About

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been writing since you could first pick up a pen, been telling stories your entire life, you were that one crazy kid in the class who aced all the literacy assignments (and everyone knew to come to you for help) and you had big dreams to write books all day and get paid doing it.

But all of that came crashing down when you stepped into the real world and got slapped in the face by society’s conditioning: that writing isn’t a sustainable career path, that you’ll never make it big enough to go full-time, and that you should pursue a different career that brings stability and safety.

The thing about highly ambitious creatives like us is that, as much as we love stability and safety, we’re too damn driven to NOT take those big, scary leaps of uncertainty, get risky, and bet on ourselves anyway.

Those crazy, "risky" leaps have enabled me to:

Become a nine times published, bestselling author.
Quit my 9 - 5 and make a full-time living off of authorship and writing related ventures (like coaching, freelance writing and teaching workshops at schools)
See my books in bookstores, receive glowing DMS from readers, and even get stopped on the street by long-time fans.
Triple my income half a dozen times by working smarter, not harder.
Help hundreds of authors all over the world to write their books, get published, increase their book sales and establish themselves with brands that are getting seen, known and heard.

But let me be clear, this is a lifestyle that has been almost eight years in the making. And once upon a time, things looked very, very different.

Those crazy, "risky" leaps have enabled me to:

Become an eight times published, bestselling author.
Quit my 9 - 5 and make a full-time living off of authorship and writing related ventures (like coaching, freelance writing and teaching workshops at schools)
See my books in bookstores, receive glowing DMS from readers, and even get stopped on the street by long-time fans.
Triple my income half a dozen times by working smarter, not harder.
Help hundreds of authors all over the world to write their books, get published, increase their book sales and establish themselves with brands that are getting seen, known and heard.

But let me be clear, this is a lifestyle that has been almost eight years in the making. And once upon a time, things looked very, very different.

I had just graduated high school with a publishing contract (from my first query ever), so I turned down my university acceptance thinking I could jump ahead to a career in writing.

I had been writing for almost 12 years at this point. I’d written my first book by the time I was nine years old, and I’d worked on countless manuscripts throughout high school. So I was more than ready to step into the industry with a book series I’d been polishing for years.

But three short months later, my publisher went bankrupt, leaving me stuck in a waitressing job that literally gave me anxiety and depression and no clear path forward. I was met with rejection after rejection for months, and I began to grow frustrated.

So I turned to self-publishing, but despite my best efforts, my first self-published book flopped due to my lack of knowledge on marketing and launching. And it was devastating, knowing I’d poured hours of time, energy and money into the book. But it also lit a fire under my butt.

In that moment, I decided I was going to crack this book marketing thing—and that nobody else was going to struggle the same way I had.

I spent the next year relentlessly studying the publishing industry, book marketing, and business. I even landed a job with a publishing house for 6 months before deciding it wasn’t what I wanted.

But at this point, I had enough experience in writing, publishing and marketing that I was already starting to coach authors in my free time. And I realised that I was never going to find fulfillment working for someone else… that maybe, I was destined to become my own boss and go bigger than ever before.

So, I took a leap of faith and founded Paperback Kingdom in 2017 with the sole goal of helping authors market their books, and that’s when everything changed.

I went on to re-release my debut novel successfully…

...got signed with my second publisher and became a bestselling author two years after…

…wrote and published SEVEN books in just three years…

…presented my first workshops and talks at schools and libraries…

…got my books into physical stores and did signings…

…and was featured in some major publications and media (including Writer’s Digest and The Write Life!)

Now I'm finally living the authorly lifestyle I’d been dreaming of my whole life—and I get to do hugely fulfilling work and have a ton of impact helping other authors at the same time!

That’s not to say that it’s been smooth sailing since. It’s definitely been a rollercoaster of a journey, but over time, I developed various frameworks and processes to help me and my clients get results faster.

The foundational one I use in every single program is Accountability, Mindset, Knowledge, and the reason it works is because NOT utilising these three things is the reason I spent the first four years of this journey spinning my wheels:

Accountability helps you get crystal clear on your next steps and stay focused on the needle moving activities to go full-time faster. Without this, I kept trying to take on too much at once and didn’t have clarity on how to hit my big, scary, near-impossible goals (like getting published, becoming a bestselling author, landing my Writer’s Digest article and booking my first writing workshop… all of which I’ve now done!)

Mindset helps you shift past all the doubts, fears, and societal conditioning telling you your author goals just aren’t possible! I’ve done a TON of mindset work on money, worthiness, receiving with ease, feeling salesy, self-doubt and trust—all of which has helped me take fast, powerful action that gets me results and enables me to guide my clients through similar blocks keeping them stuck in their tracks.

Knowledge helps fill the gap between the “missing pieces” and being able to fully execute your strategy. I can’t tell you how often I felt stuck in the beginning simply because I was spending WAY too many hours researching, and I was constantly searching for the “missing piece” (which impacted my ability to implement consistently and resulted in many setbacks.) Not only do I strive to organise information and teach it clearly in my programs, but nothing beats having a coach who is already where you desire to be and can fast-track your progress by giving you instant, clear and direct guidance.

Of course, I have niche frameworks for all of my programs (such as my Storyteller Framework to help you write a book in less than 90 days, my 12 Step Book Launch Strategy + 5 Phase Launch frameworks to help you triple your launch day results, and my Full-Time Authorship Framework to help you scale your authorship journey fast.)

Listen…

I know that, more than anything, you want to be an author.

You want to get your stories out into the world and into the hands of soulmate readers who are going to fall head-over-heels in love with the story, the world and the characters.

You want your books to actually be known and read, not sitting on a shelf collecting dust, or consistently getting buried in Amazon’s algorithms by more popular books.

You want to spend more time writing than working a “regular job”, have the flexibility to stay at home with your kids, have the freedom to travel, and utilize your most creative writing times without worrying that you’re “staying up too late” or scrambling to fit words in during your lunch break at work.

But most importantly? You want it to feel easier. You want it to happen faster. You’re ready for that lifestyle NOW, not another ten years from now.

I know this, because I’ve been there. I get it. And if I can do it, so can you.

My clients have gone from unpublished, juggling kids with a commute and full-time work, and struggling with their half-finished manuscript, to releasing bestselling books, quitting their jobs, and completely changing their lives in the span of just 6 - 12 months.

That’s all it takes to kickstart your authorship journey. For real.

I’m Pagan Malcolm, and before I became a business coach for authors, I was a fellow fiction author like yourself with big dreams to become a household name.

I’m Pagan Malcolm, and before I became a business coach for authors, I was a fellow fiction author like yourself with big dreams to become a household name.