The trick is to not be good enough to be able to profit.

Checkmate capitalists

My choices were to write what I wanted to write and self-publish it, or to try to write something publishers wanted to see which would have sand-blasted absolutely everything I wanted to say and wanted to convey in favor of some “nonpolitical” bullshit version of my story that would (as my worst test reader suggested) likely spend several pages per book describing the breasts of the protagonist in the mandatory shower scene.

There was a shower scene, yes. One where a malnourished and nearly feral refugee kid finally feels clean and almost safe and starts eating everything in sight to the point of a stomach ache.

That shower scene would have described her breasts if the test reader, or a theoretical publisher, got their way. You know, because maturity. Got to sell slop to hogs.

This is why my games will only ever be donationware.