The first step is to sell your book, and there are two main ways to do that, two ways that I especially like. One is the free-plus-shipping model, and the other is the high-ticket model. The free-plus-shipping model is where you give your book away for free, and the reader just pays for shipping and handling, usually about $7.95. You’ve probably seen some of these out there, especially if you spend much time on Facebook. It’s a physical print book, so people may see more value in it, and there’s a higher perceived value.

People love to get things in the mail, and you can offer an upsell when they click to pay and before they hit the button to purchase. Don’t think of the upsell as a trick or gimmick; it’s a way to offer them more value. You can offer them an ecourse or coaching or whatever it is that you have or create. You don’t have to do any of those, but the main point is that you can give away a lot of your books and then generate a lot of hits from that.

The other side of the price spectrum is the high-ticket model. Think about this way, your book is providing a lot of value for somebody. It is helping people solve big problems with health, with money, or with relationships. There’s a lot of value in your book, and it’s worth it.

Instead of simply selling your book for $15 or $20 on Amazon, think in terms of the value your book actually provides. I know a guy who sells his books anywhere from $500 to $2,500. He sells a lot of them and he helps a lot of people. It sounds crazy to sell your book for $2,500, but you know that people pay for value. How much do they pay to buy a car and all it does is get them from here to there and make them look cool? Why not spend as little as $500 on a book that is going to make you a lot of money, that’s going to solve your little relationship problems, that’s going to help you increase your health. It’s worth it, so don’t negate the value of your book. Embrace that mindset of your book’s actual value if you use the high-ticket model.

In addition to solving problems, one of the biggest things that your book does is generates leads. That’s how you’re going to use it to grow or build your business. In fact, your book is a giant sales letter. It’s a very long and convincing sales letter because it shows people that you can help them, and they’re getting a lot of value just from that sales letter.

The best part about this sales letter is that the leads you generate come in as hot leads

There are three kinds of leads, there’s a cold lead, that person who doesn’t even know they have need or problem, and so those are hard to reach.

The second type of person, the warm lead, is aware of their problem, but they may not be aware of you, or if they’re aware of you, they’re kind of not sure what they want to do.

The third type of person, the hot lead, is the person who has read your book and not only are they fully aware of their pain, but they also know that you can provide an answer for them. If they buy your book and their problem is solved through what they’ve learned from your book, they then want more, and they’re much more likely to go on to purchase an ecourse from you. Or coaching, or one-on-one services, or whatever it is that you are able to provide for them.

One way to generate hot leads with your book is to send people to a website to sign up with their email address, sometimes with their phone number or their mailing address, depending on how you get a hold of people. You want your book to have offers in it. You want to have offers for more value, such as a checklist, templates, videos, audio—things that they go to your website to get. They exchange their email address for whatever you’re offering them, and then you can continue to talk to them via email and provide even more value. Just keep in mind that you want to be organized about that, you want to have systems and processes and sales funnels and a way to make that whole experience work well for your customer and work well for you.

If you already have a business, you can incorporate all of these into your existing marketing and sales system because your book is generating hot leads for you. All you have to do is plug those leads into your existing marketing and sales system, and you are good to go.

If you don’t have a business but you want to build one with your book as the base, you follow the same steps. Your book is still the same great marketing tool, but you should think of more value that you can provide beyond your book, such as an ecourse, coaching, a mastermind, and so on. Some people even provide a service fly in and work with the customer where they live or work.

Finally, be sure to write to your raving fan. You’re going to get people that are not interested at all, you’re going to get people that don’t like what you write or what you do, but you’re also going get people that love your book. You solve their problem, meaning they were a good fit for you, and they are going to become your raving fans. Write your book for that person. Don’t worry about trying to convince people who don’t actually need the advice that you offer. Your book isn’t for them. Think in terms of the person who really could benefit the most from your problem and is going to become your raving fan. Keep that person in mind the entire time that you are writing your book.