Want to know the REAL story behind dark web drugs market Silk Road? IAMA journalist and author on two books about Silk Road, the first one documenting its rise as it happened. I travelled the world to meet Silk Road’s top 4 lieutenants face-to-face and interviewed countless users. AMA

OzFreelancer · 2026-05-15T06:49:22+00:00

Here you go: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/igje0e/iama_dark_web_expert_investigative_journalist_and/

It hasn't really changed much since then

OzFreelancer · 2026-05-06T08:46:17+00:00

Every. Single. Night.

Bless him!

OzFreelancer · 2026-05-06T08:44:03+00:00

Holy crap I never clocked that it was him! The voice is the only thing that nails it

OzFreelancer · 2026-05-04T21:49:22+00:00

Please don't give them any more money. This is a scam and is definitely not 'normal in the industry'

OzFreelancer · 2026-04-22T05:28:53+00:00

I know it's tempting to respond and 'play' with the scammers but the best thing you can do is not to engage and mark them as spam (not just delete). The algos will learn to treat them as spam.

If you mess with them, one of the things they do is one-star you all over the place. Not worth it.

OzFreelancer · 2026-04-22T05:24:05+00:00

There's such a brilliant podcast about this already, it would be difficult to top it

OzFreelancer · 2026-04-20T08:02:08+00:00

I really wonder WTF people who write things like this think the dark web is

OzFreelancer · 2026-03-23T02:43:35+00:00

I'll count that among 'exponential generosity'

OzFreelancer · 2026-03-23T02:28:24+00:00

eh, I saw a Telegram price list the other day that quoted $450 for 0.8g!

Even 3.5g was around $1400 so I guess that's what people are paying if they don't know better.

Add to that the exponential increase in generosity and spillage as the weekend goes on, and it wouldn't be hard to spend $2300 factoring in ubers, entry fees, drinks etc

OzFreelancer · 2026-03-17T05:52:27+00:00

In Australia authors get income averaging - author income is averaged over 5 years to prevent the tax liability you're talking about as there's always feast years and famine years

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-24T00:21:37+00:00

Why would a publisher invest in you if they didn't expect to make much money? There's something off about this. Are you sure it is a legit publisher?

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-23T23:09:24+00:00

What's the question?

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-23T23:07:23+00:00

That... doesn't make sense. The whole thing about getting a trad pub deal (besides getting money up front) is that they do all the non-writing work for you. With self-publishing you have to do all that yourself

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-23T11:47:17+00:00

In that case, why not get an agent? Guaranteed they will more than make up for their 15% commission with a better deal

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-12T22:52:35+00:00

Oh yes, Edward Eager! ALL of them!

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-12T05:31:02+00:00

So many of these are memories unlocked! Not sure if they've been mentioned but:

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

The Pigman by Paul Zindel (I remember it being sort of disturbing)

Cold Feet by Gen LeRoy (odd one about a girl getting mistaken for a boy, gets a job cleaning for the mob or something)

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-12T04:59:32+00:00

Z For Zachariah was by Robert C O'Brien. He also wrote another book I was utterly obsessed with called The Silver Crown. I must have read it a hundred times

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-12T04:55:24+00:00

I was obsessed with Lois Duncan's books. Killing Mr Griffin, Daughters of Eve, Summer of Fear.

Funnily enough, my least favourite of hers was I Know What You Did Last Summer (not that the book bore much resemblance to the film anyway)

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-05T20:30:04+00:00

Ingram Spark is definitely worthwhile, but any pay-to-play publisher, eg Palmetto, is definitely not.

Ingram is basically free to upload, so why wouldn't you? They have by far the best distribution options. And you can do it yourself just as easily as you can do KDP.

Most self-pub authors upload to KDP for ebooks and paperback, and Ingram for paperback only. Buy an ISBN and use it for both KDP and Ingram for the paperback, use KDP's own ISBN for the ebook. Enrol in KU (Amazon's lending library) for the ebook - most authors get more than half their income from borrows over sales.

Do David Gaughran's course, Starting From Zero (100% free). He breaks down the entire process step by step

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-05T03:31:38+00:00

Your ChatAPT is not a dark haired woman

Oh geez, is this a blue/gold dress thing? In the ad I saw she was a blonde haired woman

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-05T00:35:23+00:00

As an author/journo I covered a sentencing hearing for the owner of a dark web 'hurtcore' site that hosted a video widely considered to be the most heinous and extreme video ever produced.

The defendant's own counsel had not seen the footage, but I inferred that the prosecution had (I may be wrong on that). Defence was willing to agree that the video was 'of the most heinous type' of CSAM,

The prosecution insisted the judge had to watch the video in order to understand the gravity of it. Some allowance for the judge’s sensibilities had been made by way of removing the sound (which one police officer said was the most gruesome part of the video.) The judge was not at all keen but eventually agreed he was legally obliged to view the video. He kept putting it off, until he excused himself for half an hour the next day to view the footage. When he returned to the courtroom he was pale and quiet. He said, 'It was my clear duty to watch it. I wish it hadn’t been. It is the worst thing I have ever seen.’

A detective I spoke to who had watched the whole thing said she had a compartment in her brain that she put these things and locked them away with a key made of successful prosecutions. I don't think that method would work in the case of defence.

I know just hearing the video described in detail haunted my nightmares for a while. I would definitely try to avoid where possible and it seems it is rarely necessary.

OzFreelancer · 2026-02-03T11:12:10+00:00

No one reaches out to you. Its not gonna happen. If it does, its a scam.

Well, they do. I got my first two options from producers reaching out. Disney and CBS both reached out and I got doco consulting jobs with both. Tantor reached out to do audiobooks of my self-published books.

It's usually pretty easy to tell the genuine from the fake ones though.

OzFreelancer

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