And Nora, to answer your question about agents and epubs, some agents do take on e-published writers, but not many. You have to have a really good track record before they’ll sign you. I’ve tried to get an agent and though I’ve come close, it’s like the print pubs–really like the book, don’t want to take it on… Maybe once my book comes out, if the sales are good, etc.

This, right here, demonstrates why you can’t trust yourself to read legal prose.

“Warrantees” is a legal “term of art”. IANAL, but the meaning is something in the neighborhood of “promises” or “guarantees”* . “Warranties” is not the same word, and therefore doesn’t have the same meaning in a contract.

I’m not picking on the original poster, so much as showing why a writer really, really doesn’t have enough background information to interpret a contract correctly.

* I just looked it up, and I was SO wrong. “A warrantee (accent on last syllable) is a person or party who is guaranteed something. ” Which is why I can’t be trusted to read this, either.

It’s another example of NCP making a vindictive move that damages their authors and their own house.

Chaoscat AKA Samahtha Storm

However, having someone look over your contract before you sign is mega important. I think one mistake a newbie makes is thinking that they don’t want to rock the boat. In my experience, most reputable publishers are more than willing to answer contract questions and work with the author. :)

I get the feeling that was the case with the supposed release of unauthorized material. If you contracted the book, in my opinion that makes it authorized and my IP lawyer brother-in-law agrees.

And this was on the NCP authors’ list this morning…………..

Ok, this was posted at my rwa group and this writer talked to the lawyers she worked with. This is what they said ****

Showed the New Concepts “PUBLIC NOTICES” to a publishing attorney in my
office - it is just a legal formality, and done in other arenas
(although he said he hasn’t seen it used in publishing before, but said
it would actually be a good idea to avoid confusion about who is holding
the rights on the properties in question). For the purposes (most
likely, he says, since he has no knowledge of New Concepts) of
clarifying for public information who the rights holders in these
properties now are and they they no longer have anything to do with the
stuff. It is not to inform the authors - it is to inform the public.

My take may be that they also want to divest themselves of any
responsibility should a third party suddenly start selling or excerpting
the works somehow.

Not an attempt to embarrass, really. And they have to use the names and
pseudonyms to avoid confusion over the same or similar titled books by
different authors.

And those instances in which the author has been accused or deemed to
have breached their contract and the notice indicates that the publisher
will attempt to recoup costs by not paying royalties, the publisher (if
they can prove breach) can recoup costs incurred if they so choose. If
it had been a traditional paper publisher, they could have demanded
their advance back, for example.

Not playing Devil’s advocate here, since I don’t really know anything
about the New Concepts issues. Just throwing in my legal 2 cents since
I can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an IP lawyer here ….

But I would never have sent anything to them because I could find no evidence they’d set up a business with a decent chance of making it. If there’s no record that the publisher is incorporated to do business and has a federal tax ID to use for paying authors, people should run the hell away, no matter how many good things are said about the publisher on blogs and message boards.

I think authors should also do a quick background check on a company before signing a contract. Heck, I do it before I even submit anything, but I’m paranoid like that. :-)

More than a quick one. I researched epublishers for months, pored over booklists and author websites and FAQs and submission guidelines, bought books so I could see the quality of their editing, googled like a madman trying to nose out every little speck of dirt I could regarding their level of professionalism in public, whether there were complaints from authors or customers. In the end, it came down to four I was willing to try. Samhain was my #1 and I feel very lucky to have them. Luckier still, whenever I read something like this comment thread. Holy crapweasels, who the fuck does Ms. De Pasture think she is?

Oh wait, she’s Desiree Acuna. I bought one of her books–it was the second ebook I ever read. When I finished it (oh, why did I bother finishing it?) I decided then and there that I wouldn’t be submitting my work to NCP–and that was before I realized Ms. Acuna and Ms. De Pasture were one and the same.

I have an agent (after just selling to NY), but our agreement is I’ll handle my own epub stuff with the two epubs I’m currently with (who I trust/have a relationship with). If I sell to an epub with some heavy contract stuff then she’ll step in.