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10+ Years of Self-Publishing Experience, in One Potty-Mouthed Article

Paolo Danese
4 min readJul 5, 2024

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Trigger Warning: Foul Language, Sexual References.

I wanted to stick with the R-rated tone of the article so I typed “hot chicks” in Unsplash…and this is what I got. Fucking hell. Photo by Karim MANJRA on Unsplash

I love writing. I love books. I will continue to write, read books and publish my own till the day I day.

That being said, publishing books sucks. All of it. Traditional publishing? It fucking sucks. Gatekeeping at its worst. Self-publishing? Well, the potential was there. Then they let Amazon take the market and now we are all playing the game Bezos wants us to play. Not what’s good for readers or authors. But what’s good for Amazon.

There are niches, sure. Indie bookstores. Fan fiction communities. Great author support groups. Passionate readers on social media (even though I am no fan of TikTok, I appreciate the readers, always will!).

But this article is for authors. A reality check. And a summary of all I have learned.

Why me? Well, I have extensive experience in publishing as a fiction author, financial journalist, and editor, and have dabbled in consulting for publishing, ran my own digital publishing initiatives, created generative AI applications for publishing, and more besides. I have been around the block, I may dare say.

So today I want to share some basic wisdom to help new authors succeed, or at least avoid wasting years, and money…

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Paolo Danese
Paolo Danese

Written by Paolo Danese

Founder @ Storya. Writer. Ex-journo/editor. Interests: Gen AI, Publishing, Creator Economy, Prompting, Epic Fantasy, and more.

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