Is NCP’s Ex-Author Liaison Officer Selling NCP Print Books Under The Guise of An Independent Seller At Amazon?
Monday, July 14, 2008Posted in: e-book publishers behaving badly?, New Concepts Publishing
Remember James Lightsey, AKA ex fucktard of the week here at KKB Central? Well a few people think that this person might be him.
If it’s him, it’s a bit cheeky isn’t it? I guess this way, none of the authors get their royalties, and they don’t have to pay tax on the books sold. If NCP have resorted to doing things like this, surely they can’t be doing all that well financially?
Can anybody shed any light on this? Are your books included in there somewhere?
Thanks to You-Know-Who for the heads up.
Maria
July 14
11:24 am
Holy. Crap.
vanessa jaye
July 14
12:01 pm
If it is them, they could be excercising their right to sell off print stock. But who’s to tell, and where’s the accountability? How do the authors track sales and therefore the royalties due to them?
If it is them, what balls.
Dorothy Mantooth
July 14
12:44 pm
For fuck’s sake. This is just sordid. These people should be ashamed of themselves.
(I mean James and the NCP folks, not Karen or the commenters here. Just to make that clear.)
Ellen F.
July 14
12:54 pm
Two of my books are up there (but the book of mine they told me they no longer had in stock is not). Assuming this is NCP (and given the fact that the storefront lists 131 NCP books, and no others, I think that’s a reasonable assumption), they are presumably selling off excess stock, which they have the contractual right to do. That’s fine, as long as the authors get royalties.
The concern is that nowhere is it mentioned that this seller is related to NCP in any way, but that doesn’t necessarily prove it’s not aboveboard. Nevertheless, I would feel a lot more comfortable with it were the storefront clearly labeled “NCP.”
Emmy
July 14
1:06 pm
Actually, I’m wondering how long this post will be here. The last blog about NCP mysteriously disappeared with nary a word a day or so later.
Odd. Very odd.
Ellen Ashe
July 14
1:36 pm
As soon as I heard my book, The Sorcerer’s Mark, was for sale, I emailed the seller to ask: How many NEW copies do you have, James from Georgia, and will the author receive royalties? Here’s a shock- no answer.
(James is rumoured to be NCP owner’s son although there are still those who believe “him” to be one of the infamous three- who really knows?)
Apparently at least one NCP author thinks this is all a big laugh- some of her books are priced at $50 or more- and she feels she’s worth it. I can’t imagine how any author can take this so lightly (pardon the pun).
But scroll through the list and you’ll see a few by Kaitlyn O’Connor and Jaide Fox- nice touch- as if the owners of NCP weren’t getting a hefty return on each book sold anyway.
But hey- this James could be any ol’ Joe-Blow who bought all of NCP’s backlist printbooks and is selling them all as an independent dealer with NOTHING to do with NCP. And I just saw a pig fly past my window.
BookBuyer
July 14
2:26 pm
Based on some of the feedback:
The books are new, not used, so it’s unlikely these are from a private collection that the owner has decided to sell.
Also, seeing this:
Is a bit suspect. I bet they’d VERY close to the publisher’s heart.
Ellen Ashe
July 14
2:30 pm
Very close to their purse, more like.
AztecLady
July 14
4:12 pm
I’m confused, Emmy. The last NCP post is here.
Annmarie
July 14
5:24 pm
If a person sells books on Amazon, the author doesn’t get royalties. If James is the same person who worked for NCP, I’d say they found a major loophole to get out of paying authors. It’s such a coincidence that this James on Amazon is from Ga too…
ANON
July 14
5:48 pm
There seems to be a lot of Jim’s intwined the lives of the DePastures
http://pickledcupid.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-concepts-publishing-castle.html
Ellen Ashe
July 14
6:20 pm
Oh. My. God.
Well, not every author can say “my book helped build a medieval castle for my publisher”.
Maybe we’ll all get invited over for a suckers banquet.
Anyone else feel nauseous?
Ellen Ashe
July 14
7:27 pm
Update: Just been told by a friend MY book on this Amazon seller’s store has been taken off.
Maybe my email to the ‘seller’ asking about author royalties had an impact… cool.
Marianne LaCroix
July 14
7:39 pm
On the upcoming release page is “THE FIRE KING” by a Juliette Barrymore…someone brand new. James the Fire King….Hmmmm….connecting the dots. VERY suspect.
Anon76
July 14
8:21 pm
Okay, Ellen, I can understand your frustration, but…there is no consiparacy going on when it comes to the topics on this website. Like any other blog, the topics drop lower on the page as new header posts are added by the host. If you scroll to the bottom, you can go back to previous posts that no longer fit the main page.
Again, I understand your frustration, but don’t weaken your point by getting overly hyped about things that have nothing to do with your real issue…NCP taking their authors to the cleaners.
Just saying…
Anon76
July 14
8:23 pm
Oh shoot, my last post should have been directed to Emmy.
My deepest apologies Ellen.
Ellen Ashe
July 14
8:28 pm
Being taken to the cleaners IS why I’m upset. I wasn’t aware I insinuated anything differently.
Annmarie
July 14
9:19 pm
That they have a book coming out called “The Fire King” is another huge coincidence…
And btw… nice detective work Nancy Drew… (you know who you are)
T.J. Killian
July 14
11:14 pm
I wish I could check out of this publisher, but oh well and fiery hell. I only have a year left on my first contract.
Personally, I consider myself lucky – my books were never ‘good enough’ in ‘their’ opinion to be put in print.
So sorry to those who are sucked into this new mess. My thoughts are with you.
KS Augustin
July 15
1:15 am
That’s not really fair, Ellen. We both know that the author you mention made a joke about her books being so expensive (I think her “*snicker*” at the end of the first sentence gave it away), and then went on about the craziness of book prices from USED booksellers. I didn’t read any sense of “preciousness” in her statement, and I’m nowhere as well known as she — or you — are.
Ellen Ashe
July 15
1:56 am
Yeah, you’re right. But none of this is fair. Shame a few of those power-house names wouldn’t object to piracy. Maybe we lesser knowns wouldn’t have to keep banging our heads against the wall.