Why Book Positioning Is The Secret Ingredient

While ideally you would think about book positioning and your target market before even putting down the first word that is not how it happens in most cases. Instead you get struck by a story idea and if you are a seat-of-the-pants writer like me, you will sit down and let that idea flow into words while it is at its most vivid. Who will ever read them is not your first concern.

However, what to do once you realise that you would actually like to publish the book you wrote?

Don't panic. All is not lost if the idea of book positioning doesn't occur to you until the end. In that case you just have to figure out which target group your book is most suited for, instead of defining which target reader you would have liked to written your book for before you got around to the actual writing.

In this series I will give a run-down of things to consider when positioning your book. Let's start with a definition.

What is positioning?

Positioning means "identifying and attempting to occupy a market niche for a brand, product or service utilizing traditional marketing placement strategies (i.e. price, promotion, distribution, packaging, and competition)." Additionally, "[p]ositioning is also defined as the way by which the marketers attempt to create a distinct impression in the customer's mind." - Wikipedia

With the vast competition in the book market of today, it is essential to identify the correct market niche for your book. The goal is not to reach a mass of readers, but instead to address the right kind of readers for your book. In other words, figuring out the best positioning for your book will assure that your limited time and resources for marketing are employed to the greatest effect with a group of people interested specifically in the content you are offering.

Having said that, I will post the following sections of a simple beginner's guide to positioning over the next few weeks. The first section is available today.