2.1 WhAT iS BOOk POSiTiONiNg (AND Why DOES iT MATTEr)? “The task is not so much to see what no one has seen, but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.” —SChrödinger Positioning is the most crucial part of both writing and marketing your book. If you put in the work to properly position your book now, you will reap the benefits for years. What is book positioning? Simply stated, book positioning is the place your book occupies in the mind of your reader, and how that reader perceives your book as fulfilling their needs. That is the technical, industry definition of positioning. But really, positioning is about answering the question readers ask about every book: “Why should I read this book?” WhAT iS BOOk POSiTiONiNg (AND Why DOES iT MATTEr)? · 53