with their permission. These quotes are real and unedited except for typos and proper nouns. They are not testimonials in the marketing sense. I do not solicit them, do not compensate the writers, and do not feature them to sell anything.
If you have written to me and are quoted somewhere on the site without your consent, please let me know and the quote will be removed within one working day.
07Affiliate links
This publication does not currently use affiliate links of any kind. If a book is recommended here, the recommendation is genuine, and I receive nothing for it.
If that policy ever changes, for example because I begin using a single bookshop's affiliate program to fund the podcast, the change will be announced openly in the newsletter, marked in this disclaimer, and visible on every linked recommendation. I would rather lose the income than hide the disclosure.
08Get in touch
Questions, corrections, requests for retraction, or anything else are welcome. Use the contact form with subject Disclaimer question, or write directly. I respond within a week, usually.
For the most pleasant way to read this publication: subscribe to the newsletter, read the essays in your own time, write back when something resonates, and treat the whole thing as an ongoing slow conversation between strangers. That is what it is.