Hi Bleeders!
I’m a huge fan of Hannah Sward. Our friendship began in a very writerly way: in a Facebook group, where she was looking for someone to review her debut memoir, Strip. Lured in by the title, I devoured the book and was thrilled to write about it. Since then, we’ve found ourselves collaborating again and again. She’s been a guest on Private Parts Unknown, we did a Substack Live together, she interviewed me about my debut memoir Girl Gone Wild, she joined me as a conversation partner (alongside another beloved, Antonia Crane) on my book tour—and I have a sneaking suspicion we’re just getting started.
Hannah is one of those rare writers whose voice is instantly recognizable—vulnerable, funny, and utterly unwilling to sanitize the messy parts of being human (my favorite). That’s exactly what made Strip such a standout memoir, and it’s the same quality that’s made her Substack, Summer of Men, such an instant hit.
When I decided to reprise this newsletter Q&A series, Hannah was first on my list. In just over a year, she’s grown Summer of Men to more than 1K subscribers and built a loyal paid community by doing something both frightening and brave: writing what scares her.
Whether you’re thinking about starting a newsletter or trying to show up more authentically in the one you already have, I think you’ll find a lot of inspiration in Hannah’s approach. Enjoy!
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HS: Summer of Men: At 50, after seven years of no sex, she loaded up the dating apps in search of a summer lover. These are her encounters and musings on sex and love.
HS: June 2025. After five years of being a regular contributor at Erotic Review (UK), I wanted to branch out on my own. I had a wealth of material to draw on and Substack seemed like a perfect place to experiment with content and form. I was also looking to read more work written by women over 50 about sex and dating. There was very little, so I decided to be that voice.
HS: Mainly readers interested in material that pushes the boundaries exploring sex and dating after 45.
HS: Inspired from journal entries, there’s a voyeuristic quality to the material. Raw, sassy, funny. Age, voice, and genre—there are erotic elements but it’s not entirely erotic. There is also the recurring character of my little sister which is unique to Summer of Men. We are very close so there’s an intimacy shared, conversations we have about men, our bodies, aging where we play off one another.
HS: The complexities of casual sex, especially as it relates to getting older.
HS: 1,119
HS: When I first started a year ago, I was really surprised that it shot up on the rising list many times. (It has since plateaued.) I think it helped that I had a readership who were interested in my work from my memoir, Strip. That said, I started at zero subscribers and people found me by the promotion I did on Facebook and Instagram. My growth has been steady but like most newsletters there have been peaks and dips. I’m less interested in subscriber count than readers who are invested in my work.
Lessons? Be consistent, authentic, engage with other Substackers by supporting their work, and have a sense of fearlessness. This is really what has helped the most. Not fearlessness for shock value, but what am I afraid to say? What am I ashamed of, what do I want to keep private?
HS: The pieces that I have been the most afraid to write. For example, I wrote one about pussy hair that seemed to speak to people. Pussy insecurities. The sister relationship, the “private” banter—readers seem to respond to this material and a lot of the pieces that were taken from my journal in real time about the men I was with, the dialogue, the sex, the “scenes” I never thought I’d share with anyone.
HS: I’ve experimented with offering discounts and was surprised that these only generated a few new paid readers. Collaborating has gone both ways, from a few new subscribers to 45. The biggest growth I’ve experienced came from a Scandinavian podcast with a big following. Apparently the host loves Summer of Men and talked about it on one of her episodes. It was a good reminder you never know who your writing will speak to and how your readership can grow.
HS: Yes, but I didn’t right away. I was very surprised that even before turning on paid subscriptions readers made pledges. Once I got to a few hundred dollars, I decided to experiment with paid subscriptions beginning with the stories that went beyond part one. This was effective because it gave readers an invitation to read my work for free and if they were interested to read further they could invest either monthly or yearly. Right now I have 60 paid subscribers. That has fluctuated between 54–66 for the last few months.
HS: I tried Buy Me a Coffee for a few days but other than that no.
HS: It is not a good chunk of my income, no but I am able to pay a few monthly bills and it has led readers to buy my memoir, Strip. Most importantly, it’s helped me be consistent with writing and accountable to getting work out every week.
HS: Write what you are afraid to write and really try to stay out of the results. I think it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers and get discouraged. At least it is for me.
HS: Experiment.
HS: Oh that’s hard, there’s so many but a few writing-related ones I love are Christine Sneed’s Bookish, Ronit Plank’s Let’s Talk Memoir, and Estelle Erasmus’s Writing That Gets Noticed.
HS: If you’re interested in starting a newsletter, be consistent, engage with other writers, and try not to let the numbers determine how you feel about your writing. This has been the hardest part for me, detaching from the highs and lows and holding onto my center regardless of outside validation.
➡️ Subscribe to Summer of Men and follow Hannah on Instagram @hannahswardauthor.
➡️ Check out Hannah’s website at hannahsward.com.
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Smash the like button to show Hannah some love. What's the topic you're most afraid to write about? Would you ever write about sex on Substack?
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