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About Morgan James Publishing
Morgan James Publishing: Helping Authors Grow Their Businesses.
The Association of American Publishers (AAP)
Dun & Bradstreet business information: D&B D-U-N-S Number: 14-998-4655
Fast Company Magazine #44 on the Fast50 for 2006
Google Marketing Partner
Habitat For Humanity Peninsula Building Partner
Habitat For Humanity Peninsula Board of Directors
Mark Victor Hansen Foundation Board of Advisor's
Ingram Publisher Services First High Volume Title Publisher
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): 511130
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC): 2731, 2741
ISBN Prefix Information:
0-9746133, 0-9758570, 0-9760901, 0-9768491, 0-9815058, 1-933596, 1-60037, 1-59930
Morgan James Publishing was founded in 2003
by David L. Hancock, a mortgage banker who had written a book and been less than thrilled with the conventional book publishing process. Hancock, with his wife, Susan, named the new company after their two children, daughter Morgan Renee and son Ethan James, has grown his business to over 500 titles to its credit in five and a half short years, and counts many well-known authors in his author base, including Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, Mark Victor Hansen, Dr. Robert Anthony, Tony Alessandra and Joe Vitale. The company focuses on four book categories: Business, Self-Help, Inspirational and Health.
Building a New Model
As he was building the plan for his new business, Hancock had a long-term strategy to associate his business with the Ingram Book Group to add credibility to his authors and take advantage of Ingram’s significant distribution channel. He also knew that he would need to take advantage of print to order strategies in order not to become entrenched in the traditional publishing model requiring long-run offset printing for the manufacturing of all of his titles. As he looked for a manufacturing partner, he kept both of those objectives top of mind.
Finding the Right Partners
Hancock was attracted to Ingram owned Lightning Source both because of its association with Ingram and its long experience and excellent reputation in printing for the book industry. He also liked the option of working with a single vendor to produce both short-run and offset books, as market demands dictated for each individual title. Additionally, Lightning Source’s distribution capabilities and relationships with online book stores were significant factors in making the choice. As the business grew, Morgan James Publishing was also able to take advantage of Ingram Publisher Services to leverage bookstore distribution.
Blending Long and Short Runs for Business Growth
By partnering with Lightning Source, Morgan James Publishing was able to quickly grow its business, adding both authors and titles to the base, without incurring excessive costs of inventory or returns. Morgan James Publishing became the first high-volume title publisher for Lightning Source with the market success of many of its titles. In addition to taking advantage of online distribution venues, Morgan James’ careful management of bookstore relationships has resulted in average returns of less than 15%, compared to the industry average of 40%.
Publishing: A Key to Personal Credibility
Morgan James Publishing was founded in 2003 as a result of its founder, David L. Hancock, a mortgage banker at the time, realizing how publishing a book could enhance the personal credibility of people who have a high level of expertise in their chosen field of specialization. As a mortgage banker, Hancock indicates he had reached a plateau in his career and was looking for a way to take his business to the next level. After spending significant time with such marketing masters as Tom Hopkins, Tony Robbins, Todd Duncan and Jay Conrad Levinson, and being encouraged by Levinson to write a book of his own, he embarked on his first endeavor in the world of book publishing. Quoting Hancock, “Publishing a book helped me to double my bottom line in less than eight months, and I enjoyed the positive reinforcement that came from my book helping other people. But the traditional publishing process was a terrible experience.”
For his third book, Hancock decided to self-publish, but was not satisfied with that process, either, especially the lack of credibility of a self-published book as compared to a book published under a recognized imprint. He says, “I knew there had to be a better way. I had been helping friends and associates through the process of writing and publishing their own books based on my experiences, and I decided that I could offer more effective help if I started my own publishing company.”
Helping Others Help Themselves
While still pursuing his daytime job as a mortgage banker, Hancock began to lay the groundwork for a new publishing business whose sole vision was to work with professionals to take their businesses to the next level by authoring and publishing a book, in the same way he had done for his mortgage banking career. Hancock comments, “I was more interested in how a book could help its author than I was in selling a lot of books.” Thus, Morgan James Publishing, named after Hancock’s two children, Morgan Renee and Ethan James, was born, and shortly afterwards, Hancock retired from his mortgage banking career to devote his full attention to his new publishing venture.
Changing the Model
Hancock realized that a key to his success would lie in his ability to change the traditional publishing model by printing more books to order and carefully managing them through the distribution channel to maximize visibility for the author while at the same time minimizing the costs of inventory and returns. He says, “This is where Lightning Source came in. I was not only intrigued by their innovative business model, but I was also attracted by their relationship with The Ingram Book Group, a well-established, well-respected entity I wanted to ultimately establish a relationship with myself. By partnering with Lightning Source early on, as my business grew I would be well positioned to expand that relationship to Ingram when the time was right.” Additionally, Hancock liked the fact that by working with Lightning Source, not only would he be able to produce books to order, but he could also work through Lightning Source to produce longer offset runs of books when appropriate.
