I've interviewed 6 authors so far.

A thread of 10 things they have in common:

1. Each and every one of them would do (or is doing) more research for the second book.

2. All six of them are amazing and inspiring people.

3. Five out of six are 100% self-published authors.

4. Five of them sell on Amazon and two on Gumroad.

5. Four of them did some sort of writing in public. Either by publishing articles on Medium, involving beta-readers or interacting with their Twitter following.

6. Four of them used Google Docs at some stage. One relied on Microsoft Word and another on Markdown. (Guess who?)

7. At least three of them used Grammarly to help with their writing.

8. At least three of them organised a cover design contest.

9. Two of them write as soon as they wake up. (They do make a coffee first, but that's pretty obvious)

10. Two of them got married (are getting married) while writing their first book.

You may want to start saving for a ring before you start writing ...