New Concepts Publishing

[jane]

Has anyone heard anything unsavory about New Concepts Publishing?

 

[DivaNicoletta]

I have not heard anything about this publisher, but a good place to find out about a publisher is in a book like Writers Market Place, if they are in there chances are they are a pretty reputable publisher. Also you might go thier website and check out what kind of books they publish.

 

[Cathy C]

NCP is doing a lot of romance titles, both in contemporary, paranormal and erotica. They don't charge their authors, are actively advertising their titles in print magazines and certain titles with good sales are being moved to print in trade paperback format. From what I've heard from people pubbing with them, their contract is fairly decent and it appears that they're trying hard to do well by their authors. Hopefully, they'll make it! Good luck with them!

 

[emeraldcite]

Hi there and welcome to AbsoluteWrite.

I'm going to send this thread down to Bewares and Background Checks. You'll get a whole bunch of responses there.

Good Luck!

 

[veinglory]

As I recall there is some info on them here http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html

 

[DaveKuzminski]

I have been published before by NCP. While my sales there were moderate, I believe they are totally business-oriented in aiming only for books that make the most sales possible. I believe they're determined to be successful as publishers.

 

[CaoPaux]

Jus' adding linkage: http://www.newconceptspublishing.com/

 

[veinglory]

I noticed a few of their books at my local Borders--which is a good sign.

 

[Sonarbabe]

You know, I have one or two ms that would fit in with them. Hmmm If things don't pan out the way I pray they will the agent I subbed to, then I might see if they would like to take a gander at my stuff.

 

[JonquilAries]

I'll also have to consider this place for future reference. The romance I'm working on just might fit with what they want.

 

[Aconite]

I have not heard anything about this publisher, but a good place to find out about a publisher is in a book like Writers Market Place, if they are in there chances are they are a pretty reputable publisher.

WMP is an okay place to start, but watchdog groups point out that some shady publishers make their way into resource books like WMP, so be sure to further research anyone you find there.

 

[kristin724]

I've been looking into NCP for a paranormal romance short story submission. They have the Love Bites short story download section, but in the guidelines it doesn't say what authors are paid for a Love Bites sale. Anyone know?

Kristin

 

[James D. Macdonald]

Anyone know?

Kristin

I'm certain they know. Why not write and ask?

 

[kristin724]

No response yet, James ;0)

 

[Robin Bayne]

I have been published before by NCP. While my sales there were moderate, I believe they are totally business-oriented in aiming only for books that make the most sales possible. I believe they're determined to be successful as publishers.

I have 2 books published by NCP-- and their books look even better now than they did when I first pubbed with them in 1996. They are very professional.

Two things--

1) They were always very hard to reach by email. Just something to beware of.

2) Their catalog is now very heavily slanted toward romantica/erotic romance/very spicy romance or paranormal romance. I stopped submitting to them when I realized I wanted to write Christian romance (or at least very "sweet" romance) and they said they understood, but that wasn't the direction they were taking the company.

Their books have won many awards (an anthology I am in, "Shifters" won quite a few including Dream Realm and Eppie).

I would recommend them!!

 

[RedandGold]

any updates anyone?

I have read the Piers Anthony Site, and that was slightly negative.

However thier site, and some research at Fictionwise.com suggested that they might be good.

 

[Stacia Kane]

I have a friend (Sherrill Quinn) who writes for them and she likes them a lot.

 

[Zastruga]

Has NCP gone downhill?

I was considering submitting my manuscript to New Concepts publishing, but I've heard that their response to emails has gotten even worse--like no response to more than 10 emails over the period of a month--and that they have no release schedule, so you have no idea when your book will be published and can't plan promotion. Writers aren't even told when their book is released and have to find out by going to the website.

I've also heard, from a less reliable source, that their income may have gone down because some of their top authors no longer write primarily for them and they've gone for long stretches without regular releases. This makes me nervous because of the tendency of e-publishers to go abruptly out of business.

Does someone who is currently published with them know how they're doing? Do they pay royalties on time? Do they do any promotion? Is this a good place to submit a manuscript?

Thanks,
Zastruga

 

[AnneMarble]

Has anyone heard more about some of the "rumblings" about NCP? This author's blog entry addresses some of these rumors. The rumors include such things as editing issues, non-receipt of royalties, late tax forms, non-responsiveness, and even a lack of response from customer support. (For example, no assistance if a customer's download link doesn't work.)

I'd post to the Karen Scott blog entry about this as she posted about this hours ago (according to Google), but her blog has gone down. She has a temporary blog to keep people up-to-date, but the entries haven't been moved. Too bad you can't view the cache on a blog entry. If anyone read that entry, please fill me in. If anyone saved a copy of the post, please send me an HTML file.

 

[JulieB]

The latest cache on that site is a couple of days ago. Give it until tomorrow morning; you might find the entry is in the cache by then.

 

[veinglory]

I am trying to collect the comments showing up online, 3 so far including Karen at a secondary site: http://www.erecsite.com/2008/03/smoke-at-new-concept-press-veinglory.html

 

[The Otter]

Hi. I am a New Concepts author. I've gotten pretty good royalties, and they've always sent me my checks in a timely manner. The biggest problem with them is, like some people have already stated, they're very non-responsive. It seems like most of the e-mails I send are never answered.

 

[AnneMarble]

Karen Scott's regular blog is back. Here is the first post on NCP (including comments). And here is the second.

Rosemary Laurey's comments on the second post are interesting as when NCP was fairly new, I had an issue with how they delivered the ebooks you bought. I never had to wait a week, but I think I had to wait a couple of days more than once. Kinda defeated the purpose of buying ebooks. I've had other issues with them. For example, I once ordered an ebook to be delivered on disk (as the download wasn't available yet), and when I got it, my entire credit card number was included on the letter accompanying it. That was not the most secure way to handle customer cc numbers! (IIRC this was at the time they had ... issues ... with the vendor providing credit card services.)

 

[CaoPaux]

For those following this train wreck, the latest from Ms. Scott's blog re: NC has stopped editing their books because it's isn't worth the effort. Further commentary on Dear Author, etc.

 

[AnneMarble]

For those following this train wreck, the latest from Ms. Scott's blog re: NC has stopped editing their books because it's isn't worth the effort. Further commentary on Dear Author, etc.

Oh, yes. I saw the original post.


Now I'm glad I didn't buy as many books from them as I had hoped. Eek. Yuck. Ack ptui! And don't you think readers can tell? Sheesh! Unfortunately readers who don't "do" ebooks will read something like that and say "See! I told you ebooks aren't worth my time." Grrr. This sort of crap could hurt all e-publishers, at least in the eyes of people who are still reluctant to read ebooks.

(Marble's Law: If you ask someone for e-book recommendations on a mailing list, five people will leap forth to explain that they don't read ebooks, even though that wasn't the question. Then people will end up arguing about ebooks, and no one ever answers the original question. This controversy will only make this worse. )