Dear Author » New-Concepts-Publishing

Heeding the Warning Signals in ePublishing

Jane — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:00:43 +0000

In light of the recent occurrences at NCP in which the publisher took a partial from an author and inserted it into an anthology without her permission and allowed others to finish the story for her, again without her permission, I wondered what impact that had on readers.

Whenever I hear of a publishing fiasco, I am torn in two. Half of me feels terrible for the authors in the situation that they are in and the other half feels frustrated with the authors. Now, I think the situation that Somers finds herself in right now is fairly unique. Unless the contract specifies that a work is shall not to be used without the permission of the author unless it is for the specified contracted purpose (i.e., novella, inclusion in a specific anthology, or full length work), the contract term may be vague enough that NCP could do with it what they want. It might have taken alot of foresight to have avoided that nightmare.

I heard from one source that NCP sales have actually increased for some authors since news of its issues have come to the forefront. Is it possible that the increase could be attributed to positive coverage at Romantic Times where NCP followed a popular epublishing trend and brought cover models? Is it possible that the contretemps between the authors and the publishers have actually increased visibility in a positive way?

The NCP incidents as well as others, such as Chippewa/Lady Abell and even Ellora’s Cave to some extent, make me anxious about providing those companies with my credit card information. Generally speaking, I will not buy direct from any epublisher unless I have to other than Samhain and Loose ID. But I have purchased ebooks released by epublishers from places like Fictionwise and Books on Board and occassionally, Allromanceebooks.

I feel for authors who run into trouble with publishers, who have been taken in by them, who have lost out on royalties that are owed and so forth, but what responsibility, if any, do I have as a reader to not purchase from a particular publishing house? Alternatively, if I continue to buy books from a publishing I know doesn’t treat its authors well, aren’t I enabling those houses to continue to mistreat authors?

In struggling with this issue, I considered that it is not the responsibility of readers to police publishers. If there is a publisher whose actions offend a reader, she is perfectly within her right to not buy from that publisher and tell others about her decision in a pubic way. However, a reader should not feel guilty about a purchase she makes at a troubled publishing house. For me, it’s easy to say that I won’t buy another book from New Concepts Publishing but that’s because I haven’t bought a book from NCP in years. It would be much harder for me to make that cut from Loose ID who is putting out a much anticipated fourth book in the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon. I just don’t know how long my principles would be able to withstand the temptation. (maybe all of a day).

But I also think part of my frustration with the epublishing industry is with the authors themselves. Blogs often publish warning signs about authors but frequently those warning posts will come with authors from that house chastising the blogger for spreading false and malicious rumors. Authors often ignore the warning signs, both before submitting and after. I was reading AbsoluteWrite Forum’s Bewares and Background Check the other day and I consistently marvel at the authors and wannabe authors who constantly oppose the good warnings that are doled out by those with experience.

Other authors, it seems, would give anything ANYTHING to say that they are a published author.

If you didn’t read the comments during the last NCP thread, there are attorneys out there in the US (even for those who live outside the US) who will read and review a contract for $250-$1000.00. This is a service that authors should use and if they don’t . . . I think you can fill in the rest of that sentence. I do feel badly for these authors who go to a publishing house and are treated badly and I am happy to provide a service here to alert others but I wish that authors would heed these warnings more so we would have less of them and I wouldn’t have to struggle about where and from whom I should buy my books.

Publisher Alert: New Concepts Publishing Releasing Unauthorized Material

Jane — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:27:47 +0000

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.

REVIEW: Damsels in Distress: The Prince and the Pickpocket by Michelle Levigne (2/07)

Jayne — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:00:18 +0000

Dear Ms. Levigne,

Wow, you certainly do write a wide variety of genres. “The Dark One” (aka “The Dreamer’s Loom“) was one of the first books I reviewed here are DA waaaay back in 2006. I’d been meaning to try some of your other stories, and have quite a backlist of them at Fictionwise, and finally got off my derriere with “Damsels in Distress.” Question. Is this part of a series, as I recall only one damsel in this book?

I like my heroes and heroines to be balanced which makes Roderick and Nell a good couple, IMO. He tries to magic her but she not only blocks it she eventually turns it on him. At which point she discovers what he already knows and that is no relationship is worth anything if both parties don’t come to it with open eyes and acceptance. I like that they manage to get to know each other in the short span of the story and that each admires what is seen in the other.

You don’t spend pages filling us in on the backstory of the plot but weave it into the story as we go along. I think the issue of them finding out what caused the overthrow of Rod’s many greats-grandfather and Nell’s equally many greats-grandmother is equal to them finding each other and working out how to undo the damage that was done centuries ago. I’m glad you didn’t clutter the book with secondary characters or issues either.

But…but…but right when things were really zipping along I began to get hints that this might be what Mrs. Giggles might call a ‘magic hoo-haw’ book. Nell’s guardians include a dragon and a male unicorn and we all know how unicorns are about virgins. And virgins staying virgin. Hmmmm, I thought. Then Nell mentions how important it’s always been to the unicorn that she remain pure. Oh dear, I said. And sure enough, the story hinges on her purity and the importance of her having sex with just the right person at just the right place. And things sorta seemed to go haywire for a few pages.

If it hadn’t have been for that, I would probably have graded higher but magic hoo-haws and their importance in Saving the World! just don’t do it for me. B

~Jayne

ebook

Readers of New Concepts Publishing Books Beware

Jane — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:23:22 +0000

According to its owner (or one of its owners), NCP does not engage in any editing of its books.

"Editing-the focus of editing in this company has shifted with the times. We spent years trying to help new authors perfect their writing skills by paying editors to tweak the books. Some authors actually appreciated this. The vast majority did not or they just didn’t have enough understanding to comply with suggestions. Beyond that, the salability of the books is so unpredictable, I felt uncomfortable requesting authors to put a lot of time into making changes that might not pay off in the end. Either way, the flightiness of authors also encouraged us to stop wasting time and money on trying to tweak the books to increase their marketability. We rarely do anything to the books beyond corrections of errors any longer. This considerably streamlines the edit-to-release time frame and allows us to adhere to the schedule more closely without having to continually reschedule books." (c) 2008 Madris, owner of New Concepts Publishing.

Via Karen Scott’s blog which is down.

This information is important to me, as a reader, because I believe that the process of publishing is a team effort and one that includes good editing.

New Concepts Publishing Under Heat by Authors

Jane — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:04:21 +0000

Karen Scott started reporting on this last week and at least one author has gone public. The complaints against New Concepts surprised me since it has been around since 1996 and the reported problems have been associated with newer epublishers. New Concepts publishes in both print and ebook formats.

The complaints include the following:

Royalties paid late without corresponding tax documentation like a 1099
Failure to give books edits.
Favoritism toward certain authors.
Site was down and NCP was non responsive.
Customers complaining about lack of service.
Authors not being informed of release dates.
Hostile to complaints.
Failing to live up to publicity promises such as sending out review copies.
Refusal to get books taken off of websites once the rights were returned to the author.
Evidences poor understanding of its own contract.

This is just an FYI for aspiring authors out there.

REVIEW: Ebook Weekly: New Concepts Publishing Review

Jayne — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 09:23:26 +0000

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