My Blog | Keith A Pearson

The Best/Worst Job in The World… and an Apology

Whenever I meet someone and they ask what I do for a living, my reply is almost always met with a positive response: “That’s so cool,” or “What a wonderful way to earn a living.”

Occasionally, someone will say, “You’re so lucky to be able to do a job you love.”

To that, I smile whilst biting my tongue.

For the record, there are many positive aspects to being an author. You get to share your stories with people across the globe and, on the whole, almost everyone you hear from is lovely. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the people who read my novels are amongst the loveliest, most intelligent, and witty humans alive today. If you haven’t already gathered, this is my attempt to sweeten you up before I get to the salty point of this post.

I’m currently two-thirds the way through my latest novel, The Fourth Clause, and I’ve hit yet another roadblock. This isn’t the first mental wall I’ve run into, and it won’t be the last, but this one just feels more solid than those I’ve hit before.

The problem with these roadblocks is there’s no quick fix, no tried-and-trusted method to move forward. Well, there probably is, but it would mean writing a shitty, half-arsed workaround that undermines the whole story. I’d rather not publish the book at all than do that.

This brings me back to those who think that authors are lucky and that we all love what we do. Today, I am not loving my job one bit, and luck isn’t going to ride to my rescue.

Truth be told, at this precise moment I wish I was an accountant or a locksmith… or even a traffic warden. In those jobs, you don’t need a creative spark to do what you’re paid to do. You turn up, do the work, and piss off home at the end of the day. No traffic warden has even failed to issue a ticket because the muse wasn’t flowing.

Before you reach for the Kleenex, this isn’t a sob story. I’m just venting in the hope that it might lessen your annoyance when I confirm that The Fourth Clause won’t be available this side of Christmas — realistically, it’ll be January/February 2025.

If you are annoyed with me, I completely understand and I hope you’ll accept my sincere apology. My only mitigation is that I’m mentally knackered. I’ve been writing constantly for more than eight years now; finishing one novel and then cracking straight on with the next. After eighteen novels, I’m surprised that I haven’t had to write a similar grovelling apology long before this one.

If there’s any consolation, I’m confident that the finished story will be worth waiting for. Ironically, it’s that exact thought that’s allowed me to take a step back, breathe, and not lob my keyboard out of the window. The roadblock won’t beat me — of that I’m sure — but staring at it for eight hours a day won’t make it disappear any quicker.

Right, that’s the end of my confession. As always, thank you for always being on my side … even when I let you down.

Keith x

A Quick Q&A About Writing For a Living

A college student recently contacted me to ask if I’d help with part of her course. In short, she had to select her ideal career and then ask five questions to someone within that industry. The student in question wants to be a full-time author, and as her questions are quite interesting, I thought I’d share my answers with you…

1. What skills are most important when it comes to being an author?

Being able to tell a compelling story is, without doubt, the most important skill, particularly if you want to write a book that actually appeals to readers. However, it’s a job that requires a few other essential skills: self-discipline, determination, and a cast-iron work ethic. Many people assume that writing books for a living must be a dream, but there are plenty of days when it’s an absolute nightmare.

2. Have your responsibilities changed during the time you’ve held this job?

When you publish your first book, readers have no expectation because you’re an unknown quantity. They pick up your book and hope it’s a good one. With every subsequent book, that same reader won’t just hope it’s good – they’ll expect it to be at least as good as your previous works. Consequently, the responsibility to maintain standards grows with every new release, not least because an increasing number of people will (hopefully) be reading/judging it.

3. What is your favourite part of this career?

When a complete stranger emails to say that your book has in some modest way, impacted their life. It might be that they simply enjoyed it, or it could be that the story truly resonated and they now have a fresh perspective on a situation in their life. Whatever the reason, no author tires of hearing positive feedback.

4. What are the best aspects of being an author?

Being able to work to my own schedule is the best part of this job. There are days when I’m in the groove and can write three thousand words without much effort. However, there are just as many days when it’s a real grind just writing three hundred words. There aren’t many jobs that allow your productivity to fluctuate so radically from day to day.

5. What are negative aspects of this career?

At the end of the day, writing books is no different to any other job. You get up in the morning and work for eight hours, week in, week out. So, no matter how much you might love writing, that repetition does wear you down after a while. And, like everyone who works in the creative industries, you’re subject to the whims of your own imagination. If you’re struggling with an element of your story, no amount of staring at the screen will deliver a solution – you’ve got to be prepared for long periods of frustration.

A Heads-Up – New Year, New Pricing

I recently ran a reader poll on social media, asking you (my lovely readers) if I should hike the price of my ebooks from £2.99 to £3.99 – 85% of you said I should. I would add that I haven’t increased the price of my books in about five years and like everyone, I’ve been feeling the cold pinch of inflation this year.

