“For the mainstream romance reader, the formulated novels offered by the large publishing houses are adequate to their needs”
So says James Lightsey, New Concepts’ author liaison person.
He goes on to add:
“NCP customers want and expect something different. Futuristic, Paranomal, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, these are genres that NCP readers most want. These genre are in high demand by a select group of readers that want more variety than mainstream can provide.”
Nothing like generalisations on a massive scale huh?
When I first read Lightsey’s post on Mrs Giggles’ blog, I assumed that it was a response to the NCP dust-up. I was wrong. The post was sent to the NCP loop in January. So still no official comment from the publisher.
It certainly makes for interesting reading though: (the bold emphasis are mine)
To: authorpromotion@yahoogroups.com
From: “new_concepts_pub”
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008
Subject: [authorpromotion] Greetings from the Author LiaisonDear Authors,
As most of you know, I’m sometimes slow(OK always slow) to answer e-mails. So I try to answer as many questions on the author loop as possible. As author liaison for NCP, my loyaty lies foremost to NCP, however I am honor bound to help NCP authors in any and every way that I can. So here is my best advice on many of the concerns on the loop.
Submissions:
Always send the 100% complete, self-edited, RTF format version of your manuscript. Include any and all dedications, forewords, prologs, epilogs, glossaries, or whatever, because they might not be added later. Also to speed up the editing process at this point, go through your book and remove all references to trademarked items. Replace the trademark name with the actual name of the item ie. Q-Tips are cotton swabs, McDonalds=burger joint, whatever, we can’t use trademarked names without permission.
Contracts:
When you receive a contract from NCP, as is true of all contracts, read it until you understand everything. Do not sign the contract unless you agree to stand by your decision. If your legal name, book title, or address is different than what is typed on the contract, strike through it with a pen, write in the correct info, and initial it. The contract is as is and not negotiable. Any questions about the contract may be sent to me.
No negotiations? This strikes me as being a little inflexible. What would happen if they managed to attract a big name author who didn’t like some of the terms?
Art Questionare:
You should receive with your contract an art questionare. If not, ask for one. If you have a strong idea of what you would like for your cover, detail it very clearly. Include your psuedonym and your full legal name, your e-mail address, mailing address, word count, genra, and sexual rating. Final cover art approval is made by Ms. DePasture.
Scheduling:
Our schedule is tentivetly full for a year in advance. There are scheduling changes made for various reasons. For the sake of variety for the customer we don’t release for example four shortstories or four paranormals in the same week. I can usually give an author a month or least a rough timeline on when a book is to be published. I do not give an exact date. Final scheduling is ultimatley decided by circumstance and Ms. DePasture.
Is this the norm? Don’t authors normally get given a release date at least a month out?
Cover art:
Our cover artist rarely read the books that they do the covers for. They use the art questionare as a guideline and use popular layout formats to create the covers that we are known for. When covers are finished, they are sent to me and I forward them to the respective
author.Editing:
A note about the evil “track changes” feature. If you have used track changes at any time during the writing of your book, even if you turned it off, editorial remarks and edit may reappear during the conversion process. Don’t use it. If there are minor edits, a book will be sent to the author once for changes. Major edits may take a few more times. Often short stories, novellas, books written by very experienced author are edited completely in-house as they require nothing more than line editing.
Always self-edit your manuscript to the very best of your abilities before you submit it. This does several things; it increases your editing skills, cuts edit time, and increases the
likelyhood that your manuscript will be accepted. The amount of time between edits and pub. is largly based on this.Release:
I very seldom alert an author that their book has been released. We try to follow the upcoming titles pages and also when an author returns her/his edits they should be aware that the release will be very soon. Normally before release I receive a PDF file of your finished book as it will go up. I try to send these as soon as they come, but I may not. If your book is very close(a week) to release and I have not sent you file please send me a reminder. You are permitted as per the contract to make up to 50 copies for review purposes and as promotional giveaways. You may duplicate and use your cover in any legal way to promote your book.
Royalties:
There are four royalty periods at NCP. JAN-FEB-MAR royalty statements and checks will be sent by the end of April. APR-MAY-JUN royalty statements and checks will be sent by the end of July. Royalties can not begin to be tabulated until the last day of the last month of the quarter and so forth. Complete and accurate accounting takes about a month to complete. If your are to be paid by paypal or some way other than check, you should tell me as soon as possible.
