<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Months before thousands of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/queensland-teachers-strike-wednesday-august-6-over-pay-and-safety/4240b406-d865-40d1-ab86-30af1a4d2ec5" rel="" target="_blank" title="Queensland teachers walked off the job"><span>Queensland teachers walked off the job</span></a><span> over pay and safety, primary school teacher Stacey McEwan was given an ultimatum.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She'd spent the last few years working part-time while pursuing a writing career that had landed her on bestseller lists around the world.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Passionate about education as well as authoring, she worked hard to juggle both careers. That ended in early 2025.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Due to the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/queensland-teachers-strike-wednesday-auguist-6-parents-urged-to-keep-kids-at-home/5731cf99-0fa0-466d-9d21-d9ee3ee7aaed" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="critical teacher shortage"><span>critical teacher shortage</span></a><span>, I was told 'you either need to come back to teaching full time or you need to quit,'" McEwan told 9news.com.au.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"So I quit the department altogether, and just went full throttle on authoring."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em><strong><span>Have you got a story? Contact</span></strong></em><span> </span><strong><em><span>reporter Maddison Leach at</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="mailto:mleach@nine.com.au" target="_blank" title="mleach@nine.com.au"><strong><em><span>mleach@nine.com.au</span></em></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Fortunately, her latest release </span><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/A-Forbidden-Alchemy/Stacey-McEwan/9781761428500" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="A Forbidden Alchemy"><em><span>A Forbidden Alchemy</span></em></a><span> released to rave reviews in July and even earned a spot on the </span><em><span>New York Times</span></em><span> bestseller list.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/stacey-mcewan-a-forbidden-alchemy-queensland-teacher-turned-bestselling-author/03321df7-3fc9-4399-8605-f0b5b606a24c" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But McEwan is painfully aware that her success (and income) as an author is not guaranteed, even with one of the most powerful online communities behind her.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Aussie teacher to bestselling novellist</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Born and raised on the Gold Coast, McEwan spent 11 years in the classroom.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She wrote fantasy novels on the side and tried getting a few published but was rejected again and again.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I didn't really know what I was doing," she admitted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Australian publishing industry is highly competitive and the odds of a debut author's unsolicited submission actually being purchased for publication are low.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Knowing that, McEwan focused on teaching until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Like millions of Aussies, she downloaded TikTok as a way to pass the time during lockdown and was immediately sucked into BookTok, the app's reading community.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There she racked up thousands of followers "almost overnight".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was her husband who suggested she leverage that budding internet fame to self-publish her first novel, a fantasy book she'd already written.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Instead, British-based publisher Angry Robot "swept in" and offered to buy it.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>The power of TikTok and timing</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>McEwan signed her first book deal and published her debut fantasy novel, </span><em><span>Ledge</span></em><span>, in 2021. Two sequels followed in 2023 and 2024.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Aussie mum of two admits she owes a lot of her initial success to TikTok and timing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I'm not too proud to say that if I hadn't have put my idiot face online, that this wouldn't be happening right now," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There's no doubt the Angry Robot book deal was influenced by her BookTok popularity and the fact that she was pushing a romantasy (romance and fantasy) novel right as the genre was exploding.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Australians spent more than $50 million on romance novels in 2024 and </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/romance-book-stores-sydney-bowral-yarra-valley/cecaf13d-e574-426e-863b-9cf2fe2d8f07" rel="" target="_blank" title="romance book sales have more than doubled"><span>romance book sales have more than doubled</span></a><span> in the last five years.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And romantasy is its hottest subgenre right now.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It was really just a case of perfect timing," McEwan said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her first three novels became bestsellers, boosting her social profile even more.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But in the age of online hate mobs and celebrity 'cancellations', being a big deal on social media doesn't always have a happy ending.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span></span><strong><span>Social media's a double-edged sword</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>All it takes is one move – legitimate, or perceived – for an author to get 'cancelled' these days.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It can make the career feel precarious, especially for breakout authors like McEwan who owe so much of their fame to online popularity.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Being of any kind of public figure on social media feels a lot like putting your head on a chopping block and just hoping that no one swings the blade," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's the wild, wild west out there and one certainly does have to be careful."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It's up to most authors to run their own social media accounts, promoting their books and interacting with fans while also making sure they don't say or do the wrong thing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Because being 'cancelled' can tank book sales and slash an author's income in an instant and most don't have huge advances or established fortunes to fall back on.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I got an advance for [my first book], but it was a small amount and it certainly wasn't anything that was going to set me up for the future," McEwan said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I really had to rely on how well the book was going to sell."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Back then she had her teaching career to fall back on but that's gone now.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>No backup plan</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While she was still teaching part-time, McEwan landed a global deal with publishing powerhouse Simon &amp; Schuster for her next duology.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The advance alone was enough to finance her for a year, so she took unpaid leave from teaching to write </span><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/A-Forbidden-Alchemy/Stacey-McEwan/9781761428500" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="A Forbidden Alchemy."><em><span>A Forbidden Alchemy.</span></em></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The novel follows Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson, childhood friends who find themselves on opposite sides of a war fuelled by class inequality.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I like the idea of the lower classes questioning why it is that they must remain so," McEwan said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Months before it hit shelves, McEwan was told she had to go back to teaching full-time or quit altogether.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She chose the latter and so far, it's been the right choice.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>McEwan just returned from the very successful US leg of her </span><em><span>A Forbidden Alchemy</span></em><span> book tour and you can walk into bookstores all over Australia and find her name staring back at you from the 'bestseller' shelves.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I have a lot of people that I went to school with, that I used to work with, past teachers, students, [and] employers going, 'what's happening?'" McEwan said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"'Is this you, or is this just someone with your name?' ... those reactions only fuel me."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://9.nine.com.au/Z8tJCf"><strong><span>Sign up here</span></strong></a><span> </span><strong><span>to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.</span></strong></div></div>