However, what I definitely DON’T want to do is price any of my loyal readers out of the market. Without you buying my books in the numbers you do, I wouldn’t be able to write full-time.

Taking all of this into account, I have a plan!

I’ll release every new title at £2.99 and it will stay at that price for one week before going up to £3.99. That way, all of you who’ve religiously bought my books won’t pay a penny more than usual.

As for my current books, I’ll be raising the price of those in January from £2.99 to £3.99. Therefore, if there are any you haven’t yet read, you’ve got plenty of time to stock up your Kindle before the price goes up. All sixteen of them are available in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook format on Amazon.

To ensure you don’t miss out on the discounted price of my latest release, you can…

– Sign up for my mailing list
– Follow me on Facebook
– Follow me on Twitter/X

I really hope you all feel this is a fair compromise.

Now that’s sorted, I’d better crack on with the writing. My next release is the second book in The Angel of Camden series (featuring Clement), and it’s called, Catfished.

Take care

Keith x

Live Event – Meet The Time Travellers

I’m delighted to confirm that on Saturday 14th October (2023), I’ll be taking part in live event in Birmingham, called Meet The Time Travellers.

Alongside my fellow time travel authors, Jason Ayres, Adrian Cousins, and Adam Eccles, I’ll be discussing my books, characters, writing, and of course, time travel. The three-hour event will include a meet & greet, a Q&A session, and book signings.

Tickets will be limited so if you’d like to go straight ahead and book, click this link.

As this event has been mooted for a while, I thought it would a good idea to answer some of the common questions I’ve already been asked…

Q: Will you be repeating this event in… (insert your home town or city)?
I’ve been asked if the event will take place in every town and city from Perth to Penzance. Due to the cost, and the time it’s taken to organise, this is highly likely to be a one-off event. I am looking at a few low-key solo events next year, but that will depend on a number of factors (including demand).

Q: How much are tickets?
Just £7 each and that’s purely to cover the cost of the venue. The reason why this is a one-off event is because each of us is subsidising our own travel costs and accommodation. As it is, the total cost of the event will be north of £1,000. The maximum we’ll make from ticket sales might be £400’ish.

Q: Where is it being held?
We’ve hired a lovely room at The Midlands Arts Centre, with all mod cons. A bar serving drinks and light snacks will be open before the event and during the 30-minute interval. There’s also a couple of car parks near the venue.

Q: Will there be books available to buy?
In short – no. Between the four of of us, we’ve written around fifty books, and we’d need to bring six copies of each. As three of us will be making the journey to Birmingham using public transport, moving a few hundred books around just isn’t feasible. For that reason, if you’d like us to sign a book, please bring it with you and we’ll happily oblige.

Q: Will the event be recorded/streamed?
Alas not, because we just don’t have the budget to hire the required equipment and technician. It has been suggested that we simply use mobile phones to record it, but the sound quality would be appalling.

Q: I have another question – where can I ask it?
Feel free to drop me an email via the contact link at the top of the page.

Oh, if anyone is staying in Birmingham overnight and would like to join us for a few drinks after the event (in central Birmingham – venue TBC), you’d be very much welcome.

2022/2023 News Update

There’s clearly something wrong with the space-time continuum because it seems like only five minutes ago that we were complaining about the summer heat. Now, it’s chuffing cold, and Noddy Holder is haunting my dreams. 2022 really has flown by.

On the writing front, I was hoping to publish three books in 2022, but I didn’t quite make it. I published The Strange Appeal of Dougie Neil in March, and Clement made his return in Eminence back in August. And, talking of returns, I’m 80% through a brand new novel featuring Mungo Thunk, titled The Way We Thunk. All being well, our peculiar friend will arrive on Amazon in February.

One reason I didn’t quite hit my three-book target was that I’ve had to clear a backlog of audiobooks.

Long story short, I signed over the rights of my first eight books to one of the UK’s largest audiobook publishers. At the time, it felt like validation because we indie authors aren’t considered ‘proper’ authors until we’ve signed a publishing deal. It turns out that there’s bugger-all money in traditional publishing – I think they give it all to Richard Osman.

Anyway, I decided not to sign away any more of my rights and to manage the production of my own audiobooks. Each one is an expensive and time-consuming task, but I managed to release four this year, and I’m now up to date, thank God! If audiobooks are your thing, you can find ALL of mine on Audible and iTunes.

