Positioning your book before you self-publish is an essential process that ensures your book is both discoverable and appealing to your audience. And what you learn from the process will be the foundation of your marketing strategy.
As a publishing consultant, I initiate the research and positioning as soon as I’ve finished reading a new client’s manuscript because it’s so important and can take a few months to complete. But before positioning begins, I review the client’s manuscript so I can first assess if it’s marketable. Is the quality up to par? Is it ready to publish? Then, if so, who will be reading it? Who is this book intended for? These (and others) are the questions that need to be answered in order to effectively market a book.
Below, I’ll explain what positioning means, the purpose of the process, and the questions you need to answer in order to correctly position your book so that when you’re ready to self-publish, it lands in front of your audience.
What Does it Mean to Position Your Book? And Why is it So Important?
By positioning your book before you self-publish you’re doing the work that proves to your audience that it’s worth reading. To do this, you have to know your audience and send a clear message to that audience. Positioning also places your book among the work of your peers and/or your competition, making it discoverable to your readers. It’s the foundation of your marketing strategy!
First, as I mentioned, your book needs an audience. It needs to be marketable before you can market it. So, where does your book land on the bookshelf?
It may seem as if you have written something so new and unique that it is undefinable. But that’s not a good thing. New and undefinable is fine when used as a way to set yourself apart, but it’s not fine as a genre or category, or for finding your audience. And if you don’t know your audience, how will you market to them?
A book written for everybody and marketed to everyone is a book that will find no one.
Positioning Your Book Before You Self-Publish Requires Answering Specific Questions, Such As:
- Who is your target audience?
- What about your ideal reader? Who is this book for, specifically?
- Which genre does your book fit firmly into? Is there a subgenre?
- What will your audience get out of reading your book?
- How does it stack up against other books they love to read?
- How is it different, better, or what sets it apart?
- Where is the proof that your book is worth reading?
- How will your audience find your book in the first place?
You may be wondering, well, how do I do all this? The answer is that it’s a process and there are many parts that make up the whole. It requires doing the research and making the right choices that lead to your book being discoverable by, and appealing to, your audience.
I’ll go into that process below.
Positioning Your Book Before You Self-Publish is a Process
Positioning your book before you self-publish all begins with research. First, hopefully you’ll know which genre your book fits squarely in, and possibly even your subgenres. When you have a solid understanding of this, you can pin down your themes. You’ll also be asking yourself, as I mentioned, who is this book for? Who will want to read this book? What audience will it draw? Then your genre, themes, and target audience will lead you to your comparable titles.
These comparable titles not only help you further define your ideal reader or target audience, they will also affect the choices you make for your books design elements, and which categories and keywords you choose. They will form the foundation of your marketing strategy.
Comparable titles are necessary because you want your book to speak to your audience and fit firmly within genre conventions. Because readers need to know what to expect, and positioning your book before you self-publish does that. This is the way you place your book among your competition.
You can read all about finding your comparable titles and why it’s so important to get them right, here.
Outside of finding your comparable titles so that you have your jumping off point for your marketing plan, you’ll be doing the work to make it discoverable to your potential readers. This work includes:
- Keyword and category research
- Creating your metadata
- Finding your BISAC codes
- Designing your book’s cover and interior
Keyword and Category Research Leads to Discoverability
These keywords, which you’ll use specifically on your book distribution platforms can also be used for marketing. They should be carefully researched because they’re a big part of positioning your book before you self-publish. Where do you start finding your keywords?
You can make your own list to begin and then research your comparable titles to find their keywords and see if they fit.
Tools like PublisherRocket can be extremely useful for this.
Your Metadata is Part of Positioning Your Book Before Self-Publishing Too
The metadata that relates to your book helps make it discoverable. It includes information related to your book such as its title, ISBN, and other important defining details. This is also crucial to get right, and to correctly input when uploading to your distribution platforms like KDP and IngramSpark.
You can read all about your book’s metadata here.
So Do BISAC Codes
BISAC codes need to be chosen carefully as well because they allow retailers, distributors, libraries and readers to categorize, catalogue, and search for your your book. If you get them wrong, your book could be miscategorized or overlooked entirely.
Find out the details on BISAC codes here.
Your Book’s Cover and Interior Design Make it Appealing to Your Audience
This cannot be expressed enough! Getting your book cover and interior design right is an extremely important step in the process of positioning your book before you self-publish. This means following genre conventions, having an appealing design that speaks to your audience, and including all the other details that bring your printed book up to professional standards. These professional design standards also tell your readers that you’re worth taking a chance on. Don’t forget about great back cover copy to lure them in and show them what your book has to offer!
Read about interior design standards here.
This post lists the basics of professional cover design.
Every step in the positioning process needs to be done, and done well, because they all work together to make your book discoverable and appealing to your target audience! This is what you want. You want them first to find your book, then you want them to be compelled to read it. That’s what positioning does. What you discover also drives your marketing decisions before and after your launch.
Do you see why positioning your book before you self-publish is crucial to its success now?
This positioning process entails all the work you do so that your book lands in the hands of your audience. It is the foundation of your marketing strategy! Without this process your book may be left in the dark or it may land wrong if you’re not marketing it to the right readers. Don’t leave the success of your book up to fate!
Curious about your whole self-publishing timeline leading up to launch day? I wrote a post on that recently and you can read it here.
Feel free to leave any questions in the comments!
