Somewhere in the world, in the time it's taken you to read this sentence, another book dropped onto Amazon's shelves. Roughly 7,500 new ebooks are published every single day, which is nudging a quarter of a million every single month. Worryingly, an increasing number of those books are being churned out by a machine. There are now scores of courses that teach people how to create a book in a weekend using AI, and those books are a problem for those of us who spend months, years even, doing it … continue reading
My Views
Opinions, the odd rant and a few unpopular takes. Keith A Pearson on writing, publishing and whatever has got under his skin this week.
Can You Ever Really Start Over?
I have started over more than once, and never with any kind of grand plan. In 2004 I stepped down from a directorship at a property company, mostly to spend more time with two small humans before they stopped finding me interesting. Later I built a marketing business helping small businesses make sense of the internet, then sold it in 2019 to attempt the one thing I'd never quite dared: writing books for a living. So I know the pull of the clean slate reasonably well. And here's the bit … continue reading
The Midlife Wake-Up Call
Somewhere around your mid-forties, a small voice pipes up while you stand at the bathroom mirror, studying a man who appears to have borrowed your face and aged it without asking. The voice puts one simple question to you. Is this it? You ignore it and finish brushing your teeth. The voice waits. It owns nothing but time, and lately, so do you. We have a tidy little phrase for what happens next. The midlife crisis. We picture a fiftysomething in box-fresh leathers, astride a motorbike he can … continue reading
The 10 Worst Things About Being an Author
2026 marks the tenth anniversary of my first novel, The '86 Fix, landing on Amazon's virtual shelves. Sitting here now, ten years on, I still find it hard to believe that I make up stories for a living. It’s a job that many people envy, and I know that because every other person I meet tells me how much they’d love to write a book. Spoiler: they rarely love the idea enough to actually sit down and write one. Anyway, for those who harbour ambitions to write books for a living, I thought I'd … continue reading
Why I Don’t Just Write Series Books
I posted a Clement-related question on Facebook yesterday, asking whether there's a demand for novellas alongside the novels. Replies came in, and one reader emailed me to ask a question: why don't I just write series rather than alternating between series and standalone novels? Readers love the character Clement, so it makes sense that they want more of him and less of the new characters and stories I write. The longer I thought about it, the more I realised it deserved a proper answer. So … continue reading
Audible Doesn’t Own a Single Audiobook. So Why Are They Setting the Price?
It takes me roughly six months to write a novel. After launching the Kindle and paperback versions, I then turn to the arduous task of producing an audiobook. This means auditioning narrators, agreeing terms, managing the production process, and carefully listening to 100,000 words I've already read a hundred times. And then I have to pay the narrator for their time, which averages £1,500. In short, turning my words into an audiobook costs a lot of time and money. It's also a gamble because … continue reading
An Explanation: Why You’ll Only Find My Books on Amazon (For Now)
This question lands in my inbox at least once a week. "Keith, are your books available on Kobo? Apple Books? Google Play? A small independent bookshop my dad runs in Devon?" The short answer is no. The long answer needs a couple of paragraphs and a chart. The less-short answer My books are sold exclusively through Amazon. Nowhere else. If you can't find them on a particular platform, the absence isn't a glitch or an oversight on my part. It's the deal I made when I signed up to Kindle … continue reading
The Office of ‘No’
When my son was born twenty-eight years ago, my mum imparted some advice. “As much as you love that little boy, say no to him more than you say yes.” It took me a while to understand what she meant. Saying yes is easy. Who wants to disappoint their child? But yes, used without limit, creates a kid who expects the world to bend to their will. No is a hard word but it’s the one that does the work. It prepares a child for the unforgiving realities of adulthood. My son and his wife now have a … continue reading
The Commodore 64 and the £9 Million Laptop
Ten years ago, I decided to write a novel. It's a long story, but for the purposes of this post, all you need to know is that the novel is called The '86 Fix, and it's set in 1986. The central character is Craig Pelling. Somewhere in the plot, he travels back to 1986 to undo a decision he made as a teenager. A decision that sent him on a path to a deeply unhappy life as a middle-aged man. The device that transported him back to 1986? A Commodore 64 computer, no less. 1986 happens to be the … continue reading
Should You Write a Book? An Honest Answer from a Novelist Who’s Written Twenty
"So, I had this idea..." I've heard that line more times than I can count. From the plumber who spotted one of my novels on the kitchen counter. From old school mates who've tracked me down on Facebook after three decades of radio silence. What follows is usually a novel the person has been thinking about for years. A story they swear is different from anything else out there. A character they can't stop picturing. Roughly one in five is something else. A memoir. The life they'd get … continue reading
Do Authors Make More Money on Kindle Unlimited or from Sales? The Honest Answer
I get asked this question more than almost any other: when you read one of my books on Kindle Unlimited, am I better off than if you'd bought it outright? The short version: usually yes, but not always. And the answer tells you more about how publishing actually works than any "support indie authors" Instagram post ever will. Let me show you the numbers. My numbers, from my 20 books, not some thinkpiece based on an industry average scraped from a Reddit thread in 2019. How Kindle … continue reading
Books Like Life on Mars: What to Read if You Miss Sam Tyler
When Life on Mars first aired, it felt less like a TV show and more like a collective fever dream for middle-aged Brits. The premise — a copper from the 2000s wakes up in 1973 — shouldn't have worked. Yet somehow, amid the flares, the casual sexism, and the smoking indoors, it captured something we'd all been quietly missing: clarity. Gene Hunt wasn't subtle, but at least you knew where you stood. The world was messy, yes, but it was an honest kind of messy. No buzzwords, no HR departments, … continue reading