All content on this site is the intellectual property of my sole proprietorship. That means I, James Don Cudd — living in (and working from) a home I share with my wife in Lake Jackson, Brazoria County, Texas, USA — take full legal and ethical responsibility for it all. Copyright 2024.
Below are my policies for how I operate as an independent writer. Please note that I don’t like consulting lawyers, so no lawyer had a hand in writing these policies. Accordingly, I can’t say they are “legal,” but they do give a good idea of what it’s like to conduct business and otherwise interact with me (two ventures I pray will be pleasant experiences should you see fit to undertake them). I review this page occasionally and make changes as needed. Ideally, I will review the page about once per month, but, well, the word “ideally,” is key. I do not always meet that goal, and I sometimes go years without reviewing or updating these policies. For the date of my last update and/or review of this page, please see the note at the very bottom.
Code of Ethics
I follow the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. I am not a member of the SPJ, but I have been in years past. I am not sure exactly when I let my membership lapse, but I decided in 2003, as the society was ignoring my requests for help in the situation described here, that I would not likely sign up again. I remain a supporter and follower of the group’s code of ethics, but I found the organization’s “stimulating” efforts to be frustratingly lacking in the one case I tried to bring to its attention when I was a member. (The top of the SPJ’s website says the group is “dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.” Emphasis added.).
Advertising
I do not offer advertising for sale on this or any site, but I have sold it in the past and reserve the right to do so in the future. In the event I do begin offering advertising again, I will do so under policies to be spelled out here in this space.
Likewise, I do not pay for advertising on this or any site, but I have done so in the past and reserve the right to do so in the future under policies spelled out here.
Public Comments
While I reserve the option to open all posts on my site to commentary from readers at some point, the comment feature of this site is currently disabled. (This is a policy change as of Dec. 2021. Some articles from before that time may still have comments appearing, but no future comments are allowed on those articles).
Most articles on this site can also be found (via links at the bottom and/or top) in Don’s Journal of Hope on Substack and/or Medium and/or some other platform that hosts and moderates comments according their own policies. I encourage commentary on these sites, and I will remove my articles from these or any platform for which I find policies and moderation practices not to my liking.
Artificial Intelligence
All content under my name on this site and Medium, Substack or any other platform is the product of my own mind. I am frightened by the dangerous potential of writing and other art produced by artificial intelligence, and I will not use it to produce my own work. That said, I may use artificial intelligence tools — with caution and due diligence — for background research, and, if I cite materials that I know (or even suspect) to be produced by artificial intelligence, I will say so as part of my citation.
Conflicts of Interest
I will divulge any potential conflict of interest I may have that could keep me from offering fair treatment to the subjects of my articles.
Fact vs. Fiction; Corrections and Resolution of Complaints
My writing is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. I will clearly label as fiction all intentionally fictitious content.
I will carefully consider the context of all that I write so that my opinions can be reasonably interpreted as such.
I will take great care that all facts mentioned in my writing are researched, checked, and cited according to codes of ethics linked above.
Upon discovering that I have made an error in fact, I will update the article in question and make prominent note of the correction. In the unfortunate event that my error has been disseminated widely (by others) before the correction, I will make every reasonable effort to disseminate the correction just as widely.
In discussing my opinions and/or discussing facts in the particular context I have chosen, I realize I may stir emotions that inspire complaints from readers. I welcome discussions of such. I encourage readers to use the commenting features of any host of my work to express any passionately considered complaint (or compliment. Ha!) publicly. In the event I see the comment, I may even respond directly (but do not promise to do so). But, should such commentary from readers resort to immature or anti-democratic rhetoric — name calling, and citing unverifiable or disproven facts are but two examples of such –I may take steps to delete it from my post (but, since I do not have full control of commenting features on third-party hosts, I may be limited in that ability).
I welcome complaints to be emailed to me privately at don@doncudd.com but, I ask readers to recognize that I do not I do not promise a direct response to every email. That said, I do promise strong attempts to read all emails that come to me and to take action as I believe is needed. Additionally, as is also noted in my user privacy policy policy below, I may make anonymous public reference to any email I receive, but do promise to not reveal a private emailer’s identity without consent.
Financial Disclosure
I don’t live lavishly, but a few times in my life, people have assumed I make much more money than I do, and this has led to unnecessary discord in our relationships. (This was particularly a problem for me, when I was a (surprisingly?) low-paid radio DJ.)
Accordingly, Dear Reader, if you are concerned about how much money I make or how I spend my money, please know that I am probably happy to disclose financial details to you privately. (Emphasis on probably.) All you have to do is ask, and we’ll take it from there. To be quite frank, I would probably prefer to dig out my income tax returns for your perusal than to have you make erroneous assumptions about my income.