He adds, “Our primary objective is to publish good books. To do that, of course, we need to help our authors write good books. But we also need to manage the inventory in such a way that we can be profitable. Lightning Source gives us a good mix of offset and print to order to keep just ahead of the demand, keeping our expense outlay to a minimum.”
Morgan James Today
Hancock’s vision became a reality. In less than five years he has taken Morgan James Publishing from a start-up to a $15 million business and was ranked number 44 on Fast Company’s “Fast 50” Companies for 2006. Hancock was even named a Finalist in the Best Chairman category in The 2006 American Business Awards. Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” by the New York Post, The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing business awards program honoring great performances in the workplace.
Morgan James operates globally and has hundreds of titles in its inventory, including Hancock’s own Guerrilla Marketing for Mortgage Brokers, co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson. And Hancock has also realized his goal of becoming affiliated with Ingram, using the company’s Ingram Publisher Services (IPS), a full service option for publishers who want warehousing, sales, and fulfillment services for their titles. Under the program, Ingram stocks the books, solicits and takes orders, ships the books, collects payments and manages orders to outlets of all sizes, including chain retailers such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, as well as online retailers such as Amazon, and even consumer direct fulfillment.
By partnering with Lightning Source and Ingram Publisher Services, Morgan James has dramatically reduced the time it takes for a book to go from manuscript to market. With Lightning Source as the production arm, Morgan James can also take advantage of extensive services and distribution options in the United States, Canada and The United Kingdom that complement the IPS offerings.
One recent title, The AdSense Code, by Joel Comm, literally went from manuscript to New York Times Best Seller in 90 days! “Morgan James Publishing is a great example of how publishing should work,” said J. Kirby Best, Lightning Source CEO. “There is absolutely no reason why an author should have to wait nine months to a year to see a book in print. We are proud of the role we have played in helping Morgan James and its authors achieve success.”
New York Times rankings are based on figures of almost 4,000 bookstores and of wholesalers serving 50,000 hardcover retailers and 60,000 paperback retailers (gift shops, department stores, newsstands, supermarkets). The numbers are statistically weighted to represent sales in all such outlets nationwide.
Hancock comments, “Some of the more traditional publishers print 5-10,000 books, ship them to stores and hope they sell, with an industry average of 40% or more being returned to the publisher. My banking background says that is ludicrous. With Lightning Source and IPS, we have strategically placed books in bookstores in partnership with those stores, keeping our average returns at less than 15%. And we achieve great credibility for our authors. The model has worked well for us. It makes more financial sense to manage our distribution effectively than it does to waste money on printing and shredding like much of the industry does.”
Entrepreneurial Authors Sign On to Entrepreneurial Model
Morgan James has trademarked the term Entrepreneurial Publisher™ because of its unique collaborative approach with authors and other publishers, treating them as partners rather than solely as intellectual property suppliers or competitors. Hancock says “My Guerrilla Marketing training teaches me to eliminate competition by creating opportunities for collaboration”.
The model is obviously working, with several well-known traditionally published authors, including Jay Conrad Levinson (Guerrilla Marketing), Rick Frishman (Author 101), Dr. Robert Anthony (Beyond Positive Thinking), Tony Alessandra (The Platinum Rule), and Joe Vitale (The Attractor Factor), having chosen to publish titles with Morgan James because of the company’s innovative way of doing business, according to Hancock. The firm has signed a multi-book deals with Levinson and Frishman that will result in many great books for years to come.
Multiple Imprints
Its manufacturing and distribution flexibility has also allowed the publisher to launch several new imprints, including:
* Guerrilla Marketing Press, which focuses on the very successful series of Guerrilla Marketing books by Jay Conrad Levinson.
* Platinum Rule Press, designed for the sales training books of Dr. Tony Alessandra.
* Mega Book Publishing, with titles produced in partnership with America’s foremost experts on publicity, speaking, and all things MEGA, Mark Victor Hansen and Rick Frishman, in a wide range of topics with highly focused niche books.
"These three imprints serve our mission in a very valuable way", says Hancock, "because each one targets a growing, information-hungry audience known to buy a lot of books."
Higher Author Royalties
Morgan James’s authors are paid a higher royalty than is typical for the publishing industry. Every author controls the rights to his or her book and may publish it through other channels, or lift it entirely from the Company and turn it over to another publisher, at the author's discretion.
