Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosure

Last updated: 19th August 2026

The short version

I run a small mailing list and a website about my books. I collect your email address and first name if you choose to sign up, and I use them to send you my newsletter and your free book. I do not sell your data, I do not share it for advertising, and you can leave at any time using the unsubscribe link in every email.

The rest of this page is the detail because the law requires it and because you are entitled to know exactly what happens to your information.

Who we are

This website and mailing list are operated by Boldface Press Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 13686694. Boldface Press Ltd publishes the books written by Lou Collins.

Registered office, for the service of official documents only: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ

Postal address, for everything else: Lou Loves Books, Office 55766, PO Box 6945, London, W1A 6US

Email: loucollins@loulovesbooks.com

Boldface Press Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described here. That means we decide what is collected and why, and we are responsible for looking after it.

We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, because we are not required to do so.

What we collect, why, and on what legal basis

Your email address and first name, when you sign up to the mailing list. Signup happens on a BookFunnel or Flodesk page, which may be linked from this website. This website itself does not collect email addresses. We use these to send you the newsletter and to deliver any free book or bonus content you signed up for. Our lawful basis is your consent, which you gave by signing up and can withdraw at any time.
Records of which emails you opened and which links you clicked. We use these to see which subjects readers actually want, and to stop sending to addresses that never open anything. Our email provider records this automatically. Our lawful basis is your consent, given as part of signing up.
The date, time and source of your signup. We keep this so we can show that consent was properly given, which the law requires us to be able to do. Our lawful basis is our legal obligation, together with our legitimate interest in keeping accurate records.
Your name, email address and whatever you write, if you email us or use a contact form. We use these to read your message and reply to it. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interests, because we cannot answer a message without reading it.
Technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visited, held in our website host's server logs. We use this to keep the site running, secure and available. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interests in operating and protecting the site.
Your email address on our suppression list, if you unsubscribe. We keep it so that we never email you again by mistake. Our lawful basis is our legal obligation. This is the one piece of information we hold precisely because you asked us to stop.

We do not collect or hold:

Bank account details, payment card numbers, or any financial information
Passwords or website accounts, because the site does not have them
Special category data such as health, religion, political opinions or ethnicity
Anything at all about children. This site is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect their data

We also do not use your information to make any automated decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect on you, and we do not carry out profiling of that kind.

Where your information goes

We use a small number of established service providers to run the list and the website. They process your data on our instructions, under contract, and they are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

Flodesk stores the mailing list and sends the newsletter.
BookFunnel collects signups on its own pages, and delivers free books to your device or reading app.
BookBub Author Websites hosts this website. It does not collect your email address, and we do not use a mailing list of its own.
Cloudflare forwards email sent to our address on to the mailbox where we read it.
Google provides that mailbox.

Each of these providers uses its own suppliers in turn, most commonly large cloud hosting companies. Our website is delivered using Amazon Web Services, for example. Those suppliers are bound by the same contractual protections, and they are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes either.

We do not sell your personal data. We do not share it with third parties for their own marketing. We do not disclose it for advertising purposes.

We may disclose information if the law requires it, for example in response to a valid court order, or if it is necessary to establish or defend a legal claim.

Sending your data outside the UK

Several of the providers above are based in the United States, so your information is transferred outside the United Kingdom.

Where that happens, we rely on one of the safeguards recognised by UK law:

the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where the provider is certified under it; or
the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, where it is not.

These are the mechanisms UK data protection law provides for exactly this situation, and their purpose is to make sure your information keeps essentially the same protection abroad that it has here.

Cookies and similar technologies

This website does not use analytics or advertising cookies.

We do not use Google Analytics. We do not use advertising or social media tracking pixels. We do not track you across other websites, we do not build advertising profiles, and we do not share information about your visit with advertisers.

Our website host may set a small number of cookies that are strictly necessary to make the site work and keep it secure. Strictly necessary cookies do not require your consent, and they are not used to track you.

Links to other people's websites. This site contains links to online bookshops and other websites, and some of those are affiliate links, which are explained on our Affiliate Disclosure page. Once you follow a link you are on somebody else's website, governed by their privacy policy and their cookies, not ours. We have no control over what they collect.

Emails we send you

Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link. It works immediately and you never have to give a reason.

Our email provider records whether emails are opened and whether links in them are clicked. This is standard for newsletters and it is how we tell what readers actually want to read. If you would rather it did not happen, you can usually stop images loading in your email app, which prevents open tracking, or you can unsubscribe.

We will not add you to the list without your asking. We only email people who signed up.

How long we keep it

Mailing list data: for as long as you are subscribed. If you unsubscribe, your details are removed from the active list.
Suppression list: your email address is kept indefinitely on a do-not-contact list after you unsubscribe. This exists solely to make sure you are never emailed again, and it is used for nothing else.
Email correspondence: normally up to two years after our exchange ends, unless there is a reason to keep it longer, such as an ongoing matter.
Server logs: for the short retention period operated by our website host, typically a matter of weeks.

If an address goes on producing hard bounces, or never opens anything over a long period, we may remove it entirely.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

be told what personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it;
have it corrected if it is wrong or incomplete;
have it erased, in the circumstances the law allows;
restrict how we use it, in certain circumstances;
object to our using it where we rely on legitimate interests;
object to direct marketing at any time, which is an absolute right with no exceptions;
receive your data in a portable format, or have it sent to another provider, where the processing is based on consent and carried out by automated means;
withdraw your consent at any time, which will not affect anything done before you withdrew it.

To exercise any of these, email loucollins@loulovesbooks.com or write to the postal address above. We will respond within one month. There is no charge, and we will not make it difficult: for most people the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email does the job in one click.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first and we will try to put it right.

You also have the right to complain to the UK's supervisory authority:

Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF Helpline: 0303 123 1113 ico.org.uk

Complaining to us first is not a precondition. You can go straight to the ICO if you prefer.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will say so in the newsletter rather than expecting you to notice.

Affiliate Disclosure

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

How this site is funded

I believe in being straight with you, because that is the only way to build a community worth having.

Writing and publishing books costs money: editing, covers, formatting, advertising. Affiliate commission is one of the small ways that gets paid for, alongside royalties from book sales.

What that actually means

Some of the links on this website, and in my newsletter, are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, I may receive a small commission from the retailer.

It never costs you anything. The price is exactly the same whether you use my link or go to the retailer directly. The commission comes out of the retailer's margin, not your pocket, and sometimes an affiliate link will actually save you money.

I do not see your personal details. No name, no email address, no postal address, no card details. What I see is that somebody, anonymously, bought something on a particular date.

Amazon

I take part in the Amazon Associates programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This covers Amazon's stores worldwide, including Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Where the links appear

On this website, on book pages and anywhere I link to a retailer
In my newsletter, where I sometimes recommend books

Wherever they appear, the same thing is true: you pay the same, and I may earn a small commission.

Honesty about recommendations

If I recommend a book, it is because I think you will enjoy it. A commission has never made me recommend something I did not rate, and it never will. I do not accept payment for positive reviews.

The rules I am working to

This disclosure is made in line with the US Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guidelines, because most of my readers are in the United States and my Amazon Associates account is a US one.

I am based in the United Kingdom, so I also follow the Competition and Markets Authority and Advertising Standards Authority rules on making commercial relationships clear. Both regimes want the same thing: you should know when a link earns me money, and you should know it upfront.

In short

I will never retire on affiliate commission. It helps keep the tea brewing and the words coming, and you pay nothing extra for it.

Questions? Email me at loucollins@loulovesbooks.com