Alisha Dempsey

As a bit of a backstory, I grew up writing short stories, spending a lot of my teenage years on Wattpad and AO3 (I know, I know), so always dreamt of being able to write something that people would deem worthy of reading. When I got to University, in a city I wasn’t familiar with, and living with total strangers (that now, 8 years later, are still some of my best friends!), I began having strange dreams.

I don’t know if it was my brain’s way of coping with so much change at once, or if the dreams were trying to tell me something subconsciously, but I started using them as a base for my creative writing assignments. One in particular stuck with me, where I met Richard Nixon during his presidency, and explored the White House with him. I used that as a base for a creative writing assignment, the first one where we had total creative freedom, did some research, and thus ‘Red: Stargazer’ was born. I submitted it, my lecturer loved it, and suggested I submit it to that year’s Wicked Young Writers competition.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t. I did however submit another short story of mine called ‘Anna’, which went on to win second place.

It was after this that I gained the confidence I needed – I’d always liked writing, but with Anna being a success, I felt like I was writing with a purpose – not just because I enjoyed it, because I actively wanted to share my worlds with others.

What came in the next couple of years was essentially me attacking my keyboard at any given opportunity; I found I was booking my connecting trains through Manchester with at least an hour between them so I had an excuse to sit in The Mill (pub/cafe) in Piccadilly station with my laptop out. I got a good chunk of the story done before COVID hit, and I had to finish my year with no graduation ceremony, no partying with friends, and subsequently struggling to get a job.

I won’t bore you with the following years too bad – but I eventually got into a job in the local college where my role was term time only – meaning I had all the school holidays off.

12 glorious weeks a year, plus weekends and bank holidays.

Cue me returning to my previous state of practically harassing my keyboard. After barely touching Stargazer for three years, I found I was spending more time with my main character Ruby than a good chunk of my family. My world had been building within me and I was having to fight myself to stop it from coming out – it was a genuine blessing that I started it all on a Google Doc because I could access it anywhere on my phone.

After rigorous self-editing, I felt like I was finally ready to publish. I started researching publishing houses, only to find that a lot of places won’t take submissions without a literary agent – I found myself at a wall, asking ‘what the fuck is a literary agent?’. After further research, and finding pricing lists, I realised I was out of luck. No way I have that kind of dispensable income to invest in one. Any publishing houses that WOULD accept submissions direct from authors had strict criteria – none of which included Young Adult Fiction as the market is already flooded with it (supply and demand, people, it’s clear that’s your demographic!). So… again I was out of luck.

That’s when I learnt about KDP – Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon. I was able to make the account, upload my manuscript, upload my cover, set the pricing – and that was it. Two painstaking days later, after it had gone through their quality control, my book was published.

Just like that.

No up-front payments.

No literary agents.

Just my book, out there, in the world for people to be able to (hopefully) enjoy.

And just like that… I was an author. Eight years of writing, and I never once considered myself to be an author until that moment. Until I could hold a physical copy of my own book in my hand, see it on my bookshelf, search it on Goodreads.

And now… the arduous task of getting people to read it. So far (as of 17/06/2025), I’ve sold 9 copies (not including the 10 copies I had printed to give out to close family and friends). So this is the reason for the blog – to hopefully catalogue my journey in getting my work out there, help drum up interest, and have this be the hub for all things author related. It’ll probably include Stargazer updates, random musings, perhaps a short story or two.

If you’re able to share this, share my book, or even just mention it to people you know – I’d be incredibly grateful.

Always,

Alisha.