david-lyons-the-open-author

From inner city Dublin to middle England. Quite literally.

My name is David, or Dave as everyone insists on calling me for some reason. I’m not a fan of being called Dave, but nobody seems to give a shit. I was brought up in Dublin, but now reside in Birmingham, England with my wife Kerry and our daughter Lola.

I am an author. I used to be a journalist. For 15 years I worked on the sports desks of national newspapers but I was also an award-winning music reviewer and at one stage I even wrote one of those cheesy celebrity two-page spread columns in a Sunday tabloid. That was fun! I tried to write fiction while I was a journalist… but it wasn’t easy. However, when I did finally hang up my dictaphone, I fell into line in terms of disciplining myself and – four months later – I managed to finish my first novel. I signed a three-book publishing deal off the back of that manuscript and then realised I was unlikely to make much money taking the traditional publishing route. On my first day as an independent author, I made more money than I had made in six months with my publisher. I have since sold over 360,000 novels, and I have been a number one bestselling author in Ireland, the UK, Canada and Australia—making six figure turnovers year on year.

I am an educator. I have taught Creative Writing at Coventry University, at Rathmines College in Dublin, and at Camphill Grammar school (one of the top one per cent of schools in the UK apparently). I’m a fully qualified teacher (what fun getting that qualification was!) and began teaching creative writing in 2006. To become a full-time author, I pressed pause on being a journalist and educator at the tail end of 2018, though I still thoroughly enjoy teaching and now do so online—with courses specifically sculptured to help independent authors master not only their craft, but their business.

I am a podcast host. In 2022, my buddy, Robert Enright, and I co-founded the Two Indie Authors Podcast in which we discuss and digest, weekly, the processes we undergo in writing and marketing our bestselling novels.

"My approach to helping authors is to cut out any semblance of bullshit."

I adopted the moniker ‘The Open Author’ in 2019 when I decided it would be advantageous to be totally transparent about my authoring career.

Since then, I have been open to my readers to contact me to discuss their thoughts on any of my novels. I am also totally open to the author community as a whole—keen to pass on all I have learned to assist the next generation of independent authors.

Inside this website, you will find details of how to contact me once, of course, you have figured out where you are in your author career and where you want to get to. I have a strong history and many, many memorable experiences of working with authors (a lot of crazy-ass stories). My approach to helping authors is to cut out any semblance of bullshit. Hence the brand name…

You can work with me on a one-to-one basis in which I will aim to turn your stagnant author career into a highly-profitable business. Or, you may opt to take one of my courses which are valued specifically so that any author, at any point in their career, can afford the purchase. While I could have charged thousands of pounds (and, if I’m being totally honest, open and transparent, I was going to charge thousands of pounds when I first started designing these courses), I have decided not to after working closer with the indie author community through my podcast. I figured out that these courses had to be made affordable to all authors…

I love helping you write, because I know how good it feels to write.

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