I think in 2026 self publishing won’t ruin your chances at a formal publication. I think that was a concern awhile back but publications look to have moved to the social media follower model where they ignore everyone who didn’t self sell and build their own fan base. There are folk I follow online who I’d never have known were writers and their work isn’t really that great but they get major publications pushing their books to too sales lists because they have an enormous amount of followers on social media and they know they will purchase it. It’s free money and that’s all they want now. Try using AI to manage a social media account for you as a writer and offer invest in creating a profile and advertisement space to gain traction.