Okay, maybe not mouth, but more like her fingers doing the typing in what turns out to be a most amusing email. Reading it, I actually feel embarrassed for the CEO, Madris DePasture, because she apparently can't see how... awkward, for the want of a better word, her words are.

I'm going to address remarks circulating the web regarding this company. This is not for republication elsewhere, so those of you who decide to do so should know that, unless permission is given, and it is NOT, copying any part of this to another site is violation of privacy and copyright laws.

Well, too bad, because quoting parts of a copyrighted material, especially if the purpose is to inform, is definitely acceptable so I'll be quoting directly from her email then. Spelling mistakes, et cetera, are left as they are. I did not change a single thing.

Now, let's start with the stance of New Concepts Publishing when it comes to editing:

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.

There you have it, straight from the boss - it's your fault, authors, for being so difficult, and it's your fault, readers, for buying so unpredictably, so they are forced to resort only to correcting "errors" instead of editing. You all should be ashamed of yourselves for putting this company in such a position.

How about the allegations that the publisher neglects their authors and publish mostly only works of its owners? This is what she has to say, and note that she doesn't even bother to address head on the allegations of the owners using pseudonyms:

Preferential treatment – the objective of this company is to sell as many copies of every book we contract on as possible. Like any other company, however, we have some authors whose books sell better than others, and we do whatever we can to highlight these authors to potential buyers. Part of this is because we want to make money. Part of this is because the 'stars' bring the customers to the site and increase the sales possibilities of the unknown authors. This is called marketing – every publisher uses it. If we have a release week which does not include one of the 'stars', then the rush to buy is smaller and the sales lower across the board. If we have a 'star' releasing a book, all of their fans charge over to the site, flooding us with orders for their 'favorite' author and they generally look over the other offerings while they're at the site and buy some of those, too.

Quit complaining, authors, because clearly, you are all just JEALOUS and BITTER that Kaitlyn O'Connor and Jaide Fox and the rest are STARS who cause a fan stampede to that site every time their book comes out. You are NOTHING. No wonder they don't bother editing your books. You are all talentless nobodies who know only how to complain. Oh, and your fans smell too. Unlike the fans of the stars. They rock. Rock on, fans of the stars!

Here is my friendly advice to Madris DePasture: hire back that gormball you called a "liaison" - I think he did a better job than you when it comes to PR. I think it's time I bid a sad goodbye to New Concepts Publishing because the boss said it herself - they do minimal editing on their books. That is enough for me to stay away and spend my money elsewhere on places that actually edit the books they sell. RIP NCP. Thanks for the memories.

PS: Karen Scott has the entire email up on her blog here, along with her own commentaries, of course. Do drop by.

I've only heard from one NCP author and it was all bad. I've seen this author go through the editing/publishing process at other houses, and have seen the author go through the crit partner process, all favorably reflecting on the author. I've seen the actual errors NCP inserted into the product. This was 1.5 to 2 years ago. The author's openness among close associates kept several of us from making the same mistake of submitting to them.

Given what looks like an exploitative structure with abusive personalities behind it, I wonder what else the company was playing at. They wouldn't be the first to underreport sales.

How can sales of ebooks by the publisher itself be tracked or confirmed? Not like it could be confirmed with an outside source, such as a printer or bookstores, as to how many physical copies were created or received. I guess receipts from customers could be examined, but to verify it was legit, each customer would have to be contacted to ensure he or she was (a) a real person and not, perhaps, someone who purchased multiple copies for a penny; and (b) ordered the book the receipt showed he or she ordered and not, perhaps, some other title. Someone with more business software/epublisher knowledge may be able to explain.

Interesting question. I can only guess that it is up to the author to trust that the epublisher is honest. That or to get some kind of court order and a helpful system admin to access and analyze the download history of whetever servers from the publisher, Fictionwise, Amazon, et cetera, that customers obtained their ebooks from.

An author who puts out dead tree books may not have an easy way to discover whether her publisher is ripping her off either.

Thanks for reporting on this Mrs. G. I know you are used to taking a lot of heat for the stuff you blog or review on but I sincerely hope you and Karen don't take any for publishing that letter. It's nice to be informed both as a reader and an author, and know who is worth submitting to or trusting enough to buy from. (How many people do you think I give my credit card # out to?) I hope all the authors affected by this have everything turn out okay, but in my opinion if NCP is being dishonest with one author it is likely that all are being affected whether they choose to believe it or not.

Unfortunately, the link to Karen Scott's blog shows the account has been suspended. Hmmm...

The web host has problems. Try http://karenscott.wordpress.com in the meantime, but until the host gets its act together, Karen's blog is out of commission.