I received this anonymous note from a reliable source about Morgan James Publishing and how their house works and thought I should share it with you if you're considering print on demand.

For the 2nd time this summer, I've been contacted for consultation by an author who's being published by Morgan James Publishing. Each author had no idea that MJP is a print-on-demand house, which I easily discerned after parsing the jargon-filled gobbledygook about Lightning Source on the MJP website. Apparently, MJP's strategy to "revolutionize" book publishing includes 1) not paying advances, 2) not employing a sales force, and 3) requiring its authors to enroll in a big-bucks marketing seminar so they can do the work of the nonexistent sales force.

I wrote author #2: In the legitimate publishing business, money only flows from publisher to author, not vice versa.

I also referred author #2 to a publicist, who wrote me today:
I wasn't sure if you were aware of this, but Morgan James is a collaborative publishing house (self publisher) run by none other than Rick Frishman of Planned TV Arts.

Basically, Morgan James doesn't "charge" a fee to publish the book, but they do require that the author "enroll" in their $5,000 book publishing/marketing/pr "seminar" which is all of Rick's info all rolled up into a webinar.

So, basically, Frishman still sells his "wares" to the author, but instead of doing a weekend, they enroll in a webinar. He publishes the books and then convinces the author to use his PR firm. Distribution: There really isn't any.

There's nothing about MJP at Preditors & Editors, but there's this thread on Absolute Write Cooler.

Do any of you have personal experience with this house? Let us know in the comments section.

UPDATE: Rick Frishman and Morgan James founder David Hancock have issued statements in response to this post.