General Questions
First, we need to know how we can help! If you haven’t already, please use the contact form to tell us more. Once we receive the details from you, our team will walk you through an organized intake and discovery process to be sure we have the “big picture” view of your goals. Then we’ll create a custom proposal just for you and your project needs.
Most projects require a 30% deposit to begin, with the final balance due upon completion. We use Freshbooks Online to manage all invoices, and payments can be sent via credit card or debit card or bank transfer.
In short, no. If we use a premium font in your design, we will purchase the appropriate license(s) for the font files used, which we are not able to share with you. However, we will provide a brand board or style guide relevant to your project, with the font names included. If you’d like to purchase these fonts, just let us know and we can share the necessary purchase information with you.
The original or “native” design files are not included in any project. If you would like to purchase an extended license and access to these original files, please let us know and we can create a separate agreement and payment terms for these files.
Please note: Market Refined Media & Publishing will always maintain copyright and ownership of our designs. Therefore these designs cannot be repurposed for any use without express written permission from us.
You will own copyright to the final, completed product included with your agreement. We will maintain copyright for the individual pieces used to create your final product. If you would like to purchase copyright to the native design or formatting files, please let us know and we can create the necessary documentation and invoice for that.
Please note: Market Refined Media & Publishing will always maintain copyright and ownership of our designs. Therefore these designs cannot be repurposed for any use without express written permission from us. In certain circumstances, we can extend your license to and use of our creations.
Publishing & Marketing Questions
Market Refined Publishing is a full-scale publishing agency providing every service necessary to get your book to market, at the highest standard and with the widest distribution opportunities possible. MRP provides the author with the security and support of an experienced and established team of a publishing house, guiding each step and decision throughout the editing, design, and publishing process from manuscript edits to sales. You are not alone in the process and we are able to ensure the highest quality end result, just as a traditional publisher would.
Self-publishing independently would require that the author hire individual service providers, or an agency, to perform the edits, book design, and interior formatting, typically for a much higher investment. The author is then expected to upload the final files to the selected publishing platform, add categories and keywords of their own selection, and hope the process is completed properly. This disjointed process can result in file formatting errors, missed key milestones or marketing opportunities, or failure to rank in pertinent categories and algorithms that effect the author’s success.
No, we do not retain any royalties from any of our authors’ book sales. We believe that enabling faith-based authors to share their messages with the world is more of a calling than a job. As such, we do not feel it’s appropriate for us to retain the royalties from your work of heart. Instead, we do our very best to ensure you maximize book sales and recoup as much of your investment in our services as possible.
Because we publish through our authors’ accounts, all royalties are paid to you directly via your selected method of payout from Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and IngramSpark.
We believe that every author and every new release is unique, so each of our proposals are customized with that in mind. We will get to know you, your message, your platform, and your budget and craft a proposal that prioritizes your needs with your financials in mind.
If you haven’t already, please use the contact form to tell us more about your book and your goals. We’ll direct you to our discovery process from there and give you a chance to submit a copy of your manuscript. Once we receive all the details, our team will discuss your book and then schedule a call with you to go over our publishing procedures and recommendations. Then we’ll create a custom proposal just for you.
Most projects require a 30% deposit to begin, with the balance divided into equal monthly payments throughout the project term. We use Freshbooks to manage all invoices, and payments can be sent via credit or debit card or bank transfer.
*Final cost is dependent on the scope of the project.
If you haven’t already, please use the contact form to tell us more about your book and your goals. We’ll direct you to our discovery process from there and give you a chance to submit a copy of your manuscript. Once we receive all the details, our team will discuss your book and then schedule a call with you to go over our publishing procedures and recommendations. Then we’ll create a custom proposal just for you and your project needs.
Beyond the discovery and proposal process, editing the manuscript is the next step. We typically recommend a full developmental edit, followed by a copy and line edit. Then to polish it off, we will always complete a thorough proofread and format the manuscript for our designer.
Most projects require a 30% deposit to begin, with the balance divided into equal monthly payments throughout the project term. We use Freshbooks to manage all invoices, and payments can be sent via credit or debit card or bank transfer.
