The Creator's Guide

Your first two lines decide whether anyone reads the third. Start in the middle of it: the moment the door closed, the text you should not have opened, the second you knew.

Your title is a promise. Make it specific and a little dangerous. Skip the question mark.

The best tea takes its time. Set the scene, the who and the where, then let the tension climb one beat at a time. Small true details (the generator humming, the danfo, the Lagos heat) do more than big adjectives.

Write the way you would tell your closest friend. Pidgin, slang and your own voice are welcome.

The most explicit part of a piece sits behind the After Dark gate, so a reader chooses to go there. Keep the build-up in the open and save the heat for the tail. Our editors draw the line if you are unsure.

Everyone in your tea is 18 or over and a consenting adult. Always.

The bar above the box does it for you, or type it yourself. Press Preview to see exactly how it will read.

• Bold and italic: **like this** and *like this*. Ctrl or ⌘ + B and I work too.
• H starts a section heading, for a new night or a new chapter: a line that begins ## .
• “ sets a line someone said apart, in italics: a line that begins > .
• ✦ is a scene break, for when time jumps or the place changes: a line that is just ***.
• After Dark starts here marks where it turns explicit. Everything after it goes behind the 18+ gate, so keep the build-up above it.

Leave a blank line between paragraphs. Links show as plain text, never as links: they belong on your profile, not in your tea.

Both belong here. If you made it up, or made up most of it, tick the fictional tag when you share it. Readers trust Swēt because we never pass fiction off as real.

Change names. Change the place, the office, the church, the estate. Shift a detail or two that would point back to anyone. Readers only ever see your pen name, and our editors retouch anything that could expose you or someone else.

Want a piece with no byline at all? Tick Anonymous when you share it. Anonymous tea cannot be priced or tipped, because there is nobody to pay.

A story too big for one sitting becomes a series. Open Share the tea and pick A series: you write every part in one place, each on its own card, and pick when each one drops. Already have a live piece? Under Your tea on the You page, press Turn into a series: it stays part one and the composer opens for what comes next.

End each part on a turn: a knock, a name, a message left on read. A good cliffhanger is why readers follow you and come back.

1. The series. Pick A series, give it a title. Part one is always free; let it drop when the editors approve it, or on a date you pick.
2. The parts. Each part has its own card: write it (bold, italic, headings, quotes, ✦ breaks and the After Dark mark all work), then pick its drop date and time, in Lagos time. Each new part starts the day after the one before, at 8pm; change it to any day and time you like. Move parts up or down, delete one, or press + Add a part.
3. Tags and heat, once for the whole series.
4. Free or paid, right under Heat. That is where Season 1’s payment settings live. Paid, then One price · Season: name it, set one price (₦100 to ₦10,000), and tick the parts in it (every part after part one, unless you change it). Or Price each part, and a price box appears on every part card.
5. Send to Swēt for review. It saves as you go, so you can stop and come back from Your tea (Continue writing). The editors read it once. When they approve it, part one pours and every part after drops by itself at its time, with a ping to you each time. If they send it back, their note is at the top of your draft.

While it is with the editors it is read-only. After it is live, add more with + Add the next part on the series under Your tea, and change prices any time under Earnings.

From part two on, you can set a price from ₦100 to ₦5,000. Blank means free. Most parts do well at ₦100, ₦200, ₦400, ₦500; start low while readers are getting to know you, and raise it once a series has a following.

Part one is always free. It is your shop window: nobody pays for a story they have not tasted. Readers see a short teaser of a paid part before they unlock it, and an unlock is theirs for good.

Set prices under Price and pour time on your earnings page.

Got a run of parts ready? Group them into a Season: several parts, one price, from ₦100 to ₦10,000. A reader pays once and gets every part in it, including the ones still to pour. Part one stays free, and stays outside.

Only parts you have already written go in, live or scheduled. Each keeps its own pour time, or set one rhythm for the lot (one a day at 8pm reads as "pours daily at 8pm"). A part is priced on its own or in a Season, never both. Readers who already bought a part inside it only pay the difference.

Finish what you start: once a reader has bought a Season, its parts stay in it, and if the parts stop coming we make those readers whole. Group parts under Price and pour time, with Group parts into a Season.

You can give a later part a time it pours, in Lagos time. Until then readers see a countdown and can ask for a ping the moment it is out. Friday at 8pm works.

Readers who cannot wait can spend 30 Sugar, the points they earn by finishing stories, to read it early. On a paid part they still pay first; Sugar only skips the wait.

Anything you tell under your pen name can be tipped at the end, from ₦200 up. A free piece that moves people still pays.

Every naira a reader pays you is recorded as it lands, on your earnings page (You → Earnings), with the rate that applied.

Wherever you are, in your own currency. You can be paid to your bank or mobile money in NGN, GHS, KES, UGX, TZS, GBP, EUR, USD, CAD: Nigerian banks in naira; Ghana (mobile money: MTN, Telecel, AirtelTigo), Kenya (M-Pesa, Airtel, T-Kash, or a bank) and Tanzania (Vodacom M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel, Halopesa); banks in Uganda; UK banks in pounds; euro banks in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal and the rest of the SEPA list; US banks in dollars; Canadian banks or Interac in Canadian dollars.

Add where you want to be paid, once. Under Payouts on your earnings page, pick your country and currency, and we ask only what that needs: in Nigeria your bank and 10-digit account number (we ask the bank whose account it is and show you the name: say yes only if it is yours); an IBAN and BIC for euros; sort code and account number for pounds; routing and account number for dollars; institution, transit and account number for Canadian dollars; your network and number for mobile money. We keep the last four characters, never the whole number.

A week to settle. What you earn clears 7 days after it lands. That week is room for a payment that bounces, so nothing has to be taken back from you later.

You earn in naira. Readers pay in naira and your balance stays in naira. When a payout goes to another currency, it is converted at our payments partner Bachs' rate at that moment. Tap Withdraw now and you see the exact amount first, for example “₦38,000 ≈ €21.40 to your IBAN ••3000, rate 1 EUR = ₦1,776, fee paid by Swēt”, before you confirm.

Fridays. Every Friday, anything ready from ₦2,000 goes out by itself, at that day's rate. Want it sooner? Tap Withdraw now any day you have ₦2,000 or more ready. Outside naira the smallest payout is about the same (for example €2.00, £2.00, KSh 200). Transfer fees are on us, never you.

Watch it go. Each payout shows as Processing, then Sent ✓, with what arrived and the rate, and we email you when it is on its way. If a bank sends one back, it shows as Failed and the money returns to your balance for the next go.

Moved, or changed banks? Change it there too. For your safety, payouts pause for 24 hours after a change, and we email you about it.