I appreciate your honesty.

There's good, well-thought out, and honest self-help and then there's the rest (which seems to make up the bulk of it). It's quite easy to spot when a writer is motivated by the potential monetary gains of a niche instead of the desire to write something honest and impactful. I cannot relate to writers who value dineros over integrity: an approach that often goes hand in hand with the "quantity over quality" mindset.

The internet is littered with recycled "hacks" sprinkled with the authors' personal take. Which isn't inherently bad, but the problem is that it's often poorly written and almost feels factory-made. It has minimal effort written all over it (no pun intended).

Self-help pieces can absolutely be witty, honest, have depth, and truly connect with its readers. Writing is hard, and making money from it seems even harder, but one thing that isn't hard (insomuch as it comes down to personal responsibility) is to keep our integrities intact.

Yes, that, my pen-wielding friends, is entirely up to us.