![Reflections on Self-Publishing [2025]: Year Six, Geneva Health Files](/content/images/size/w1280/format/webp/substack-post-media-s3-amazonaws-com/public/images/22925db2-d957-4918-89c9-10759d6884ca_5152x6432.jpg)
Hi,
I was prematurely hoping that 2025 will go down quietly, but no. The last few weeks have been busier than expected.
I finally managed to sit down to write one of my most cherished editions of the year – recounting epiphanies in the course of this tumultuous year.
As per annual practice, I indulge myself in writing up these reflections on self-publishing - it provides opportunities to identify where we can learn more, and double up on what we are good at doing.
The experiences do not neatly fall into the category of work and life, but a mesh of different pieces of entrepreneurship, journalism and motherhood coming together. (Like many others, I am sometimes juggling all of these at once. Don’t ask how!)
Starting January 2026, we will be stepping into our seventh year! It has been more than six years since I first started self-publishing in early 2020, when the world was in the first throes of COVID-19. (My reflections from previous years: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.)
So here it is, my learnings from this year.
Best wishes for 2026.
Priti
Feel free to write to us: genevahealthfiles@gmail.com
Find us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/genevahealthfiles.bsky.social
Reflections on Self-Publishing [2025]
Planning is everything.
Overthink business strategy.
Celebrate collaborations.
Work with competitors.
Treasure great talent. How lucky am I!
Delegation is an art (and a science).
Stress about cash flows.
Make time for conferences, it is worth it if you can afford it.
Hold more events online and in-person.
Share more with the reader community.
Make new sources all the time.
Be unafraid to take editorial positions and stating them accordingly. (We have got better at this)
People want you to succeed, but not too much!
Don’t make folks uncomfortable, but don’t be shy to make folks uncomfortable by way of your work.
Being straight forward is great, but diplomacy is wiser.
I love it when people somehow feel we should ask questions of “the other side”, as long as we do not look too closely at them (tough luck we cannot be friends).
When people smile when they see us, I know our work has made them happy.
When people frown when they see us, I know we are doing our job.
Journalists cannot be friends with sources – this is advisable. But acknowledge human connection.
Keep distance from power. (I bet I said this in the previous years as well, has held us well.)
Take dignity seriously, but also wear it lightly.
Humility, always.
Band together with the women.
There is a third way on difficult decisions (Buddhism 101).
Reflect deeply and learn from miscalculations on time, money and effort.
Yes, Geneva Health Files is truly international and is for-profit. You got a problem with that? Too bad.
Give it back when, and as necessary, and say sorry if you are in the wrong (as we have).
Never go into a potentially “threatening” call alone. Take lawyer or a greyer person along.
Journalism is messy, it sucks up evenings. It is ok sometimes.
Entrepreneurship is all consuming, bleeding into all parts of your life. It is mostly ok, if you keep going running.
Keep calendar 90% full (worth a try). Life happens.
Make time for writing academic papers, take time to tell your story.
Sometimes running Geneva Health Files is like getting blows in the face from my seven-year-old. Sources/readers do get upset sometimes, but later they grow up and hug you.
Recognize and cut out toxic associations.
Pity white men with complexes. (Brown men with complexes? Ignore!)
It is absolutely fine to swear (in your head is advisable).
Do with more sleep, not less.
Did I already say read EVEN more (for work)?
Read/do more stuff outside of global health.
Running has been a saviour. (I did four short races this year!)
Watch New Wave Hindi cinema: gritty, real, dark and occasionally delightful.
Russian literature is antidote to stress.
Embrace your greys. It is liberating.
Poetry is life-affirming.
Visit more museums.
You may not be able to bend the curve, but you can inform the shaping of the curve.
Every year I feel that I cannot possibly offend more people and more institutions. But it seems we somehow manage to do that, not intentionally, but as a byproduct of our work. It is the wont of journalists to do so. We will try to work on that, without compromising on what we stand for.
A young person recently asked me how I found myself “this gig”. I squirmed and rolled my eyes. Geneva Health Files has been built brick by brick, and did not fall from the sky. And it takes work every single day, kid.
A white woman gave me well-meaning advice: don’t think about making money. You have your partner. Yes, ma’am it is only 2025 and you are stuck in the dark ages.
Dear mansplainers, please take a walk.
Priti Patnaik
Priti Patnaik
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