We offer the full gamut of manuscript edits, from book coaching and content development to the final proofread and formatting step for both fiction and non-fiction authors. At MRP, we specialize in making your book marketable to a faith-based audience and ensure every manuscript is polished and well-refined, which is why we recommend all three phases of our thorough editing process:
- Developmental Review and Edits
- Copy and Line Edits
- Proofread and Formatting
Each project a success when we are able to assist in shaping the manuscript into a quality product that honors the author’s voice, style, vision, goals, and target audience and is a valuable addition to the marketplace.
Most publishing projects begin with a full Developmental Review or editorial letter. This provides a solid overview of the manuscript and a thorough assessment of the current state of the content. We use the developmental letter as a roadmap that guides all further editorial steps.
Phase One: Developmental Edit is an in-depth analysis of all of the significant components of your manuscript, ensuring that they flow seamlessly and leave no gaps. The developmental editor’s job is to be a focused, objective reader who offers feedback to improve the structure, content, and organization of the entire manuscript. It is not uncommon for new chapters or sections to be added, or existing chapters or sections to be removed or merged, during this phase of edits, as we work to improve the reader’s experience from beginning to end.
Non-fiction and fiction authors alike can expect feedback, insight, and advice on content, structure, organization, personalization, clarity, focus, mechanics, writing style, fiction storytelling and character development where needed, message delivery, fact-checking, and marketability and suitability for the intended readers.
Phase Two: Copy or Line Edit is what we often refer to as the “technical edit” and is essential to the success of any book. This is the phase when your book is read aloud and checked for ease of readability and flow. The overall verbiage is assessed for oddities; sentences will be rewritten, paragraphs will be rearranged, and many suggestions for improvement or consistency will be offered. Minor content edits may also be made at this time.
Phase Three: Proofread is the final step in the editing process before your words are passed to our designer. Manuscripts will be thoroughly checked for spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, typographical errors, linguistics, and word usage. This is when your prose becomes polished and ready for its integration into a beautiful design and then its debut into the world!
We create market and print-ready cover and interior designs, formatted for Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark.
All of our publishing projects include professional cover design in print, eBook, and audiobook (if applicable) formats, as well as the full interior layout, formatting, design, and typesetting.
Yes! All of our publishing projects include our Metadata & Market Research Package, which is critical to each new release. This package allows us to research appropriate categories and keywords related to your title, to ensure it will be optimally placed for your ideal readers to see it in their search results.
We will prepare a list of comp titles for your title, which not only helps us properly target competitors for any ad campaigns we might run on your behalf, but also informs the cover design created for you.
Also included with this package, we will also optimize your author bio, the product listing description(s) for Amazon KDP, IngramSpark and all major retailers, and the back cover copy for the book itself.
All of it! Our team can provide your overall marketing strategy and roadmap, with as much implementation support as needed. Just as your project proposal is fully customized to you, so is your book launch strategy and support.
We help our clients create productive sales funnels, build email lists, target their ideal audience on all social platforms, and benefit from successful ad campaigns. We create unique, visually compelling websites and sales pages to market a new release, capture the interest and interactions of the target audience, boost SEO and sales, and ensure the best user experience. We also create branded print and promotional materials, such as lead magnets or subscriber incentives, partner resources and guides, and promotional videos, keeping all marketing efforts on-brand and consistent.
Other optional services include: publicity campaigns, digital assets packages, launch or street team management, speaker bio sheets or author media kits, event presentations, launch parties or events, and influencer packages.
Brand & Website Design Questions
A mood board, sometimes called an inspiration or vision board, consists of a collage of images and is designed to evoke the intended mood or style of your brand. It serves as an inspirational tool to help kick off and guide the brand design process.
A brand board is a usually a single-page visual reference of your established brand identity – a cheat sheet for brand design usage and consistency. It provides an at-a-glance summary of the look and feel of your brand. A typical brand board includes the brand’s logos, color palette, fonts, and imagery. It may also include icons, patterns, and illustrations.
A brand board ensures consistency across your brand’s visuals. It directs clients, outside designers and/or anyone creating visual elements for your brand what fonts, colors and graphic elements to use. This ensures brand authority and recognition.
