How can someone write an article on that theme without ever mentioning self-publishing? It may not be super big in mainstream books yet, but it is getting pretty common for genre literature to first publish and build an audience on something like RoyalRoad, then self-publish, and then get picked up by something bigger. And it also ties very much into some of the themes of the article to cooperate and do shout-outs to other authors, as that is super common in those circles.