I can't complain too much about the Blu Phier contract (as crappy as it was). I knew Bernoudy intended to recoup his publishing expenses when I signed the contract. I was told by Bernoudy the expenses would amount to the sale of 24 books.
Then, as most of us know, Blu Phier acquired a new marketing director who convinced Bernoudy to make drastic changes to the contract. I was told by this marketing director that the recouping clause had been removed from the original contract, and all the authors would recieve a copy of this new contract. I requested (on several occasions) a copy of the new contract from the marketing director, Bernoudy himself, and another person in charge at Blu Phier. I never recieved it. When everything was said and done, very few authors recieved a copy of the new contract. It came as no surprise to me, one of those few who signed a copy of the new contract was the marketing director himself.
Bernoudy was also convinced (by who I'm not sure) to offer bookstores a standard discount, along with a full refund on books not sold. Of course, this made it possible for authors to get thier books in stores.
Which I did. Through no help from the publisher. I called and scheduled several book signings, got my own reviews, and set up my own radio interviews. In the end I sold way more than the required 24 books to pay Bernoudy back his publishing expenses.
I've never seen a dime in royalties. What I did see on a few occassions, was the UPS man pulling up in my driveway with a box of my books, which had been returned from bookstores for the full refund Bernoudy offered them. Inside, was a nice letter from Bernoudy telling me the cost of these books would be deducted from my royalties.
It wasn't in my contract that I would be responsible for the cost of these returned books. It was an offer from the publisher, not me.
Through this whole nightmare, what I regret the most, was the effect this had on some very talented authors published through Blu Phier. It caused some of them to quit doing what they loved the most: writing. That's the real tragedy here.
Of course, it's easy to say this whole thing could have been avoided if none of us had signed that contract. True enough. Having the knowledge and experience I have now, I would have avoided that contract like the plague. In fact, I wouldn't have given Blu Phier a second glance. But if I hadn't signed that contract and went through the hell I did, I may not see things the way I do now. It was a lesson. A hard one, but a lesson nonetheless. People make mistakes. It's human. It's how we learn to avoid things in the future. Some mistakes are made privately, and people have the opportunity to recover without public humiliation. In this case it wasn't so, and I'm sorry most of all for the authors who had to endure that. I believe it was the only downside to making people aware of what was going on with Blu Phier.