Looking forward to 2023, Mungo will arrive in February, and then I’m planning to write a new time-travel novel set in the 1980s (no surprise there). I’m still kicking a few ideas around, but the reason I don’t just write time-travel novels is that it’s not easy coming up with genuinely original ideas. I love the nostalgic elements in all my books, but I don’t want to rely on that nostalgia in lieu of a compelling story. Once I’ve nailed an idea I’m happy with, I’ll post more info, and that’s likely to be in March.

Regarding Clement, the feedback on Eminence has been fantastic, and I’m so grateful/relieved that the vast majority of readers enjoyed his return. However, sales haven’t been quite as good as I had hoped, so I’ve decided to delay the second book in the series (Catfished) until the sales hit a certain target. The reason for that is simple – when an author releases books in a series, the market is limited to people who’ve read the first book in that series. With a standalone book, your target is literally anyone and everyone. Taking all this into account, I’m quietly confident that the next Clement book will land in 2023, but it’ll be towards the end of the year.

I think that’s about it for now, but no doubt I’ll have more to say next year.

All that remains is for me to wish you a fantastic Christmas and a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023. As always, my eternal thanks for your ongoing support and kindness – as I’ve said many times before, I wouldn’t be writing this update (or anything much) if it wasn’t for you.

Best wishes

Keith

The Spring 2022 ‘Double Denim’ Update

It seems only five minutes ago we were tucking into mince pies and drunkenly bumbling through Auld Lang Syne, but the Daffodils sprouting up in the garden suggest spring is now very much upon us.

I’ve just hit the publish button on my thirteenth novel, The Strange Appeal of Dougie Neil, and now that’s out of the way, I’m going to take a few days to de-stress. The run-up to every new release is incredibly stressful and being an indie author (independently published), there’s no one to delegate tasks to. And, even after the book is published, there’s the stress of waiting for reader feedback – as hard as any author tries to write a book they hope their readers will love, you never really know how it’ll be received. Anyway, it’s out there now and if you haven’t read it yet, I genuinely do hope you enjoy meeting Dougie.

Now, for my next book…

If you haven’t already seen my posts on social media, I’ve committed a politician-grade U-turn regarding a certain denim-clad character. With that, I’m delighted to announce my fourteenth novel will be titled Clem: Dark Side of The Pond. It’ll be set in America and if it proves popular, it might well be the first in a new series of novels featuring Clement. If the writing gods are kind to me, I’m hoping to release it before the end of August. Keep an eye on socials and my blog for more information as it becomes available.

Whilst writing, this is probably a good opportunity to answer a question I’m frequently asked regarding Kindle Unlimited (KU). If you don’t know what KU is, it’s Amazon’s subscription service whereby you can read an unlimited amount of books in return for a monthly fee (£7.99, I think). It’s up to each author/publisher whether they sign-up to KU but I’ve enrolled every one of my books from day one – in fact, it’s how my writing career initially gained traction.

To put minds at rest, there’s not a lot of difference between what I earn from someone reading one of my books in KU compared to a straight purchase. To be frank, even if the difference was significant, I’d still enrol my books in KU because it’s a great way for readers to discover lesser-known authors (like me) without the risk of buyer’s remorse.

Right, that’s about it for now – I’ve got a book to write!

As always, thank you so much for your support and positive vibes. I think I’d have lost my mind long ago if it wasn’t for the lovely emails and messages I receive from readers. Every one of them is appreciated.

Take care

Keith x

An Ode to Kenneth

Last year I decided I no longer wanted to work with a publishing company for my audiobooks. That meant I’d have to take responsibility for all new releases – finding a narrator, managing the script, dealing with revisions, and publishing the finished audiobook. After several months of hard work, the first of my self-managed audiobooks landed on Audible – A Page in Your Diary.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve just finished listening to the audio draft of Kenneth.

Now, I was in two minds about producing an audiobook version of Kenneth because it’s consistently at the bottom of my monthly sales chart and I rarely receive feedback from readers. When I decided to write it back in 2019, the intention was to tap into the mainstream commercial fiction market, so Kenneth deviated a bit from my previous books. It should also be said that it was aimed at female readers.

After disappointing sales in the first few months, I put the book to the back of my mind and moved on.

Since then, I’ve written a lot of words and published five other books. For that reason, I’ve forgotten much of what happened in Kenneth. So, when I sat down to listen to the audiobook for the first time, I found myself in the peculiar position of listening to it with a level of detachment.

Modesty prevents me from saying too much, but I really enjoyed it. Much of that enjoyment was down to the skill of the narrator, Rhonda Pownell, but the story itself was much better than I remember – certainly better than the poor sales suggest.

That brings me to the point of this post.

I suspect Kenneth has slipped off the radar with many of my readers because I’ve neglected it. I don’t think I’ve ever promoted it in any way, and rather than address possible issues with the cover and marketing blurb, I’ve just let it fester on the dustiest of Amazon’s shelves. On reflection, that’s a real pity because I think it’s one of my best stories.

