How I run The Hyphen on Substack

Pulling back the curtain even more & sharing some behind-the-scenes stuff including financial and editorial This Substack you’re reading now, The Hyphen, accidentally turned into a 6-figure business last year. I genuinely do mean ‘accidental’ because when I migrated my newsletter from Mailchimp to Substack back in early 2022, it was just a fun experiment. I had other income streams. I don’t believe in ‘forcing’ a creative project to earn you money — I think it makes the creative project shrivel up and die when too much pressure is put on it. If I’d gone ‘aha—starting a Substack will change my life!’ then it would have been full of truly awful choices and a bad bad vibe. Same with my books, I’ve never expected my books to make me rich. (That’s a whole other post.) I am obviously thrilled that Substack has turned into a job and steady new income stream for me — a way to centre my writing and be paid for it. I’m learning the whole time as my page and the platform evolves. Prior to Substack, I wrote a weekly newsletter for free, for years. Like many other working Online Writer Millennials/Gen X, I have lived through so many platforms. Wordpress. Tumblr. Vine. TinyLetter. Medium. I’ve tried them all like a curious chef. I have picked up my tools (and words and ideas) like Dick Whittington and found new Internet homes over and over again. I really want to down tools here for a while. I like it here and I like you! I also can’t help but feel immense gratitude. After writing and traditionally publishing six books — which were all pretty painful to birth for their own unique reasons — it’s a joy to be able to directly write for my readers and receive payment for my work and expertise. It feels freeing, wonderful and just right. Artists/writers have always tried to be paid fairly and own their work. Even Taylor Swift herself had to figure out a way to no longer be screwed over by people wanting to take her IP/money/art/brand. An artist owning their work — it feels revolutionary in a world that wants you to feel grateful for crumbs. Mostly I’ve been learning on the job, which has been so exciting to me. I closed down my podcast Ctrl Alt Delete in January 2022 even though it was still doing very well, I was bored with the format and needed a big change. Six years was a very good innings though, the longest job I’ve ever had! My job, as a writer/creative person, is to keep things interesting — and Substack has certainly allowed me a place to learn and play again. In August last year, I wrote the post “How I make 6 figures on Substack.” Since then, I’ve learned even more. Below, I’ve outlined some things I’ve learned over the past six months. Financial, editorial, how I maintain the business side of things etc. Hope you enjoy these pointers, I’ve tried to pull back the curtain as much as possible for you and will be in the comment section today responding directly to any and all queries. Ask me anything!... Subscribe to The Hyphen by Emma Gannon to read the rest. Become a paying subscriber of The Hyphen by Emma Gannon to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. Upgrade to paid A subscription gets you: Subscriber-only posts (such as Sunday Scrolls, Tuesdays Threads + new articles) Join the comment section, enter giveaways and get the full archive © 2024 Emma Gannon The Hyphen HQ, London

#53 Your Slow Sunday Scroll

☕️ back from my hols! a round-up of books/pods/links/inspo JAN 28 Hi, I have missed you! I’ve just returned from three weeks in Vietnam. I’m back at my desk now, catching up on emails and admin and burning incense in a little gold turtle holder I bought in Ho Chi Minh City (similar one here). Three weeks away felt surprisingly long. Which makes sense: when you’re somewhere new, your brain is processing lots of new information. Apparently, the longer the processing takes, the longer that period of time feels. My sister messaged me saying “that was quick!” when I told her I was on the flight home the other day, and I thought: “really? I feel like I’ve been away for A YEAR. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED.” I felt incredibly lucky to have dipped out for most of January, elongating the state of denial about returning to work post-Christmas. I kept a journal the whole time I was away, writing every night in bed about the new experiences (the hikes, getting lost, the sleeper trains, the wonderful people we met). I am working on a post called "the unInstagrammable reality of travelling” because I feel like Instagram has kind of ruined ‘travelling’ as a concept. Instagram is full of people sharing perfect-looking ‘hotspots’ ruined by selfie-sticks, focusing mainly on producing envy-inducing Reels, or pictures of yet another infinity pool, but I want to hear about the real bits of travelling — how you got there, whether it’s actually good, what the breakfast was like, where the local pharmacies are. (I was disgustingly sick for the first week of the trip and spent many a Vietnamese đồng on throat spray, cough tablets, paracetamol: sexy.)... © 2024 Emma Gannon The Hyphen HQ, London

The pros and cons of being a multi-hyphenate It's been five years since The Multi-Hyphen Method came out.

