Melissa Mashburn is a “Jill of all trades” and has spent the better part of her adult life in some form of ministry or marketing role, or both at the same time. When Melissa joined our team a few years ago, we began chatting about an idea she had for a book on godly friendships. We were excited to help her plot out this “story” and even discussed a few possible design ideas for the book based on her initial content direction. But, when Melissa actually began writing this manuscript, God changed the direction of her words and message, and the end result was a beautiful, deeply heartfelt guidebook for women leaders in ministry.
Knowing Melissa’s heart for women and her innate ability to cheerlead and love on others, being a part of this ministry guidebook that was so true to who she is was beyond special for our team. Of course, it’s always extra fun and near and dear to our hearts when we are able to support one of our own team members in a venture of their own as well!
About This Recent Project
Book Edits, Cover Design, Formatting, & Typesetting
With all of Melissa’s ministry and online community connections, it was important to her to involve as many of those connections in the book development process as possible. One of those was to work with Carolyn Reed Master for her developmental edits. When our team received the manuscript, all structural edits were complete, so we moved on to the copy and line edits to help polish Melissa’s final words.
For the cover design, we knew it would need to reflect Melissa’s bright and colorful personality, as well as offer visuals for her heart for community and ministry “togetherness”. Showcasing women of all ages and ethnicities was important too. Melissa’s message of encouragement for women in ministry is universal, so the cover design should reflect that. Nelly did a beautiful job of creating and customizing illustrations perfect for Melissa’s vision, as well as incorporating elements from the Ministry Chick online community branding to offer an eye-catching visual for the connections this book will help build.
The interior design carried over the illustrations and branding from the cover through fun and attractive chapter headings and section dividers. In the back of the book, readers will find a well-formatted leaders guide and discussion questions, making it easy to use the book in a group setting.
Publishing & Optimization
Ministry Chick was formatted for both IngramSpark and Amazon KDP, in print and eBook, to expand the opportunities for distribution. As part of our Market Refined Publishing imprint, we managed the publishing process on both platforms, purchased all necessary ISBNs, and registered the new release with the Library of Congress. We also allowed a brief pre-order time period for the book’s release, which was an added step and perk to using IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing together.
Sara performed our usual metadata keyword and category research to increase the searchability and visibility for Melissa’s book. Along with this, Sara also provided the book’s back cover copy and product description, the author’s bio for her Amazon Author Profile, and marketing copy to be repurposed on the book’s sales page and social media promotions.
Our team also had the privilege of supporting Ministry Chick’s release through a marketing campaign and launch strategy. We look forward to sharing more details on that in a future post!
What Melissa had to say…
“Thank you for going on this crazy journey with us! There is a next level peace that comes with working with and alongside people you know, love and trust. You’ve been such a tremendous support to me and for me through this project. THANK YOU will never be enough.”
Services Included in this Project
- Copy, line, and proofread manuscript edits
- Book cover and interior design, formatting, and typesetting for IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing (Print and eBook)
- Metadata, category, and keyword research for IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing
- Marketing copy for the product listing and author bio
- Product(s) and author profile setup and optimization for Amazon Author Central
- Use of Market Refined Publishing imprint
- Sales page design and development in WordPress website
Team Members Involved
Nelly Murariu
Danielle Raymond
Mandy Roberson
Sara Ward
Find out more about these ladies and the rest of the team here at MRM: Meet the Team
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