Embolden Media Group assists faith-based publishers and associated agencies with developing dynamic content and cultivating authentic publishing relationships with authors and audiences of color.

DIVERSITY IS GOD’S IDEA, and with this conviction at the core of our founding, Embolden Media Group will partner with your team and work to bridge the gaps that often exist between the team, the author, and the target audience. Have you or someone on your team said or felt, “Books by authors of color just don’t sell.” “We just don’t get it.” “It’s not resonating”? We help identify areas of disconnect and assist you in your desire to successfully publish authors of color.

We provide onsite or virtual consulting, content development, and the team support you need to effectively increase representation of people of color appearing on your publishing lists and within your publishing team.

Here’s how we help:

ACQUISITIONS SUPPORT

  • Reviewing current acquisitions processes and pinpointing opportunities for increased diversity

  • Identifying/pitching respected and emerging voices of color; giving feedback on current acquisitions in progress

CONCEPT/CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

  • Conceptualizing or honing book concepts that speak to audiences of color in the form of book proposal writing or editing, restructuring sample chapters, or reorganizing, repackaging, or reassessing outlines, hooks, summaries/synopses, reader benefits/felt needs, unique selling points, market reach, comp titles, and the like

  • Providing voice-sensitive ghost or collaborative writing, developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading for messages by authors of color

  • Reading for sensitivity authors’ works that are written from a perspective outside of the author’s own lived experience

SALES, MARKETING, AND DESIGN

  • Collaborating on sales tip sheets

  • Reviewing marketing and publicity strategies

  • Developing/drafting or providing feedback on book titling, back cover copy, and book cover design

  • Providing actionable ideas for improving marketing, publicity, and sales opportunities for authors of color

NETWORK REFERRAL

  • Recommending or advising toward hiring or contracting well-qualified candidates of color to fill key positions within your organization

MENTORING AND TRAINING

  • We can provide monthly coaching and mentoring for your editors and other content developers who desire to expand their editorial or content development skills in service to authors whose backgrounds differ from theirs.

  • Bring our team in for a half-day or whole-day training with workshops, customized executive coaching, and project-specific consulting with the departments such as editorial, marketing, publicity, and sales, who have high-touch with BIPOC authors and their content. Let’s help you take your DEI strategy further as your seek to set a welcoming table for your authors of color.

“Inclusion is about hospitality and welcoming people.”

—Bethaney Wilkinson, author, The Diversity Gap

COMPANIES WE SERVE

What They’re Saying

“Jevon Bolden has been an important consultant to ECPA for the last several years and is a valued member of the industry’s DEI committee. She has delivered numerous presentations, written industry articles, spoken on panels, served on the ECPA PubU Brain Trust, and helped develop the Amplify Award for Christian fiction. In her role on the ECPA DEI committee, she helped create and finalize the industry’s first ethnicity baseline survey. Her commitment to work alongside industry leaders — with candid professionalism, gracious tact, and unwavering conviction to see the industry better reflect God’s diverse kingdom — has resulted in many important initiatives. To work with Jevon is to be inspired by her wise articulate leadership, humbled by her willingness to teach and explain, while feeling welcomed as a friend.”
— Sheri Tomb, marketing manager, ECPA