Frequently Asked Questions:

A word on cover art: Covers come with LIT and most newer PDF ebooks. They do NOT come with RTF and HTML books for the simple reason that it DOUBLES the ebook's size. If you would like the artwork to go with your book, you can save it off the excerpt page of the book by right clicking on the cover.

Are you subsidy? No, we are not. We do not offer advances at this time, but we are a royalty paying house and submissions go through much the same selection process as they would with any other publishing house.

What are your royalty rates? Royalties differ from book to book, however, we commonly pay 30% to 40% on direct download sales.

Do you provide ISBN numbers? Yes. We assign an ISBN number once the contract is received and the book scheduled.

Are your cover artists freelance or in-house? Both. Much of our cover art is done by local artists, however, we have many artists we have met over the internet and they do work for us as well.

What rights do you buy? Exclusive electronic rights for a specified amount of time, usually four years but sometimes less. POD and Trade print rights are also optioned, but this doesn't necessarily mean that a book will come out in print with NCP.

How do you decide what goes into print? This is based mostly on performance of the ebook edition and expressed interest by readers and booksellers for the print edition. If there isn't a reasonable amount of interest, a title will not go into print. If the ebook edition has performed poorly, it will not go into print.

What is your contract length time? Contract time is two (for short stories) to four years from time of signing.

Can you renew your contract with NCP? Most of the time, yes.

If I sell to a paper publisher and they want all rights, can I withdraw my book? If we have invested time and money in the book, NO. If we have not, then yes.

How long does it take NCP to respond to submissions? About two to four months though sometimes longer if submissions are particularly heavy.

Do you accept electronic submissions? By invitation only. We do accept emailed queries at submissions@newconceptspublishing.com . So much of our time is spent on the computer that we cannot take up more valuable time downloading submissions and reading them on the computer. We also have older readers who do not have access to a computer. We accept disk submissions from authors outside of the US for the simple reason that it saves money for foreign authors. (A 300 page book shipped from Australia costs $50.00 to ship!)

Do you provide copyright? We do not file for copyright because the author retains ownership of the book. The author remains the owner of the book and is responsible for filing copyright.

What do you do to promote your books? We have many ways that we promote NCP and our authors. We participate in literacy signings, bookfairs, conferences, trade shows, magazine and newspaper interviews, banner advertising, press releases, contests, sales, trade advertising, etc. We also send out review copies to a dozen or so review sites. Currently, we are focusing on the retail market and are expanding our books into online bookstores as well as physical bookstores. We also sale our Trade Paperbacks through Waldenbooks and distribute through LSI to Ingram, Bertrams, Baker & Taylor, and others. Our goal is to make NCP books easily accessible to people anywhere and we are always busy looking for new avenues.

Do you look at unpublished writer's work? Yes, all the time.

Do you accept multiple submissions? We will no longer look at manuscripts that are being looked at by other publishers.

Should I send the full book or a partial? We really want to see the entire manuscript. It takes us nearly as long to see a partial as it does to look at an entire ms. and it just saves time to view the book in its entirety.

Do you post reviews and author news to the page? At this time we no longer add reviews to the website. It simply takes too much time. This will likely change once we've added on a full time webmaster/webmistress.

Do you accept short stories? We are only taking erotic or spicy short stories at this time, and they should be romantic. Strictly erotic short stories might be accepted, but this is always an author by author issue. Please check our submission guidelines for more details.

Do you withhold taxes from royalties? No. This is the author's responsibility.

Why should I choose NCP over another epublisher? I cannot give you a definitive answer to this, only that we try to remain fair to and respectful of each author we come in contact with and are committed to expanding our market through any and all means available to us. To get a better idea of how we work and what's it's like to be with NCP, contact one of our authors.

How long does it take to be published once the contract is signed? This depends on our workload, how much work must go into the book, and how high demand is for that book. In some cases, it is only a few months, in others, in can be just over a year. If an author sells multiple titles to us, we try to schedule their books out around three months apart, unless they are particularly prolific, and then it can be every month or bi-monthly, etc.

Why don't you put the books up for sale sooner? We require lead time to do editing, artwork, and bookstore promotion, and authors require lead time to arrange advertising and reviews. If everything is done early, we often release the book earlier than expected.

Do you accept all fiction genres or only romance?We are looking for all genres. For more information about submitting, go here.