If you haven’t read it, I’d love for you to give it a try. The audiobook will be available towards the end of February (2022) but the ebook and paperback are both available on Amazon.

And, if you’d like to have a listen to Rhonda’s fantastic interpretation, here’s the first chapter…

Five Year Anniversary

On the 15th October 2021, it’ll be exactly five years since the day I first published The ’86 Fix. I can’t quite believe how quickly those five years have flown, or how my career has unfolded since that day, but here we are

I won’t ramble on too much in this post because I produced a little video that says everything I need to say… and a lot more because there’s a lot of umming and erring.

My apologies. If you don’t have six minutes to spare, the video is really just a bumbling thank you to everyone who has helped me get to this point in my career.

Anyway, if you can put up with my inane ramblings for six minutes, enjoy.

Waiting in The Sky – An Explanation

It’s been one week since I hit the publish button on Waiting in The Sky, and I’ve been blown away with positive responses. To everyone who has bought, read, and reviewed it, please accept my heartfelt thanks. A number of readers have mentioned that it’s different from my other books – this is true, and I wanted to help you understand the reasoning behind it.

If you haven’t read it yet, I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers but in essence, there’s no weirdness in Waiting in The Sky: no time-travel, no mysterious oddballs, and no dead man in double-denim. It does contain some of the same ingredients as my other books but I used a different recipe.

Let me explain why.

As I’m sure most of you already know, I publish all my books independently – that means I don’t work with a publisher like the majority of authors you probably read. Up until now, that has been my preferred option because it means I can write as many books as a Iike and publish them whenever I like. However, for every positive there’s usually a negative, and in my case it’s a sense that I’ll never be accepted as a ‘proper’ author until one of my books is on the shelves of Waterstones, WHSmiths, etc.

If we travel back in time to January 2021 (God forbid), I made a decision to write a book that would appeal to a broader, mainstream audience because I wanted to pitch it to a traditional publisher. I also have to admit my head has been a bit messed up over the last year what with the pandemic and a chaotic house move. If you’ve read the afterword in Waiting in The Sky, you’ll understand why such disruption to my structured life was not welcome. Writing the book turned out to be like therapy… a method to keep my sanity in check.

Anyway, it took longer than anticipated to write the book and when I finished it, I had a change of heart. Even though I’ve written twelve books and sold a lot of those books, trying to get a publishing deal would still have involved a lot of jumping through hoops and a smattering of rejection. On top of that, it usually takes at least a year from finishing the book to the moment it lands on a retailer’s shelves. As much I might have fancied validation by the mainstream publishing industry, I just don’t have the patience to get there – my bad.

I think I’ve bored you enough now, but hopefully you can now understand why Waiting in The Sky is like its author – a bit different. :o)

Oh, and rest assured I’ll be returning to my usual recipe for the next book… whatever that next book is.

Spring is Here, Time For an Update

I was only seven years old during the infamous Winter of Discontent in 1978, so I don’t remember it. However, it’s difficult to imagine it being any crappier than the winter we’ve just been through. I’m not a religious man but I’ll gladly pray we never have another one like it.

Thankfully, there’s a touch of spring in the air, and the easing of the third lockdown is within touching distance – an ideal time to provide a quick update on where I am with my writing projects.

As I said in my December update, I’m hoping to complete two novels in 2021. I’m now 85% through the first of those novels and aiming to complete the first draft next month (April). The working title for that novel is Waiting in The Sky and if you’re interested, the details are here (link opens in new tab).

Once I’m happy with the manuscript, I’m intending to pitch it to a number of literary agents in the hope of securing a publishing deal. This will be my first real effort to work with a mainstream publisher and I’ll post further updates on social media as I go through the process – you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

If I haven’t secured representation or a deal by mid-June, it’s my intention to publish Waiting in The Sky myself. Life is too short to keep a novel locked on my hard drive for months on end.

Then, probably in July, I aim to make a start on another novel which I’ll publish myself (possibly around October). That novel will be called Clem and it’ll be set in 1971. No prizes for guessing it’ll feature a certain denim-clad character. If you’ve no idea who Clement is, he features in four of my novels beginning with Who Sent Clement?

As with all plans, there might be some deviation from what I’m hoping to achieve in 2021, not least because I might not find a literary agent willing to take me on. But, as we’re nearly a quarter through the year, I thought you might like to know where I’m currently at.

That’s about it for now. As always, my sincere thanks for all your support and I really hope you enjoy the sunniest of times over the coming months … by God, we all deserve some sunshine.

Best wishes

Keith