Affiliate Disclosure

The Tao Path participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon. In plain terms: when you click a book link on this site and make a purchase through that link, we earn a small commission. This costs you nothing extra — the price you pay is exactly the same whether you arrive via our link or by any other route.

The commission we earn is modest, and it goes toward covering the running costs of this site: hosting, domain registration, and the time spent researching and writing. The Tao Path doesn't carry advertising, doesn't have a subscription model, and isn't backed by any organisation. Affiliate commissions are the only revenue the site generates. We mention this not to justify anything, but because you deserve to know the full picture.

How we choose what to recommend

Our book recommendations are based on one criterion: whether we genuinely found the book valuable and would recommend it to a friend who was interested in Taoism. We have read the books we recommend. Some of them are widely loved translations; some are scholarly works we found worth the effort; some are accessible introductions we thought were done well. We have not recommended books because of commission rates, promotional relationships, or any other commercial consideration.

It's worth noting that Amazon's commission structure pays different rates for different product categories, not for individual books. There is no incentive within the affiliate program to recommend one book over another. Our editorial decisions are made before — and entirely independently of — any consideration of affiliate links.

Where affiliate links appear

Affiliate links to Amazon appear on our Books page, within article sidebars where relevant books are suggested, and occasionally within article content when we reference a specific text directly. We don't flag these links individually with "affiliate link" labels throughout the text, because they are all Amazon links, and this disclosure page serves as our site-wide notice. If you prefer not to use affiliate links, you can find any book we recommend by searching for it directly on Amazon or at your preferred bookseller.

If you have questions about our recommendations or our affiliate relationship, you're welcome to contact us.