They Started Banning Books—So I Started Writing One

This post isn’t about my usual political topics, but it comes from the same place. Whether I’m writing about politics or something else entirely, I’m driven by the belief that sharing ideas and information is one of the most effective ways to push back against lies, propaganda, and corruption.

What I’m about to share is years in the making and the most important project I’ve ever worked on.

There’s a story I’ve wanted to share for a very long time—one that I believe can help a lot of people. But before I could share it with the world, I had to overcome a major hurdle that made telling it incredibly difficult.

I knew a book would be the best way to share that story—but because I’ve struggled with dyslexia my entire life, writing felt completely foreign to me. It was something I genuinely dreaded.

A friend suggested I hire a ghostwriter, but this story meant too much to me to hand off to someone else. If it was going to be told, I knew I had to do it myself.

I fully committed to learning how to write a book and decided I would keep rewriting it as many times as it took until it finally matched the vision I could see so clearly in my mind.

It ended up taking me four years to “finish” the book, and when I finally handed it off to someone to read for the first time, I was terrified.

What if I spent all that time learning how to write and it wasn’t any good? I wondered.

Memories of getting laughed at every day in school came rushing back.

Even though writing the book had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done, something unexpected happened once it was out of my hands: I found myself wanting to sit down and write again. That’s when I decided to join Substack.

When I published my first article, I didn’t expect anyone to read it. But to my surprise, someone did. Then someone liked it. And shortly after that, I received a notification in a different color—it turned out to be a comment.

I couldn’t believe someone had taken the time to leave feedback, so I immediately opened it. It was a very kind comment, and for the first time, I started to feel confident in my writing.

The feedback kept rolling in, and over time I learned so much about writing simply through the engagement of my readers. Having never shared my writing before, the experience was invaluable and helped me grow tremendously as a writer.

A few weeks later, my proofreader got back to me. She said she loved the book and thought the story was powerful, which was a huge relief.

She gave me some big-picture feedback, but instead of immediately jumping back into the book, I focused on Substack, continuing to improve my writing and gain confidence.

After a few months, I returned to the book and ended up spending the next year rewriting the entire manuscript.

I was never going to release this book until I was 100% proud of it, and I wouldn’t have gotten to that point without your feedback on Substack.

You played a much bigger role in this book than you probably realize, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

The book won’t be available in stores for a few more months, but if you’d like an early-release copy, you can get one here.

As a small thank-you for all of the support along the way, I’ll be signing and personalizing every copy ordered over the next seven days, ending on Thursday, June 18.

Early feedback on the book has been incredibly positive, so I’m confident you’ll enjoy it too.

If you get multiple copies and would like me to personalize each book, just leave a note with your order letting me know who you’d like them addressed to.

As I head out on my book tour, I’ll be working from coffee shops and bookstores around the country, and I’m looking forward to meeting some of you along the way.

I’ll be sharing all of that on my new newsletter, The Universal Cheat Code. If you’d like to follow along, you can subscribe for free here.

If you’re interested in learning more about the book, I’ve included a few related posts below.

Click on the images below to read the full posts.