a rare opportunity to work with me

I'm launching a hype house

If you’ve ever dreamed of hiring me to help with your content strategy on social or Substack, today you can join my hype house.

Last year, many of you gleefully followed my Instagram prank, which began when I announced that I was leaving book publishing to go work at Richual, the fictional wellness startup in Self Care. The prank culminated in a video I filmed in my car after getting fired from the fake company; it was viewed over a million times.

As a marketing stunt, it worked¹ because Self Care had been out for three-and-a-half years. In the comments of my posts, my readers could signal that they were in on the joke.

As I brainstormed marketing ideas for If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You, I wondered how I could create something that’s interactive, and drawn from the fictional universe of my new novel, before anyone has even read the novel.

Whatever I created would also have to be valuable to my audience, or else they wouldn’t participate.

If you’re following my Substack, you’re probably an aspiring author trying to sell her first book, or a midcareer author who has thoughts on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s $40-million-five-book deal. You might be:

• Pivoting to writing after a successful career in another field

• Launching your debut novel

• Returning to writing after you took a break while your kids were little and now the digital landscape is unrecognizable to you (RIP Twitter)

• Praying that this is the year you sell your book

• Willing to try something new, after your last book underperformed

• Searching for a new agent

• Overwhelmed by what you’re supposed to do to promote your book, on top of writing it

• Exhausted just thinking about how much makeup you would have to apply to show your face on camera

• Trying to figure out how to make a sustainable living in an unpredictable industry

• Watching me on the internet, thinking, “I wonder how Leigh does it”

I made something for you.

Today I’m launching a hype house.

You may be wondering: what is a hype house?

In my novel, it’s a mansion where gen z content creators co-habitate, so they can participate in the same pranks and viral dance trends, gain millions of followers, and launch big Hollywood careers.

This sounds like your worst nightmare!

I know. That’s why my “hype house” is not incubating the next Addison Rae.

My “hype house” is a 4-week social media workshop that I created for writers who are trapped inside a love-hate relationship with the internet.

If you’ve attended any of my Chat Room conversations with book publishing professionals, you’ve heard literary agents, book editors, marketers, and publicists all talk about “platform.”

Having a platform gives you leverage. Writers with platforms have multiple literary agents competing to represent them. Writers with platforms watch their books go to auction. Writers with platforms have an audience they can turn to when it’s time to promote their new book (👋)

But many writers struggle to build an audience beyond a peer network of other writers.

Every day, I get DMs and emails and Substack comments from writers who simply cannot figure out what they should be doing on the internet. They know they should have a platform. They want an audience of readers for their work. They just don’t know how to build one.

I honestly think a lot of writers struggle with creating content because it’s scary to be a beginner in public. I work with a lot of extremely accomplished women with strong reputations in their respective fields. They can write and revise their books in private, but creating content means trying and failing in front of an audience.

Now, you don’t have to go through this alone.

In my hype house, I’ll take you through the exact process I use with my one-on-one clients like Betsy Lerner, whose TikTok success was profiled in the New York Times, and Martha Hall Kelly, who just hit the USA Today and Boston Globe bestseller lists.

I’ll show you how to create a content strategy that doesn’t make you want to jump off a bridge.

You’ll learn how to translate your original ideas, unique perspective, and writerly instincts into a social media strategy that attracts readers—without turning you into something (or someone) you hate.

I know that many of you are watching the rollout of my marketing and publicity for If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You (here’s what

Amran Gowani

wrote me when he upgraded his subscription: “Looking forward to studying—and possibly hijacking—your marketing and publicity plan!”) and today I’m offering you a rare opportunity to learn directly from me.

My most recent four-week workshop was $495 and I sold out every single spot.

Instead of charging an enrollment fee for my hype house, I’m opening the workshop to anyone who pre-orders 10 copies of If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You ($180 plus shipping).

Curriculum

All enrolled hype house members will receive a digital workbook that includes the same activities and prompts I use with my clients, to help them get to know their audience, collect and organize the obsessions that drive their work, find their comps, create stronger hooks, and identify what would make a good recurring series.

Beginning Tuesday September 2nd, we’ll meet every Tuesday evening for a live Zoom workshop from 8—9:30pm EST. These will be recorded for anyone who can’t join live.

Every Friday from 1—2pm EST, I will conduct live office hours on Zoom, where you can ask me anything about your content from that week, and I’ll troubleshoot problems with you. These office hours won’t be recorded.

Be One of the First

If you’re bold and adventurous enough to follow me as your merry guide into the great wilderness of the internet, be one of the first to enroll, and you’ll automatically be entered into a giveaway to win a one-hour private consultation with me on Zoom this summer (valued at $300). You can ask me about your social media strategy or get my advice about the book you’re writing.

Enroll by midnight EST tonight (June 22) to enter the giveaway to win a one-hour consult with me.

1. Yes, it sold books.