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Blu Phi'er Publishing (Michael L. Bernoudy, Jr.)

triceretops

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Donnette, I'm sorry this happened. I saw it coming and voided my contract, through a mutual agreement with Michael years ago. The shame in all this is tha several of my best AW buds landed with BP. They've disapeard from the boards here. No doubt from not receiving a dime in royalties and having to contend with that contract. No wonder they gave up. Usually authors receive little or no royalties with their statement. This is the first one I've seen who sends you a royalty statement that reminds you you're in the red and owe money. A vanity publisher in disquise.

Tri
 

Sheryl Nantus

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This is the first one I've seen who sends you a royalty statement that reminds you you're in the red and owe money. A vanity publisher in disquise.

Tri

Oh... I just received one from a publisher for a book which we broke contract on over a year ago.

Somehow they managed to sell an ebook copy from a cached page. When I called them on it they noted that they still were in the red regarding my book because of all the returns.

I pointed out that the contract we signed had nothing about a reserve against returns clause and that if they wanted to go to court I was ready. And I'd done just as they wanted in the way of promotion by getting stores to order copies. The fact that they paid me royalties without holding anything back shows/showed where their goals were - to sell to the author, not to bookstores.

Sort of confirmed what I'd thought of them all along.

;)
 

triceretops

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Oh... I just received one from a publisher for a book which we broke contract on over a year ago.

Somehow they managed to sell an ebook copy from a cached page. When I called them on it they noted that they still were in the red regarding my book because of all the returns.

I pointed out that the contract we signed had nothing about a reserve against returns clause and that if they wanted to go to court I was ready. And I'd done just as they wanted in the way of promotion by getting stores to order copies. The fact that they paid me royalties without holding anything back shows/showed where their goals were - to sell to the author, not to bookstores.

Sort of confirmed what I'd thought of them all along.

;)


Woah, Sheryl, that sucks. If they'd done their job right by getting book stores to order copies, instead of you, they would have been responsbile for the returns. Any small press that asks me "What is your marketing plan?" as the first words out of the mouths prompts me to ask, "What's your marketing plan? Do you even have one?"

I know small press publishers (printers, actually) that sell author's books exclusively on their site, with no other venues, then blame the author for weak or no sales.
 

Sheryl Nantus

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Woah, Sheryl, that sucks. If they'd done their job right by getting book stores to order copies, instead of you, they would have been responsbile for the returns.

They *are* responsible for the returns. All I did was ask the store to contact the publisher to order books, which they did. It's not MY job to ferry books around and sell them by hand.

Store orders books from publisher, store returns unsold books to publisher. There's no way an author should be in the middle of that.

And if they want to go to court over fifty bucks, well... I'm ready.

:D
 

Donnettetxgirl

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Exactly, Sheryl. The jerk got my blood and sweat. He's not getting my money for returned books too. Like you said, it's not the author's responsibility. I did my part, and some of his too.

I went a step above, and got hold of the corporate office for Hastings bookstores. The lady agreed to take a look at Blu Phier's catalog of books. Said she'd be glad to order copies for all the Hasting stores. Hastings is a growing chain in the US. It meant lots of immediate sales for the authors and Bernoudy himself. Since he didn't have a catalog, I agreed to design it, which I did. All I asked Bernoudy for was the money to make copies of it. Wouldn't have cost him more than a few hundred dollars. I would have even sent them off to Hastings. He never sent me the money to get the copies made. What a shame. It was a golden opportunity.

This experience turned me off to small presses. Even though I know there's alot of them out there that are totally legit. I don't want to go through the hassle again for such little reward. A little bit of help with marketing would be nice, ya know.

Thanks, Tri for your comment. The experience, as bad as it was, did teach me an awful lot though. It gave me the passion to learn the craft even better, and the determination to go after what I want this time around. I have been submitting my second book. I've gotten some wonderful feedback from some great agents, and I have one I'm really interested in who took the time to send me her 8 page editing guide. She wanted me to apply it to the three chapters I sent her, and then resubmit. But even if I don't get a contract from her or any of the others I'm waiting to hear from, it's okay. I'm on the right track and won't quit till I reach my goal. I'm not settling this time.