As you consider this disclosure offer of mine, I encourage you to also consider all that I have said above in the Advertising section of this policy list. While my writing on this site has, at times, been financially supported (very meagerly) by advertising revenue, under this current “independent writer” shingle of mine, I do not currently offer advertising. My writing is financially supported almost entirely by readers (and not even all readers). Some of my writing income is from readers who have paid for Medium subscriptions (which allows full access to all of the Medium site and compensates writers based on the time readers spend with their stories).
- Note 1 — As of this update, I have not received writing income Medium, but, as my popularity on that platforms grows in the coming months, I anticipate that to change.
- Note 2 — I emphasize almost above because of this: I may, at times, receive some income directly from publishers who buy certain publishing rights to my stories or who commission me write certain stories. In such cases, of course, that means my income is not coming directly from readers. Again, I am probably happy to discuss the specifics of any income I have made from publishers upon request. Likewise, when I begin self-publishing books and offering them for sale in the coming months, I will be probably be happy to share details regarding revenue, expenses and profits from those sales.
- Note 3 — I emphasize writing above because of this: the lion’s share of my income is not from writing. As is common among writers and other artistic types who are mostly unappreciated and under paid, I earn a reasonable income from “gig economy” work as a “personal shopper.” I am registered on several apps that offer me dozens of quick shop- and-delivery jobs each week, and I accept them as I am inclined and able, earning, on average, about $20 per job. Each job requires about an hour, on average, and I complete an average of between 25-40 jobs per week. I have been doing this work since August 2020 and plan to write about the experience on this site in the coming months, but my financial goal is that I can eventually earn a sufficient annual income, exclusively, from my writing. I am a writer, not, necessarily, a grocery delivery guy.
Finally, I have been known to occasionally discuss my finances publicly — including specific amounts I earn and spend. So, in the event you are concerned about how much money I earn — or any other “me” finance topics such as my budgeting habits with my wife and things I have learned about saving money — please always be on the lookout for such in my writing. I realize such disclosures may not be wise or advisable. So be it. I may do it anyway. Emphasis on may. The authority to exercise such discretion is one of the great things about independence.
Copyright
I retain copyright to all material I write. If you would like to quote from it as part of legal fair use, please be my guest. If you would like to license it for use on your own website or publication, please just contact me. I’m sure we can work something out, and, depending on your cause and need, I might not even ask you for money.
But if you plan to steal my material and use it without my permission in your own publication or website — even if it’s a non-profit operation — please know that’s not okay. I take strong objection to stuff like that. Last I heard, the minimum civil fine for copyright violation in Texas was $750. If I find my stuff in your publication illegally, I’ll probably send you a letter asking for that much in exchange for my agreement to not sue you. Oh yeah, you’ll probably have to quickly remove the stuff from your site, too. I will contact a lawyer, if need be, to enforce my copyright, but my preference would be to resolve such matters amicably, first, if possible. And a great start to us being amicable about my copyright is for you to not violate it. Ha!
I am very careful to avoid infringing on the copyrights of others in all that I write (For example, not being an artist or a talented photographer, I am a paid subscriber to Canva by which I have legal, paid license to use all artwork that appears as part of my writing), and I expect all others to do the same for my copyright. This arrangement is just something to which each of us tacitly agrees with each breath we take while living in a society.
Site User Privacy
Anyone who contacts me privately about something regarding this site (or my “independent writer” sole proprietorship in general) can expect that I won’t share his or her identity or contact information without permission. It is possible that I will share anonymous information about said communication publicly (as in a blog article about an interesting email), but I will not reveal the person’s identity without his or her consent.
To keep this site in compliance with policies of my hosting company and all applicable laws, readers must click to agree to standard “cookies” and “site user privacy” policies to be allowed full access to the site. But, to be honest, that’s all just a formality as far as I am concerned. Please know, Dear Reader, and site user, that I do not (nor do I intend to) intentionally track, store, nor sell, any information that your browser may be set up to provide.
Contact information that you provide me, directly, via emails or cell phone messages are a slightly different matter: I do reserve the right to store them, but only so that I may reach back out to you in relation to what you contacted me about.
It’s important to note that this policy pertains only to this site (doncudd.com). Readers can interact with me via Medium and other social media sites, and those sites maintain their own Site User Privacy policies to which I agree and comply.
I last updated this page on March 21, 2024, but I do review it several times each year to assure it’s still accurate and up-to-date. Please check this site’s main page to see the date of my last review.