Frank Says
Frank Says -

"The conversation you're avoiding is already happening. You just haven't said your part yet."

- Frank A. Ives · Fictional Author

Frank A. Ives · Fictional Author

FRANKLY

WRITTEN BY NOBODY. LIVED BY EVERYBODY.

Short books by Frank A. Ives - an author who doesn't exist, distilling the hard-won advice of millions who do.

Love · Work · Money · Life · People

Scroll
Frank, being frank
"I never lived a day in my life. Never married, never got fired, never buried a friend. The advice works anyway - because it isn't mine. It's everyone's. I am what happens when you take every argument anyone ever had at 2am, every problem anyone ever typed into a search bar, every thing a person wished someone had told them - and write it down short."
- Frank A. Ives · Fictional Author

Every word of this
is invented.
We're keeping all of it.

Fiction

Frank A. Ives grew up in Notting Hill, the son of a South Carolinian engineer and a Bristol schoolteacher. He spent nine years in advertising, twelve in management consulting, and seventeen running a small publishing house with his closest friend.

He is a husband of forty-seven years, a father of two, and a grandfather of four. He is not a therapist. He is not a life coach. He has never given a TED talk - largely because he has never existed.

He walks four miles every morning. He writes at his father's desk. Neither the miles, the morning, the father, nor the desk are real. The books are.

Why keep a fictional biography?

For the same reason anyone keeps Sherlock Holmes' address. A character is a promise about voice: blunt, warm, done with your excuses. The lore tells you exactly what you're getting.

It just doesn't pretend to be a birth certificate anymore.
The character exists so the advice has a voice. The voice is consistent, specific, and unapologetic. That consistency is the product - and it doesn't require a real person to deliver it.

A machine, a human,
and an argument.

01

AI drafts wide

Each book starts with AI synthesising everything worth reading on one subject - the research, the classics, the forum threads at 2am, the things your grandfather would have said. That's the part machines are good at: reading more than any one person ever could.

02

A human argues with it

A real editor cuts, rewrites, pushes back, and throws out anything generic, flat, or false. Every line gets the same test: would you say this, out loud, to someone you love who is in trouble?

03

Frank gets the byline

The surviving pages go out in Frank's voice - one subject, one hour, no padding. He is the character we built to deliver them, because hard advice lands better from a wise uncle than from a chat window.

04

You're told the truth

Every book says so on the copyright page. This page says so up front. If a line of Frank ever stops being true, useful, or blunt, it gets cut - same as everything else.

The Frankly pledge: nothing ships that the editor wouldn't say to his own family. Frank is fiction. The standard isn't.

The full library. Pick wherever
you need Frank most.

How to Forgive Someone Who Isn't Sorry
How to Deal with Someone Who Won't Change
How to Know When to Walk Away
How to Keep in Touch After 30
How to Take Care of Your Parents
How to Understand Your Parents
How to Survive Your Boss
How to Get a Promotion
How to Leave a Job You Don't Hate
How to Fit In at a New Job
How to Find a Business Partner
How to Start a Business Without Crying
How to Win a Negotiation Before It Starts
How to Run a Law Firm
How to Play Golf Without Going Crazy
How to Get Over It and Get On With It
How to Be Alone Without Being Lonely
How to Make a Decision You Can Live With
How to Actually Go to the Gym
How to Stop Comparing Yourself
How to Stop Taking Things Personally
How to Stop Apologising for Everything
How to Spot a Narcissist
How to Survive Your First Year as a Parent
How to Have Fun Without Spending Money
How to Stop Leaking Money
How to Make Your First $100 Online
How to Ask for What You Want
How to Set Boundaries Without Starting a War
How to Network
How to Read People Before They Read You
How to Flirt Without Being a Creep
How to Keep a Long Story Short
How to Take a Compliment
Frank A. Ives · Digital Edition
$4.99 · Instant PDF download

Digital downloads are non-refundable.

Secure checkout via Stripe. No account needed.

Not out yet

One email when it's ready. Frank doesn't follow up.

Also send me Frank's Monday email — one subject, no padding.

One email. When it's out. That's it.

What do you need Frank for?

Pick the situation that sounds most like yours.
Frank will point you to the right book - no browsing, no guessing.

You'll get Frank's recommendation in one click

Read it in under an hour. Frank doesn't waste your time.

Read a page of Frank.

The fastest way to know if he's your kind of writer.

- How to Survive Your Boss
A page from How to Survive Your Boss

A fictional author.
A very real standard.

Frank A. Ives doesn't exist. He grew up in Notting Hill because a character needs somewhere to start. He spent nine years in advertising, twelve in management consulting, and seventeen running a publishing house - because a character needs a past that explains his opinions.

He is a husband of forty-seven years, a father of two, a grandfather of four, and completely invented. His biography is a promise about voice: blunt, warm, done with your excuses. The lore tells you exactly what you're getting. It just doesn't pretend to be a birth certificate.

He does not have social media. He has no opinion on that. He doesn't exist to have opinions about himself. His books do the talking - and they are very real.

"I am not the point. The advice is the point. A fictional author has no ego to protect - and that, it turns out, makes the advice better."

- Frank A. Ives · Fictional Author

Frank A. Ives

Most advice books give you one life's worth of perspective.

Frank gives you millions.

He is not a man who has been through things. He is what happens when you take all the things people have been through, remove the noise, and write down what's actually useful. No memoir. No padding. No author ego to protect. Just the useful part - in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Subscribe. Or don't.
Frank will write it either way.

One Monday email. One subject. No padding.