Jul 9 2006

REVIEW: Ebook Weekly: New Concepts Publishing Review

By Jayne • Bookstore • • Tags: , , , ,

NCP began publishing in 1996. They sell ebooks and also offer some of their books in print.

They have several book categories:

  • Anthologies, Special Collections
  • Contemporary Romance
  • Fantasy and Fantasy Romance
  • HARMONY™ Romance, Multicultural, and Interracial Romance
  • Historicals: Medieval, Western, Regency, and Georgian
  • Historicals: Other Time Periods and Unusual Locales
  • Love Bites™ Short Stories (SENSUAL to CARNAL), including Short Story Themes and Holiday Themes
  • Paranormal Romance, Vampires, Werewolves and Shifters (Contemporary)
  • Time Travel
  • Thrillers, Mysteries, and Romantic Suspense
  • Science Fiction and Futuristic Romance

Their sensuality ratings are sweet, sensual, spicy and carnal.

BOOK LENGTH:

  • Full Novel = 90,000 words and up; 360 pages and up (double-spaced)
  • Mid Novel = 61,000-89,000 words; 244-356 pages (double-spaced)
  • Category = 40,000-60,000 words; 160-240 pages (double-spaced)
  • Novella = 20,000-39,000 words; 80-156 pages (double-spaced)

There is a link to an author information page with links to each individual author. Those author pages have covers for all the author's books at NCP. Some have pictures and bio information. Clicking on the title under each cover takes you to the book. There is information about length, price, sensuality level, cover art, ISBN number, price and rating warnings. There is also another link which will take you back to the author's other works.

NCP does have an email newsletter and does seek submissions from authors. They have a Sizzling Sellers page. You can create an account which keeps you from having to enter your personal information before each purchase. Your customer number is automatically set by NCP so remember to write it down.

Their home page has The Hot Box with information about a yahoo readers group, the newsletter which lists sales and special pricing, and a list of nation and world wide (there's a listing for Australia) booksellers who carry NCP books. It also lists hot new print and ebook romances.

They have links to their FAQ page, NCP news, current staff , contact (email and snail mail). There is also a link
to cover art galleries. When you click on a particular cover, it will link to sales information.

  • -Navigation- by author, new releases, new from last month, sizzling sellers, special features, upcoming releases, category. I did not find a search function.
  • -Excerpts- Extensive.
  • -Reviews-some books have short excerpts from reviews. I did not see a place for reader reviews or grades.
  • -Series- the one series I know of wasn’t listed as such and no information was on the individual book pages.
  • -Wordcount – books are rated by range.
  • -Wishlist- I did not see a place to store information about books I might be interested in buying per se but any book added to your cart will stay there even if you exit out of the site.. However, you have to remove it before making your final purchases. I guess you could buy what you wanted and then go back and add books you’re thinking about.
  • -Formats-Adobe, Lit, HTML, RTF. The FAQ page mentions that cover art comes with the lit and newer adobe formats but not with HTML or RTF. Buyers selecting those formats will need to click on the cover on the excerpt page and save it to their file.
  • -Bookshelf-I did not see any place where information about past purchases is stored. Nor any way to redownload past purchases.
  • -Payments-Credit card, electronic check or paypal. After payment, you will be taken to a screen with purchase information which you can print.
  • -Downloads-dl links are delivered via email. The email is sent immediately after the purchse and contains a link which must be cut and pasted into your browser. You need to save the file.
  • -Confirmation-by email immediately after purchase.
  • -Prices- seem to be in line for epublishers. I’ve seen better and I’ve seen a lot worse.
  • Irks- when you click on the “buy” button you will be taken to another screen. There you have to click on an “add to cart” button (which is very small) in order to put the book in your cart. It’s easy to miss this step. There is no opportunity to redownload. I did once have to contact customer service about a book which only of which was included in the dl link. The response was prompt and a link for the entire book was resent. I’m not sure if you could contact NCP in the event that your file was ever lost and get another dl link so backup your files.

Overall, I would give this publisher a B- grade.

~Jayne

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