A brand design compiles a complete and consistent look for a company, person or product across all visual representation. It ensures how the logo, fonts and colors are used so that your visual pieces all reflect the same style and therefore create brand recognition.
A logo is simply a graphic representation of a company, person or product. It may be comprised of wording, a graphic element or a pairing of the two. Yet without an established brand design, there is no guidance on how it will be used from one visual presentation to another (e.g. website, company stationary, promotional advertising, etc.).
We will need the text content or copy you would like us to use in the design, as well as any photos or design elements you would like included. If you need help preparing these details, we are happy to help.
For print design, we need the dimensions of the final piece and how it folds, if applicable. It’s also helpful to know ahead of time who will be printing the piece, as some printers require custom specifications to be met for their print files.
We will discuss this in greater detail through our discovery process and provide you with a list of “homework” and pre-work tasks to complete prior to the start of our work.
In short, we will need a general idea of the pages you would like us to design, as well as page content (text) and photos you would like incorporated. If you need help preparing these details, we are happy to help.
To begin with WordPress, there are a few things that are necessary:
- Domain – This is the URL or website address where your new site will appear. Either you will need to purchase a new domain, or we will need access to where your current domain is registered (usually somewhere like GoDaddy or Namecheap).
- Hosting – WordPress.org requires a host account to “house” your site files. We provide hosting or we can work with your current host. See our Set Up a New Host Account page for more information on this step.
- Design – Our team will gladly help customize an existing theme for your website design or create a fully unique design just for your site. You can read more about that process here.
WordPress uses add-ons called plugins that add functionality to your site. Included in most basic site projects are plugins for Google Analytics and SEO, social media sharing (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), a contact form, and a spam filter for comments.
Once we discuss your project and goals, we can make recommendations for other site additions.
Not yet. It takes time and good search engine optimization (SEO) to achieve this. However, your site will be optimized for search engines and over time could get on the first page of Google for search terms related to your business.
Absolutely! At the end of your project, we include a complimentary project wrap-up document and/or summary video to help you learn how to manage and update your own website. If further training and instruction is required, we’re happy to schedule a Zoom coaching call.
Marketing & Publicity Questions
All of it! Our team can provide your overall marketing strategy and roadmap, with as much implementation support as needed. Just as your project proposal is fully customized to you, so is your book launch strategy and support.
We help our clients create productive sales funnels, build email lists, target their ideal audience on all social platforms, and benefit from successful ad campaigns. We create unique, visually compelling websites and sales pages to market a new release, capture the interest and interactions of the target audience, boost SEO and sales, and ensure the best user experience. We also create branded print and promotional materials, such as lead magnets or subscriber incentives, partner resources and guides, and promotional videos, keeping all marketing efforts on-brand and consistent.
Other optional services include: publicity campaigns, digital assets packages, launch or street team management, speaker bio sheets or author media kits, event presentations, launch parties or events, and influencer packages.
Yes! Businesses or ministries, speakers or writers, and growing platforms are all our favorites, and we can absolutely help expand your reach or meet your next big goal!
We research and evaluate everything about your current platform and what you are offering. Our goal is to uncover how and where to nurture relationships with leads and current customers, build an effective plan for marketing to users at different stages of the funnel, and understand the motivations that drive your target audience to research and purchase.
Once we’ve compiled our research, we create a plan to create awareness, stir interest, and prompt connection and action.
Yes! All of our marketing projects include our a metadata and/or market research package, which is critical to each successful strategy.
For a book release, this package allows us to research appropriate categories and keywords related to your title, to ensure it will be optimally placed for your ideal readers to see it in their search results.
For a website or sales funnel, this package allows us to research appropriate keywords to incorporate into your site copy and email marketing to draw in the ideal follower or customer and foster the right connections and conversions.
We highly recommend a social media presence for any business or ministry. Social media marketing can help you reach your audience more quickly than other traditional marketing strategies, and platforms such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram) offer many possibilities to help businesses grow.
That said, in today’s world, many people opt out of social media. If that’s your preference, we’re happy to discuss other possible marketing avenues for you.
The only answer we can give without going through our intake and discovery process with you is: it depends.
We create strategies based on who you are, what you offer, and where your target audience is, and we want to be sure to only make recommendations that will serve you well in the long-term.