"echo -n" prints "-n"

There are multiple versions of the echo command, with different behaviors. Apparently the shell used for your script uses a version that doesn't recognize -n.

The printf command has much more consistent behavior. echo is fine for simple things like echo hello, but I suggest using printf for anything more complicated.

What system are you on, and what shell does your script use?

Try with

echo -e "Some string...\c"

It works for me as expected (as I understood from your question).

Note that I got this information from the man page. The man page also notes the shell may have its own version of echo, and I am not sure if bash has its own version.

bash has a "built-in" command called "echo":

$ type echo
echo is a shell builtin

Additionally, there is an "echo" command that is a proper executable (that is, the shell forks and execs /bin/echo, as opposed to interpreting echo and executing it):

$ ls -l /bin/echo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 22856 Jul 21  2011 /bin/echo

The behavior of either echo's with respect to \c and -n varies. Your best bet is to use printf, which is available on four different *NIX flavors that I looked at:

$ printf "a line without trailing linefeed"
$ printf "a line with trailing linefeed\n"