Previous Market Refined Publishing author Ryan Donald partnered with local firefighter Gina Thompson on a mission to teach fire safety to children in their area. The result was an incredibly fun and kid-friendly teaching resource that doubles as a coloring book, showcasing the well-known and ever lovable Chief Flame the Arson Cat.
When Ryan reached out to our team, the content of the book was mostly complete, but he and Gina needed help bringing creating a print-ready version of their vision. This project was definitely a break from our norm, as was Ryan’s previous book Letters to Dogs, and it was super fun flexing our creative muscles again for this one.
About This Recent Project
Book Edits, Cover Design, Formatting, & Typesetting
Given the minimal text content of this book, we opted for a simple proofreading round with Randi, and then she worked her magic preparing the content file for Nelly to begin the design work.
Nelly did a fantastic job interpreting Ryan and Gina’s vision for the cover design, incorporating small details we found in Flame’s Instagram photos with an illustration of Flame Gina already owned. After a quick round of revisions, we finalized this vibrant and eye-catching cover design.
Next, Nelly crafted personalized and colorable artwork for each of the eleven safety rules, created a beautiful spread of fun photos of the real Flame and his firehouse friends, and with Randi’s help added an adorable “certificate of completion” near the back of the book, completing this interactive and educational workbook for little ones.
Publishing & Optimization
Mandy performed an abbreviated metadata and marketing research package for Ryan and Gina, to ensure the back cover copy and the product description were market-ready and would capture the attention of the parents and teachers who are responsible for fire safety education, and to set the new coloring book up for success with the proper categories and keywords in each product listing.
We designed and formatted Fire Safety with Chief Flame the Arson Cat for both IngramSpark and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, in print and eBook to maximize distribution and sales opportunities through most major retailers. Using both platforms also increases the likelihood of schools or churches ordering the book in bulk, which is one of the authors’ goals.
Marketing & Promotions
Since Ryan and Gina opted to primarily promote this activity book through Chief Flame’s social media accounts and their local news station, there was no website design or sales page to create. Instead, we offered a small digital assets package that provided the authors with enough social media graphics and caption prompts for all of Fire Safety Week, as well as several 3D images of the book, to repurpose as needed. This helped to fill their “marketing toolbox” as they spread the word about the educational activity book with Chief Flame.
We so enjoyed partnering with Ryan, Gina, and Flame on this creative and fun project and are delighted with the end result!
What Ryan and Gina had to say…
“Thank you so much! We love working with you all.”
Services Included in this Project
- Manuscript proofread
- 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 listings and back cover content
- Use of Market Refined Publishing imprint
- Digital assets package
Team Members Involved
Randi Avant
Nelly Murariu
Mandy Roberson
Find out more about these ladies and the rest of the team here at MRM: Meet the Team
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