For Authors
Publishing Package Add-Ons
These are optional services available to Making Sense Press authors who want additional marketing, promotional, or publishing support. They are never required.
Authors may use their own provider, choose a professional from the Making Sense Press Professional Directory, or use an independent freelancer that Making Sense Press recommends and coordinates separately. The choice is always yours.
Available Exclusively to Making Sense Press Authors
Publishing Package Add-Ons are available only to authors who have been accepted by Making Sense Press and are enrolled in an active Making Sense Press publishing package — including the Essential Imprint, Guided Publishing, or Publishing Partner package.
These add-ons are designed to supplement an author's existing publishing package and cannot be purchased separately without a Making Sense Press publishing package.
Available Add-Ons
Social Media Book Promotion
$149Professionally written social media content promoting your book across relevant platforms. Includes post copy and suggested imagery direction designed to reach readers and build awareness.
Press Release Writing
$149A professionally written press release announcing your book's publication, suitable for distribution to media outlets, local publications, and online news services.
Press Release Writing + Distribution
$299Includes the professionally written press release above, plus coordinated distribution to a targeted list of media contacts, publications, and wire services relevant to your book's audience.
Amazon KDP Advertising Setup
$299Initial setup of Amazon KDP advertising campaigns for your book, including keyword research, audience targeting, bid strategy, and initial campaign configuration to help your book reach readers actively searching on Amazon. Ongoing campaign management or future optimization is not included unless separately arranged. Advertising spend paid to Amazon is also separate.
Professional Book Trailer
Authors may choose a traditional promotional style or a cinematic-style book trailer, depending on the tone, genre, and needs of their book.
Book trailers are professionally created by an independent freelancer coordinated by Making Sense Press and may include appropriate licensed stock footage, music, text, book-cover imagery, and promotional messaging.
Making Sense Press will work with the author to determine the appropriate creative direction and provide the necessary book information to the selected professional.
Creative Breakthrough Session with Lisa Tarves
Feeling stuck doesn't always mean you've run out of ideas. Maybe you're writing fiction and don't know where the story should go next. Maybe you're writing nonfiction and aren't sure what makes sense to cover next or how to organize what you want to say. Maybe you know exactly what you want to write but can't seem to get it onto the page.
And sometimes the obstacle isn't the story at all. It may be overwhelm, confidence, an emotional roadblock, difficulty with the writing process, or even something practical or technical that is making it difficult to move forward.
In this private 45-minute session, Lisa works one-on-one with the author to identify what is actually getting in the way and help find a practical and creative path forward.
Lisa brings a diverse professional background to these sessions, including experience as an author and publisher, along with professional experience in counseling, coaching, NLP, hypnotherapy, and helping people work through emotional and mental roadblocks.
The session may help with:
- Writer's block
- Deciding where a story should go next
- Plot or character direction
- Organizing nonfiction ideas
- Deciding what belongs next in a manuscript
- Turning ideas into a workable direction
- Creative overwhelm
- Confidence or emotional roadblocks affecting the writing process
- Practical or technical obstacles that are interfering with progress
- Simply feeling stuck and not knowing why
Promotional Add-Ons
Author & Book Spotlights
Spotlight placements give approved Making Sense Press authors and books temporary featured visibility on MakingSensePress.com. Three options are available — a Book Spotlight, an Author Spotlight, or a bundled Author + Book Spotlight.
Book Spotlight
A temporary featured placement highlighting one book, including its cover, description, author name, and approved purchase link.
Author Spotlight
A temporary featured placement highlighting the author, including an author photo, biography, books, and approved website or social links.
Request an Author SpotlightAuthor + Book Spotlight Bundle
A coordinated Author Spotlight and Book Spotlight presented together for greater visibility and promotional impact.
For Directory Members
Professional Spotlight
7-Day Professional Spotlight
$49Temporary featured placement that moves an existing Making Sense Press Professional Directory profile into a featured position for seven consecutive days. Expanded profile content is not included.
Request a Professional SpotlightIndependent Professional Services
For certain publishing needs, Making Sense Press may coordinate services through independent freelance professionals we have worked with, vetted, or selected based on their experience, reliability, communication, and quality of work.
These professionals are independent contractors and are not employees, agents, or in-house staff members of Making Sense Press.
If an author chooses one of these coordinated services, Making Sense Press will help communicate the project requirements, arrange the service with the selected professional, and serve as the author's primary point of contact during the process.
Authors are never required to use a Making Sense Press-coordinated professional. They may instead hire their own provider or choose a professional independently.
Need Something You Don't See?
If you are an approved Making Sense Press author and are looking for a specific type of publishing or promotional support that isn't listed here, please reach out. We are happy to let you know whether additional assistance may be available or to point you in the right direction.