Oh, I heard you got an agent for one of your books, Tri. Way to go, man.
 

triceretops

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Thanks, Donnette. Yeah, I pulled Planet Janitor from BP, because Michael explained that he couldn't promice any editing. Jesus. Then I found out about the books having to earn out and beyond their printing cost. Double Jesus. Many authors I know got roped into this because that (greedy) provision was not entirely explained. Very nebulous. My book went on to sell a few more times until I was satisfied that I had a very good small press deal. Oh, one of my thrillers landed four agent offers--that's a different book.

I have a horror story about small press that will raise the hackles on the back of your neck and induce vomiting. It's on my cheepo website (sig), and it's called The Demise of Rain Books. I really think I broke that pub company with my promotion and marketing efforts. 26 writers went down the tubes instantly--some who had series destroyed during mid-print.

I'm so sick and disgusted with small press that has no distribution, that I'm honoring the last of my contracts, and then turning my back on them forever.

Tri
 

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No editing? Damn, it doesn't surprise me. When Scott Saylors went MIA, things went dowhill quick for BP. He was doing alot for Michael. I'd heard later that Saylors had died. As a matter of fact, he'd edited my book, but when it was time for the edited version to go to print, my computer crashed and I no longer had my edited copy. We were trying to get hold of him and nobody could. Then I'd heard he died. After that, Adam Huber did the line editing on the book. But I know after the marketing director left, Michael was willing to do pretty much nothing for nobody. His little press all but shut down. He was done.

I don't believe Bernoudy ever had a clue. And his ignorance ended up hurting good people who didn't deserve that. After the marketing director took off, it was like he was pissed at all of us. Giving us an I don't give a damn attitude. Right at the time the marketing director quit, my book was being released. It was too late for me to do anything other than try to sell as many copies as I could on my own. At that point I knew I wouldn't get any help from him. But the whole ordeal is over now, and I've put it behind me where it belongs. Maybe one day I'll be able to laugh about it. Not quite yet though.

Thriller, huh? That's awesome. That's the genre of my latest book. Have you given up writing SF?
 

triceretops

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Nah, haven't given up writing SF, cause I have a nice SF book coming out in a month. But SF has always been a very competitive hard-to-sell genre, and I had to try other stories to guage publisher reaction. My current publisher wants a SF sequel to PJ. So I'm not done yet.

Scott was my best friend here on AW, for years. He hooked me up at BP, and did a remarkable job of editing that book. Squeezed a $100 advance out of the guy, which I never gave back. I was the one who discovered and announced his death. I'm still not over it. I'll never be over it. Scott was quite an accomplished hard-SF writer in his own right. He never saw the recognition he deserved.

Tri
 

Donnettetxgirl

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I don't believe he did either, Tri. He was a helluva guy. When we worked together on editing my book, I learned alot from him. I believe he was the best thing Bernoudy ever had going for him. I hated to hear he had passed away.

Through my submitting experience, I'm finding agents are sticking real close to their agendas nowadays. they're not veering too far from their lists. It seemed back when I was submitting Lady Gabriella, I had more luck; it was just easier. This time around I'm having to really work for it. I had quite a few agents tell me their decisions were influenced dramatically by the changing of the publishing industry from print books to ebooks. This has me a bit concerned. I always thought I'd never see the day print books were done away with. Now I'm not so sure. To me ebooks can't compare to print.
 

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A year later, and Blu Phi'er clings to life. Latest releases are by the owner.
 

JimmyD1318

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Still alive, loving POPCORN, and...writing.

Hey all! I just wanted to say that I'm still alive and writing. I have another book due to be out soon from a different publisher and I am still eating POPCORN like crazy. :popcorn: I learned a lot from my little time with Blu Phi'er. Mainly to not submit to them again and move on. Happy Holidays to everyone here! God bless us...everyone! ;)
 
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Donnettetxgirl

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Learn from it. Good advice. I think we all did...and move on. That's the important part.You know what they say, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

As for the contract...I can't seem to find mine and have been looking for it. I sent Jimmy a message some time ago asking if his contract stated that we would get our book rights back after 3 years. For some reason I thought I remembered that being in my contract with Bernoudy. I wanted to rewrite Lady Gab. I have a publisher who wanted to see it. But I'm not sure if that stipulation is in the contract or not.

I know of a few ways I could probably get the rights back if I really decided to do it. But I will probably end up letting it go and writing a third novel. Moving on, right?

It's nice to see you guys here. Good luck on your latest book, Jimmy.
 

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Put out a couple more for self, but last was in '13, and LLC was revoked last year.