I’ve been working with Morgan James for about 3 years now. I think my I’m in a position to share my experience as my book has done better than most Morgan James authors. I’ve earned my way into over 600 libraries worldwide, some of which are very prestigious. I got those placements through various marketing techniques, which I’ve learned over the years. Morgan James does offer advice, but what I’ve done to market my book is kind of above and beyond what they assist with. However, I’m going to walk you through what they do assist with and a few other things – I guess you could call this my review of Morgan James.
Morgan James Publishing helps with:
- Cover design. This means a few iterations of a design. This kind of stuff can be outsourced for $100 on Fiverr if you wanted to.
- Interior design. They do some formatting, again Fiverr would be under $100.
- Distribution. IngramSpark offers basically what they do for $49. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing offers a similar distribution service as long as you agree to a lower royalty. I think it’s like 35% royalties instead of 70%, but don’t quote me.
- Education. If you consider yourself a beginner, you could use their resources to learn. Like any other paid education (like a $100,000 college degree), you can find the same info for free online.
What they do not help with:
- They do not put your book in the book stores.
- They do not put your book in libraries.
- They do not pitch your book to anyone.
Issues I’ve had, or complaints:
- Lack of accurate sales reporting. They have a panel for authors to track sales but at one point in my journey, there were more libraries claiming to have paperback copies of my book stocked, than what Morgan James reported as sales. This is obviously alarming and sketchy to say the least. They claimed their sales data is more accurate than what WorldCat displays. I’m luckily I’m not too worried about a series of $1 royalties being miscounted or I’d investigate this deeper.
- Printing defects. I received a 1-star review on my book for a print defect. Through a series of emails with Morgan James Publishing, the publisher basically just sided with the printer and didn’t make any movement towards resolving this or pursuing compensation from the printer. 1-star reviews will kill you online – and getting one for a mistake you didn’t even cause is a nasty feeling.
- Charging for manuscript updates. When I wrote my book, I was 21. I had a high-maintenance girlfriend, was making a lot of money, struggling school. I was busy and my mind was cluttered. I wouldn’t mind going back and updating the manuscript but they charge a hefty fee to do that.
Morgan James Publishing does not have a low acceptance rate. If you have anything half decent to say, you’ll be accepted. So that means they will stand behind your work a lot less, which is fine. That’s to be expected. If you were expecting something different, that’s just not the case.
Overall, I do not regret publishing with Morgan James. They handled headaches while I was busy building my company that I most recently sold, and was also still finishing school. I wanted to urgently publish a book properly and they were able to do that. Everything was done accurately.
I may use Morgan James again, and if I do, I will update this article with relevant updates. Recently I’ve used Amazon KDP for my second book. I may self publish next with Ingram, or maybe I’ll get a literary agent and go with a traditional publisher.
If you have questions about my review of Morgan James, head over my contact page and shoot me an email. I’m happy to help.
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