The 4 Smartest Things I Did While Finishing My First Self-Published Book

NTAA Memoir is in the top 2% of all self-published books for both sales and ratings, and the four ideas below are a huge reason why.

In November of 2020, the longest year in the history of years, I self-published my first book.

It’s a travel memoir recounting my first four years of solo international travel. I spent three years working on the first draft. When I put the last period on that 330-page pile of words, I thought I was almost done.

I was wrong.

During the scariest, darkest months of the pandemic, after getting let go from my travel industry job, I was very grateful to have a project. To have this pile of words to play with like Legos.

I was filled with purpose during those early long and isolating days of the pandy. I didn’t make sourdough bread, and I only completed one puzzle, but I did spend dozens of hours rereading my memoir, trying to make every sentence better.

I’m grateful that I had the time to pull the sentences apart and roll each word around in my hands like a found seashell. Those six middle months of 2020 when I ate, slept, and reread my book 20 times, helped it to evolve into…