Publishers that advertise in newspapers...

"If they ask him to put up money or contribute to costs then is it not the real deal?" Some real indepedent publishers do subsidise their publishing activities by selling services to people who are, in effect, self-publishing. That's fine as long as they're open about the fact that they're selling you a service not publishing your book. And it can be quite a good way to publish niche books. On the other hand there are people who request manuscripts through newspapers. Given that there are few - if any - established legitimate publishers that are ever short of things to print, it's safe to assume that these people aren't offering you something than you're likely to want. Most novels are not niche publications. If a publisher asks you to pay them to publish your book, then it is because they either don't believe that it will sell for profit or don't have the skill and ability to sell it for a profit - in either case, you don't need them. It's far more respectable and usually cheaper, to do real self-publishing.

Everything about this screams 'avoid like the plague' at me. I could be totally wrong, but If you consider the economics of publishing and the economics of placing a newspaper ad, the only workable business model I can construct is one in which your friend's dad pays a lot of money to get a very unsatisfactory result.

I guess, Byrne, from the tone of your question, you already know the answer. It would be nice if you could find out the name of the publisher and let people know - the more bad press these people get, the better.

I think it's something like 'Athena' press that are the most ubiquitous. I don't think there's anything wrong with paying for a well-produced self-published volume, as long as you're aware of what you're doing and not in it to turn a profit.