Jun 25 2008
Publisher Alert: New Concepts Publishing Releasing Unauthorized Material
Sydney Somers, a former NCP author, released an alert regarding a New Concepts Publishing release. Somers wrote three chapters of a full length novel that was never released but was contracted by NCP last summer. Today, the three chapters has been converted into a novella and inserted into an anthology with two other authors. Somers neither authorized nor condoned this anthology and has no knowledge of what it contains other than possibly her first three chapters in some form.
The anthology, Howl for Me, is the same title of the book Somers was contracted for this past summer. She urges her readers to “not buy this release assuming it is a finished project of mine.”
I’ve heard of some pretty shoddy publishing actions, but this seriously has to take the cake. Can you imagine how horrible it would be if a publisher took a proposal an author wrote and packaged it into an anthology with no opportunities for rewriting or editing and no information as to how your work is being transformed, but still sold under your name? I’m aghast at the chutzpah of NCP and I wonder how many authors will be eager to work with them again. If I were Somers, I’d be checking my contract for an out clause.
Both Ellen Ashe and Emily Veinglory have written on this subject.
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