Contract expiration:
As stated in the contract, the author must inform NCP sometime before 90 days of the expiration of the contract or it renews for another year. The longer that you give us notice that you do not intend to renew the contract, the faster we will be able to take it down. Once a book goes up it spreads to our distributors and e-book stores and it is a long slow process to bring it completely down.
Communications:
While I’ve often claimed to have a big S on my chest, I have great difficuty keeping up with nearly 200 authors on four continents. If there is an error on the web page, please write to the webmaster. I have other duties at NCP that draw from my time as author liaison.
I’m pretty sure that not all of the 200 authors are writing to him at the same time, and even if they were, you’d think he’d at least reply to the majority of them within a month. Surely that’s what he’s being paid to do?
I’m very sorry if I have neglicted anyone. Please keep in mind that e-mail communications are flawed, they are just as likely (or more so) to be lost, rejected, or misrouted as snail mail.
E-mail communication is flawed? I wonder how large multi-nationals cope then? One or two e-mails may become lost in the ether, but 200? And where would they be re-routed to?
In addition to this information that I’ve just presented, most of which is available either under the files folder of this group or under submission guidelines on the home page, I would like to offer a couple of suggestions from my personal perspective. These are my
opinions and not NCP’s.
This is where it gets even more interesting:
NCP is a niche company. There are thousands of romance novels published each year. For the mainstream romance reader, the formulated novels offered by the large publishing houses are adequate to their needs. NCP customers want and expect something different. Futuristic, Paranomal, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, these are genres that NCP readers most want. These genre are in high demand by a select group of readers that want more variety than mainstream can provide.
Length:
Readers want long books, if they like the story they don’t want it to end. If you have a complex story idea, don’t waste it on a short story. Short stories also make very little money for the effort involved in their publication.
HEA:
NCP does not insist on Happily Ever After endings to our publications, however I’ve seen more than one author have to abandon a pseudonym because they had killed the hero and/or heroine.
Sex:
Our readers like an equal measure of great sex,a solid central plot, and dynamic internal conflict with a resolvable end. Writers that build their stories around these tenants sell better. Spicy to carnal sex with multiple partners w/ intense love triangle..octangle w/ nearly unresolvable internal conflict with HEA are the top sellers.Old manuscripts:
Before you dust off an old manuscript and send it to any publisher, re-read it, re-edit it. Your writing style will typically change and improve over time and what you once thought was a masterpiece might not be up to your current standards.
Editing:
Regardless of which publishing company you submit your manuscript to, editing is vitally important to presenting yourself as a professional writer. Well polished manuscripts are much more likely to be published.
Titles:
When thinking of a title for your book, keep in mind the appearance of the cover. If the title is too long, it will obscure the cover. A title shouldn’t contain negative words like nerd. {K: He’s obviously never heard of Vicki Lewis Thompson}
One to three power words can be used in combination to create a powerful and striking title. Often made up names catch a readers eye like Ms. Becraft- Woodall’s PMSing and Weremones. Both imaginative titles.
Also, always have a back-up title in case the one that you have chosen has already been used recently.Artist vs. Commercial Artist:
During one of my art classes in college, my art teacher told me that I had a better chance of becoming a commercial artist than anyone else in the class. That surprised me because one he didn’t like me and two I was no where near the artist as my classmates. It was then that I saw the difference between a pure artist and a commercial artist. A pure artist creates for her/his self without care whether the piece will be liked, accepted, or bought. A commercial artist creates art for a patron, both for the sake of art and money. I assume that all of our authors are commercial artist. This requires flexibilty.
Blacklist:
I know that all authors speak of a blacklist of problem authors. As far as I know, one does not officialy exist and I’ve been in the industry since ‘91 {K: Doing what I wonder?}. I will just say that there are a finite number of bridges to burn in the publishing market. There are always first time jitters for new authors. Always be very carefull of what you say and do publicaly, once your name is in lights so to speak, you are under the public eye and industrial eye.
I hope this answers a few questions about NCP and the publishing industry in general. I would like for all of our authors do well. If you were accepted by NCP then you obviously have talent as an author. I wish you all equally well in business. I would also like to thank Ms. Mandy Roth and Ms. Charlee Compo for being so supportive of our new authors {K: Not sure how this related to the post, other than as a smackdown for the ‘unsupportive’ authors?}. I know your plates are full and I appreciate your time.
James Lightsey
Author Liaison
New concepts Publishing
There you have it, a word from the wise and the good.
Just one question, what are prologs, epilogs, and genras? *g*
Posted by Karen Scott · 