The Company encourages its authors to take their material and offer it in other media, such as audio books and video programs. Authors are free to publish these materials with the Company or publish them elsewhere. One of the Company’s biggest success stories is with Robert Anthony's book, "Beyond Positive Thinking." The audio book version, which the Company also publishes, sells for $119, and is selling over $65,000 worth of inventory every month.
The Company’s founder David Hancock and Knowledge Exchange Press Executive Publisher David Garfinkel, a former McGraw-Hill Executive, have extensive backgrounds in internet direct response marketing, and the principles and techniques of this discipline have had a strong influence on the marketing and other business practices of the company.
Strategic Advantage of Strong Author Relationships
One core value of the Company is having strong and mutually beneficial relationships. The leadership has spent years developing many of the key business relationships that have allowed the Company to get its books in bookstores and obtain widespread Web coverage. The intentional development of positive relationships with people in all facets of our business is unique in the industry and translates into a very real strategic advantage.
National Presence through Satellite Offices
In order to maintain a close and personal working relationship with its authors, the Company has set up a series of satellite offices across the U.S. for meetings with its clients. The entrepreneurial nature of the business, along with the entrepreneurial bent of many authors, makes it advantageous to have face-to-face mastermind sessions to further business.
Selective Publishing based on Content, Character and Family Values
The Company is very selective in what it publishes, and one of the Company’s rules of thumb is that the Company will not publish anything the founder, David Hancock, would not be comfortable showing his children.
However, the Company does not hesitate to publish titles outside the norm of the traditional publishing industry, such as Mark Joyner's Confidential Internet Intelligence Manuscript, a $60 book of only 92 pages.
The price is high but the value is there. A steady stream of monthly sales underlines that assertion. We expect to pioneer new types of products, compared to what you see now and would typically expect from a book publishers, and we know that success breeds imitation. So in that way we expect to broaden the vistas of the publishing industry at large.
The Importance of Philanthropy
Another important aspect of Morgan James’ business is its partnership with charitable organization Habitat for Humanity. Hancock is proud of the fact that a percentage of all of Morgan James book revenue is donated to Habitat for Humanity for the life of each book. He says, “We place the Habitat for Humanity logo on the back and inside of our books, with a statement that a percentage of the revenues from the book are donated to the organization. We also have a large, Sprinter cargo van with the Habitat & Morgan James logos that features our imprints and authors; we drive it to as many Habitat home dedications as we can around the country to raise awareness for Habitat and our authors. From the van, we also give a small library of books to the new homeowners. So at the same time when we are generating funds for them, we are also raising awareness for the organization’s life-changing work, helping low-income families build decent homes they can afford to buy. Our efficient business model, enabled by our partnership with Ingram Publisher Services and Lightning Source, makes it possible for us to participate with Habitat for Humanity in this way.”
Morgan James is now accepting book proposals for consideration
If you’ve been looking to publish your book and you have gotten fed up with all the alternatives, then we would like you to take a look at the service Morgan James Publishing offers.
We work differently than other publishers. We partner with our authors and we are very committed to their success. We want you to know a couple things about the kind of people we can help, and in the interest of fair disclosure, the kind of people we would prefer not to do business with as well.
We can help you, above all, if you are already established in your field, and a new book or a first book would be helpful in the pursuit of your career, the development of your business, or the expansion of your vision. However, if you are a professional who is not widely recognized, that is if you are competent but the world doesn’t know how good you are and you’d like to stand out with the greater credibility and public exposure that a book offers, we’d really like to talk to you as well.
Third, if you have a message that you’re passionate about and, we want to put this delicately, we wouldn’t be embarrassed for our kids to read about, then we’d like to help you with that, too. As you can see, this encompasses a wide variety of sincere, committed people who have interest in publishing and can get some value from the process.
Now, let’s be honest and talk about the kind of people that we would NOT like to work with. If you’re simply looking for someone to print your book and you don’t want to even work with a publisher and enjoy the business advantages we offer, please don’t come to us. You can get a better deal somewhere else, and we’re not interested in working with you.
If you have an idea that’s way out and impractical, that is appealing to you, but is probably not going to appeal to a mainstream market or even a well-defined niche market, then you’re not for us either. And, if you have something that’s socially unacceptable, something that involves things that go outside the mainstream morals and values of society, there are plenty of other publishers. Again, we’re all for freedom of expression; we’re not for you.
If you do fit in to some of the above categories, namely you’re already established, you’d like to be established, or you have a message that you’re passionate about, please click on this link in order to go to the application page, and we look forward to talking to you soon.
Click Here and Get Published Today!
Our authors have been very successful because we partner with them. If you fit the criteria that we talked about in this short message, please click on the link and submit your Book Proposal now. We are looking forward to talking with you soon.
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