Your special Substack offer 💌
solo writing trips. substack strategy. hot chocolate.
I’ve just returned from a delicious solo writing break in Rye. It was SUNNY. I discovered Knoops hot chocolate. I ate alone in silence. I wrote some pages of a new book idea. I only needed a few nights in a new place to get my brain whirring again. I have come home with tons of ideas and my inner cup full up again. I’ll be sharing all my recommendations soon—and how I enjoy spending my time alone, and how I get all the creative juices flowing while I’m away.
Would you like to be a paid subscriber to The Hyphen? I’ve decided to continue my special offer again (until midnight tomorrow Saturday 11th April) because I had quite a few people get in touch saying they were gutted they’d missed it—
AND I’ve had lots of newbies come in as I was included in a piece all about Substack in The Bookseller magazine today. Abigail Bergstrom kindly gave The Hyphen a shout-out in a piece all about building a Substack strategy:
“It’s hard to argue that Substack isn’t having an impact on the publishing landscape. While Emma [Gannon] brought 10k followers over from an existing newsletter, the growth to 80k is nothing short of astonishing. It’s a testament to Substack’s commitment to leaning more on network effects, recommendations and direct relationships over the more manipulative algorithms of Instagram and TikTok. She spoke at several events over the London Book Fair about her experiences of moving into self-publishing, feeling fortified by the platform.” — Abigail Bergstrom
SO here’s your chance to sign up to The Hyphen for an annual subscription for 2026—£12.50 instead of £50 a year. Pretty good right.
I’d love to see you here—it’s such a fun corner of the Internet, and there’s so much creative joy ahead in 2026. I’ll be sharing a lot about creativity and intuition as my new book, A Creative Compass, comes out this summer.
Building a safe community space and having a paywall is so important to me, and creates a safe space for me to write and share. I want this Substack to feel manageable and personal and that means I can only keep writing it if it is for my paid community. You. So thank you for being here.
(If you’re still on the fence, the team at The Women’s Prize recently said about The Hyphen: “It’s the newsletter to subscribe to if you want to be in-the-know about the realities of being a writer and creative in 2026.”)
You can read my latest Sunday Scroll round-up of interesting bookish/cultural links here:
Take care,
and stay creative 🌷
Emma xoxo