What do your books on disk look like? Our disks are shipped in glossy software sleeves. They are only available the first month of the book's release.

What formats are your books in?RTF, HTML, MS Reader, and PDF.

What is the shipping and handling charge?Handling is $2.55 for an order. Shipping cost is now dependent entirely on weight and how fast you'd like to receive the order. Media mail is the most common method of shipping.

How long does it take for a book to be delivered? Out of stock books (in print and disk) ship in two to six weeks. Books in stock usually ship within a few days. Downloads arrive instantly via email delivered links.

What is the compatibility of your formats? RTF is our most versatile format and can be read on most word processing programs. HTML can be read by any web browser. MS Reader format is compatible with the newer handhelds, some PDAs, and you can also download a free reader to read this format as well. PDF is read by Adobe Acrobat 3.0 or higher.

Where else can I find NCP titles? Our books can be bought through Waldenbooks, Amazon.com, Powell's books, previewport.com, handango.com, memoware, Bookisle, The Mage bookstore, Walmart.com, Ebookmall, Fictionwise, Ebooks.com, Yahoo, Officemax.com, and many more online stores through Content Reserve. NCP books are also available through LSI, Ingrams, Baker & Taylor Distributors and can be ordered through your local bookstore using the ISBN of the title.

How do I download?

Download links are delivered via email. When you receive the link, click it and you'll be taken allowed to dowload the book, either saving or opening. Save it to your computer and be sure to write down where you saved it on your computer. Books ARE NOT zipped, so there should be no problem downloading. If you have a slow connection speed, this could cause you trouble, and it's recommended to download during a time when there is not high internet traffic, such as early morning. If you continue to have trouble, you can email service@newconceptspublishing.com along with your receipt and we will do our best to help you. Please note that we are short staffed, and responses can take up to 48 hours.

Does cover art come with the ebook downloads?

Ebook covers come with most lit and pdf formats. It does not come with RTF and HTM. This is due mainly to the length of time it would take to download books, as well as taking up unnecessary storage space, however, all of our cover art is available on the site, and you are welcome to download the large or small jpgs with your purchase. Right click on the image and save it to your computer or print it out.

Why should I try an ebook?Does it seem like the print on those paperbacks keep getting smaller and smaller and harder to read? With electronic books you can scale the font size to suit your personal needs.

Electronic books are easier on the pocketbook than the average paperback book, no matter what the length!

So now you're thinking about those uncomfortable typing chairs? So who says you can't drag up a comfortable one?

Futurologist predict all books will one day be electronic. Imagine what these first editions will be worth one day as collector's items!

Less paper, less waste, so they're better for the environment!

Is your library filling up faster than you can make room? With electronic books you can store 3 to 5 times more books in the same amount of space!

Has your favorite book ever fallen apart or been eaten by vermin? With a book on disk you can be certain that won't happen again!

We have lots of your favorite authors and fantastic new authors too!

Is it getting hard to find your favorite sub-genres like time-travel, futuristic and fantasy? We've got all those and much more!

About NCP:

New Concepts Publishing, the first totally electronic romance publishing house, was established in the spring of 1996. Its founder, Madris DePasture, had been a member of Romance Writers of America since the early 90s and was a published author. In her ‘other’ life, she was owner of a successful construction company, which she started in the early 80s. Her first career, however, was in computer science. She had been working with computers for more than 20 years when she first conceived the idea of an electronic publishing company, an idea spawned by the trend she saw towards development of alternate materials to replace the growing inability of the tree industry to keep up with demand.

New Concepts Publishing went on-line with their first four novels, Amber Moment, Lord of Chaos, Liar’s Poker, and Shattered Dreams, in October of 1996. At first publishing only 2 to 4 novels a month, they are now publishing 8 to 16 novels and short stories a month. Although NCP began by focusing on the romance genre, they now publish an ever widening variety of genre fiction, including erotica, erotic romance, short contemporary duets, science fiction/fantasy, historical romance, westerns, horror, anthologies, paranormal romance, and more.

The primary goal of New Concepts Publishing, from it’s inception, was to bring high quality fiction to book lovers. By offering our authors generous royalty percentages and creative freedom, we’ve not only attracted many fine authors, but can offer work ‘written from the heart’, fresh, excitingly different stories stringent guidelines would not allow.