Shirley Desmond Jackson learned from the burnout and emptiness she experienced from years of the self-driven, achievement-based lifestyle. Through studying God’s Word, she began to let go of her self-driven ways and embrace a Spirit-led life. Seeing how the performance-based lifestyle affects women of all ages, ethnicities, and walks of life, Shirley authored her book Live Inspired to share these lessons to help others live freely as God intends.
After the release of the first edition of Live Inspired, Shirley felt strongly that the content needed to be reworked, allowing readers to work through these lessons in their own study and at their own pace. Thanks to a mutual connection with our fantastic designer, Nelly, we were introduced to Shirley and her message, which resulted in the perfect partnership to update and re-release Live Inspired: Freeing Ourselves from the Grip of Performancism, along with a companion study guide.
About This Recent Project
Book Edits, Cover Design, Formatting, & Typesetting
To begin our work together, Carey carefully reviewed the updated book manuscript, as well as the new companion guide, and provided Shirley with a detailed editorial letter outlining areas for refinement. As a fellow Bible teacher and a great cheerleader, Carey helped Shirley make quick work of these extra revisions to the content and flow for both books. From there, one final round of substantive edits shirred up the chapters and lessons, and the new manuscripts were ready to progress to the next phase—the more technical copy and line edits.
Carey then passed off both manuscripts to Randi for the final proofread and formatting steps. Randi carefully and meticulously put the finishing touches on both books’ details, verified Scripture references and citations, and prepared the documents for Nelly, for the design.
Shirley requested that the book’s new cover design reflect her website branding and nod slightly to the first edition of Live Inspired. This gave us a great starting point for the cover concepts, and Nelly worked her usual magic to offer Shirley several unique designs to choose from. With just a couple rounds of revisions and fine-tuning to the selected concept, we were able to finalize the front and back cover art for Live Inspired and then the complementary print design for the new Live Inspired Bible Study Companion: Freeing Ourselves from the Grip of Performancism.
Carrying the cover art and fonts into the interior design, Nelly created beautiful page, chapter, and section designs to perfectly complement and highlight the spirit of the books and the beauty of the front covers.
Publishing & Optimization
We designed and formatted Live Inspired for both IngramSpark and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, in print and eBook, to maximize opportunities for distribution and sales. After performing our usual metadata and market research, Sara provided the back cover copy and product description, optimized the author bio for Shirley’s Amazon Author Central profile, and selected keywords and categories to ensure we maximized the books’ organic reach and searchability on Amazon.
Using all of the information Sara provided, Mandy created product listings for both Live Inspired and the companion guide on both IngramSpark and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Once the new edition was submitted for publishing, Mandy worked with KDP support to migrate the product reviews, critical to any author’s success, from the previous edition to the new one, and to properly link the two versions together on both Amazon and GoodReads.
Marketing & Publicity
As part of our marketing support for Shirley’s new releases, Randi created a digital assets package and content calendar for her to use for all book promotions. The package included social media graphics, platform cover images, suggested prompts and hashtags for use in the posts. The graphics feel seamlessly on-brand for Shirley’s presence and incorporate elements from the cover design and reflect the vibe of her website.
We offered Shirley an additional layer of marketing support through one of our ads and promotion packages. Sara prepared and managed ad campaigns on Amazon and BookBub and selectively chose two newsletter promotions to gain maximum exposure for Live Inspired. This is a simple project add-on for any new release but is a fantastic way to build awareness and increase book sales outside of an author’s usual audience or following.
It was such a pleasure to work with Shirley for the creation and launch of Live Inspired and Live Inspired Bible Study Companion. We loved every step of the process with her and look forward to following along as her teachings bless and inspire others to live spirit-led lives!
What Shirley had to say…
“I am just so grateful for all of this. You and your team has made this such a joy-filled process. Thank you for honoring God with your gifts, training, and talents. I honestly feel as though God has given me a big hug through all of you and your collective efforts!”
Services Included in this Project
- Developmental review and edits
- Copy, line, and proofread manuscript edits
- Book cover and interior design, formatting, and typesetting for IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing (Print and eBook), plus audiobook cover design
- 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
- Digital assets package
- Management of ad campaigns for Amazon, BookBub, and newsletter promotions
Team Members Involved
Randi Avant
Nelly Murariu
Mandy Roberson
Carey Scott
Sara Ward
Find out more about these ladies and the rest of the team here at MRM: Meet the Team
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