Here’s what happened when a fellow multi-hyphenate committed to doing one thing for a year. EMMA GANNON JAN 24 Lots of people love having one dedicated vocation; and I am all for that, we need those people. But I tend to write for the ‘career misfits’, the people who were constantly told they were doing life wrong (especially for refusing to pick One Thing or changing their mind too often.) For years I was told I was indecisive and scatty. In reality, I just thrive when I have multiple projects on the go. In meetings over the years, big PR CEO types have said to me, leaning back in their chair: “the problem is, we just don't know how to sum you up.” What they really mean is this: “we don't know how to sell you, and we want you to be a product.” But I refuse to be a neat little product in a world obsessed with products. Plus: I love the organic twists and turns my career is taking, like a meandering river. I love it whenever anyone comes up to me and says they enjoyed any of my books, but especially The Multi-Hyphen Method. In some instances people have told me it changed the course of their career. I know what it’s like to have a book reach you just at the right time, and for many people who read that book they went on to make unconventional decisions: be it a fingers-in-pies kind of career, varying projects, a flexible schedule, a life of experimentation. My goal for that book was to offer up case studies and experiences, but more importantly: validation. It’s OK if you don’t want to pick One Thing. We are often told to pick a lane and not be a ‘jack of all trades’, but the old career ladder has crumbled. The reason receiving nice comments about this book means so much to me is because it’s one of those books that isn’t mainstream. If you’ve read it, I feel like you ‘get’ me and my work. When the book was first released in 2018, I did all sorts of press: Radio 4’s Money Box, BBC Breakfast, Stylist Live, and I went on tour to Bristol, Edinburgh, Bath, Exeter. I partnered with Bumble Bizz app. However, it was a book that really split opinion at the time, conflating it with hustle culture/gig economy— “are you really saying it’s good to have multiple jobs??”— when really it’s simply a book about refusing to be boxed in. The book questions society’s work ‘rules’ and explores how we can create our own career autonomy. (When I wrote the book, I wasn't feeling overtly political. I actually just pictured journalist/screen-writer/film director Nora Ephron at her desk wearing multiple creative hats.) It was for the people who say “well, I do a combination of this and this and this…” at dinner parties when asked “what do you do?” Instead of feeling embarrassed, I wanted it to be celebrated. Being a multi-hyphenate is not a ‘better’ way of working (it's hard! It can be overwhelming! It can take many wrong turns!) but it is a way of making a living that can work really well for many people. Then, the pandemic happened — many people suddenly working from home, working in a different way, trying a new side project from their living room (hello Substack) — and people went out to buy a copy of The Multi-Hyphen Method or The Multi-Hyphen Life as it’s called in the U.S. Five years later, it was back in conversation. You cannot second-guess the response your work will get, or when people will want to read it. You cannot foresee whether it’ll be positive or negative. You do it anyway. There are many marketing professionals who sit in boardrooms plotting strategies to try and make a book ‘appeal to everyone’ and it’s just impossible. If you appeal to everyone, I think you actually end up appealing to no one. The Multi-Hyphen Method might not be for everyone, and that’s precisely why I’m so proud of it. released in 2018 with hodder & stoughton Onto this week’s guest column! Fellow writer and Substacker Annie Ridout is generously sharing her own advice and experiences of her multi-hyphen life. She is the author of The Freelance Mum, Shy and Raise Your SQ. She is a coach and freelance writer for titles including The Guardian, Grazia, Red, Stylist and Forbes. In this brilliant guest post, she reflects on her multi-hyphen career, explores how to make good career choices and looks at both sides of the coin. The pros and cons of being a multi-hyphenate By Annie Ridout... Subscribe to The Hyphen by Emma Gannon to read the rest. Become a paying subscriber of The Hyphen by Emma Gannon to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. Upgrade to paid A subscription gets you: Subscriber-only posts (such as Sunday Scrolls, Tuesdays Threads + new articles) Join the comment section, enter giveaways and get the full archive LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2024 Emma Gannon The Hyphen HQ, London