Terms of Service
Last updated 26 August 2026 · sofiamenethil.com
No legal department here either. This page says what you may do with the essays and the books without asking, and the few things worth a note first.
01
What you may use without asking
Take a paragraph or two. Take a single sentence and put it on a wall. All I ask is my name beside it and a link back to where it came from, so whoever reads it can find the rest. You do not need to write to me first and you do not owe me a fee. This is how essays travel, and I would rather they travelled.
02
What requires my permission
A few things change the shape of the work, so I would like to be asked:
Republishing an essay in full, anywhere, including in another newsletter.
Translating it into another language.
Recording it as audio, or reading it aloud inside something you sell.
Feeding it to a machine as training data.
The answer is usually yes, and it usually arrives within the week. It is the asking I care about, not the gatekeeping.
03
Buying the books
Every book is sold through Gumroad. The payment, the receipt, the download and any refund are handled there, under their terms — I never see your card and I cannot refund a purchase from this site. What you buy is a copy for yourself: read it, lend it, quote it, write in the margins. Passing the file around or reselling it is the one thing I would rather you didn’t.
04
Subscribing to the newsletter
The newsletter lives on Substack and follows Substack’s terms. You can leave whenever you like, from the link at the bottom of any issue, and nothing else happens when you do. Letters you send back to me stay yours — I do not publish or quote a reader’s message anywhere without asking first.
05
Disclaimer
These are essays, not advice. Nothing here is legal, medical or financial counsel, and none of it is a promise about how your own work or your own attention will turn out. If something on this site is simply wrong, write to me and I will correct it rather than leave it standing.
06
How to reach me
To ask permission, or to tell me that something on this page is wrong, write to me directly. Nothing here is handled by anyone else, so put “Rights” in the subject line and it will find me.
Reach out here: