"Ahem" posts what is supposed to be the Author Liaison fellow's email on the New Concepts Publishing loop from Jan 8, 2007 on Dear Author here. The good news is, even that fellow acknowledges that no blacklist system exists so any author fearing that Big Brother is watching them and waiting to administer the Chinese water torture can rest easy now. But the rest of the email is... bewildering, to say the least. The fellow admits that he rarely responds to emails and just keeps apologizing. Why not do something about it instead of admitting his negligence and, you know, just keep doing what he always does? Don't they have some other family member they can rope in to handle the emails?

Even more amazing is how he wants fully-edited books to be submitted to NCP. Does this mean that they don't do in-house edits anymore? That makes NCP more like a printer than a publisher if that is the case. Also, he admits that he rarely informs authors of when a book will be released. Amazing.

What I find interesting is the instruction to authors to remove all brand names from their stories. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm sure we don't need, say, Coke's permission to mention that the hero is drinking Coke, do we? I'm sure some companies are touchy about their brand names being used nilly-willy, but some brand names, like Coke and Nike, are so common that it is almost impossible not to use the brand name at times. At any rate, interesting, this one.

I also love the part where he wants everyone to keep reminding NCP when NCP, er, "forgets" to do something. Someone should tell those people behind the management that it is their responsibility to keep track of their business affairs, not the authors'.

This email doesn't prove the allegations of non-payment or anything like that, but it does demonstrate how inept the management of NCP is. Reading between the lines, I'd suspect that the people behind NCP must have some full-time jobs taking away their time from NCP, or that NCP haven't been making them money in a while so that company isn't their top priority anymore.

I like NCP but it sure looks like the management hasn't been doing things smoothly for a while.

Speaking of which, a thought just strikes me. Given that ailing epublishers like Triskelion Publishing and Mardi Gras Publishing have a vast backlist of authors, some of them no doubt big sellers, how come no other epublishers ever offered to buy out these companies for some kind of merge the way HarperCollins absorbed Avon? I can only imagine that it may not be worthwhile, financially, for the bigger epublishers to do this, but I do wonder. If there is an epublisher ripe for a corporate takeover, NCP sure looks to be one.

We sure use trademarked products at EC--I do it all the time. We just have to acknowledge the trademark at the beginning of the book (as I'm sure anyone who's read an EC book has noticed.)

I admit I try to keep them to a minimum these days because it's a pain to look them all up (:P), but there's certainly no ban on them.

All publishers--from the tiniest epub to the biggest NY house--want edited work, though. You're supposed to make sure the copy is as clean and sharp as possible before you send it in.

>>Speaking of which, a thought just strikes me. Given that ailing epublishers like Triskelion Publishing and Mardi Gras Publishing have a vast backlist of authors, some of them no doubt big sellers, how come no other epublishers ever offered to buy out these companies for some kind of merge the way HarperCollins absorbed Avon?<<

We've discussed this in passing. Not merging, exactly, but just buying the company and absorbing the authors. I would guess there aren't a lot of epubs that have the money to buy out an existing company...and the ones that do have that kind of money don't need the additional authors? I haven't had time to think this through thoroughly, but I imagine there would be potential pitfalls. For example, if a company were to absorb/buy out an existing epub, would there be an issue with "re-editing" existing books to bring them up to par? Noble Romance has accepted previously published works, but only after the author has regained their rights and only with the understanding that there will be extensive edits.

To me 'edited' implies you won't benefit from any further editing. But I don't know if that is what they meant.

The only press that wouldn't let me use any trademarks was Chippewa (cough)

I wonder if this James Lightsey chap is related to the guy who runs Phaze? Same sense of humour and same spelling skills.