This company sounds like bad news. Well, what do you expect for a company run by a disbarred lawyer who was convicted of statutory rape?
First, I saw Adam’s thread at Shocklines, in which it’s mentioned that Blu Phi’er won’t be shipping copies of “Snuff” to Horrormall, and will not fulfill orders placed through HM. That’s already a red flag.
Then, I received email from Lincoln, who shared with me copies of email correspondence he’s had with Blu Phi’er, as well as a copy of the contract he signed. The contract is extremely unfavorable to writers, but it looks binding. Blu Phi’er left itself enough wiggle room in the contract to not publish something under contract if they say they were unable to work out editorial differences with the author (not exact phrasing, but that’s the gist of it).
Lincoln, as well as at least one other of my readers is on the anthology’s contributor list. The anthology is “on hold.” Not “delayed” . . . on hold. Looks like they’ve closed up shop, for all practical purposes. It’s almost a sure bet that anthology will never be published.
Several of my other readers are affected by these developments, even if they weren’t slated to be in the anthology. Among the tricks this company has played are: sent an author an invoice instead of royalties; didn’t return a copy of the signed contract to the author; pretended that they have no contract with the author; and now, ceasing publication of both current and future books. They get really nasty in email correspondence when pressed for answers, from what I’ve seen.
Lincoln’s tale is told in more detail on his own blog. We’d really like to warn folks about how poorly Blu Phi’er has treated its writers as of late. It won’t help anyone currently affected, but may save others some grief.
At the very least, we’d like Preditors & Editors, Absolute Write, and Writer Beware, to be aware of their latest shenanigans.
Sounds like the perfect place for Dagstine, Philbin, and Pacione.
I hope there’s a special place in Hell for people like Bernoudy (Blu Phi’er’s owner) and company. Here I am bitching about a short story of mine, and poking around at the forums that are already linking to my blog shows a couple of people that have sent them whole books. I hope they get better treatment than the contributors to Night of the Working Dead did.
Was that the anthology of the zombies at work? I was looking forward to that one.
I have been reading through the copy of the contract that Blu Phi’er issued to a friend and I do not think they have a leg to stand on if the author demands their rights back.
For anyone in the anthology, that sounds right. Not sure where that leaves Eric and Adam, though.
Rusty,
I’ve had not so good dealings with the company. SNUFF has sold a lot of copies on Amazon and other places. This past week, the sales ranking has been harboring at 8,000 and has now gone up. We’re collecting royalties from it and getting the hell out of dodge. What others want to do is totally up to them.
I’m still with Teri Woods Publishing http://www.teriwoodspublishing.com
She published my first book, and is publishing my crime novels. ( Her own books are NY Times bestsellers)
As far as my other ventures with horror, they’re other places interested. And I do have some interesting things happening.
I strongly suggest that anyone who has a Blu Phier contract to read it with an attorney.
I’ve not had any problem with them paying royalties, but as of late, something has happened to the company. And the contracts ARE to be held up for discussion. No doubt on that. Adam can ( if he choses to do so) elaborate on this.
Hope that helps.
I hate what has happened with the company. It could have been a good place. But due to some very bad bussiness decesion by the owner of the company, this is what he gets. I was in one of the anthologies that was cancled so I now how this makes everyone feel. It’s a shame.
I hate that this has happened to the company. I was in one of the anthologies that got dropped. I found out the same way everyone else did. Not very professional to say the lest.
Sorry about that, BPHW. As a first time commenter (using that name, anyway), you got stuck in moderation until I got home from work. It shouldn’t happen again.
mmm.. yeah.
I’ve demanded a reversion of my rights.
We’ll see how Mike responds to that one, since he’s either not responded at all, or been plain shitty to me in the past.
Just wanted to say I wish you the best, Blu Phier writers. Sorry this happened to you all.
Best Wishes,
Louise
Fascinating. I just found this:
And this:
According to the same page, he passed the Texas bar in 2004. That sort of explains the dichotomy between Blu Phi’er’s being registered in Shreveport, Louisiana, and its having a Marshall, Texas, mailing address. It also proves that he is no longer licensed to practice law in Louisiana.
That web site still has a footer copyright date of 2005, and has had less than 11,000 hits, including mine from today. By now, if The Rusty Nail gets fewer than 1100 a day, excluding mine, it’s a really s-l-o-w day. TRN has been around for about a year, in its current incarnation. Before that, it was merely a way to experiment with WordPress 2.0 beta software, and test some of its new features.
On a positive note, given the Blu Phi’er web redesign, showing blue gas flames, I think we finally know how to pronounce “phi’er.” Personally, I think blue fear would be more apt. JMHO.
Lincoln, I read what Mr. Haringa (Jackula) posted on TODP about Blu Phi’er, and there was a similar discussion I had with Janrae about it a year ago. I was leery of them from day one. Although I do not know Mr. Haringa, I do occasionally read his blog at Livejournal. He’s dead-on, well-respected, and knows the business.
Anyway, let’s hope this works out for the best for everyone affected by this mess.
The response I get from Mike:
“I regret to inform you that we will buy release the rights to the above mentioned book.”
Anyone care to interpret so I know what words he meant to use, instead of the words he did use?
And this is a college educated man???
My guess is that he wants you to purchase the rights back from him, although his sentence made no sense. If that’s the case, call him on it. If that’s the best he can do in legalese, how well could he possibly do in civil court?
Mike: “I own this authah. Lookit da contrak!”
Judge: “Do you speak English?”
Mike: “Whuh? I’m licensed in Texas to put my pawprint on a used car sale, as the salesman. It jiss looks kinda funny.”
Judge: “Case dismissed. Next.”
Obviously, he’s pretty hard up for cash now, if, indeed, he’s going after you for cash, and he never intends to publish your book(s). He really doesn’t have much of a legal leg to stand on, but he thinks you will back down or pay up, hence his apparent bravura.
He’s all bark and no bite, as the saying goes. Dig in your heels.
I advise everyone involved to send their complaints and copies of their email correspondences (and contracts if you can) to P&E and Writer Beware. Ann or Victoria will likely be able to tell you what to do next.
Excellent suggestion, Michele. Sounds like they are trying to hold the author’s book hostage.
The reason I didn’t submit to ‘Night of the Working Dead’ (or whatever the zombie anthology was called) was because I was afraid of association with a child molester affecting my name. If he admited guilty, that’s good; at least he wasn’t lying. Still, you get my point.
AS to Blu Phi’er’s books, I’ve only ordered one, and that was Eric and Adam’s SNUFF. (Which I won’t get until after I come home from vacation, mind you.)
Hopfully it’s a misunderstanding/a little confusion and will be resolved shortly.
BP’s website suggested to me from the start that they were shady. I will go to their website and try to remember all the things that set off alarm bells for me a year ago.
Rusty,
I’m without my personal email right now, but I’m gonna send ya some stuff from my Apex account. I jumped the Night of the Working Dead ship within a week of my story’s acceptance…
Lincoln – I did receive your email (I can receive but not send) and I’ll get a response out to you sometime next week.
My understanding is that if they haven’t paid you that they are in breach of contract.
Just contact a lawyer and have them write up a letter informing Blue Fire that they are in breach of contract and as a result all rights to your work have reverted back to you as of XX-XX-XX date.
A good lawyer will probably charge you $250.00 to write up such a letter and mail it to them.
After that, the ball is in their court. They can either pay you or just ignore it knowing that they will lose any court challenge that they try to bring later.
i am currently marking up a copy of their contract with all the points where they are in breech of contract. I will post them line by line with the author’s identity left out once I am finished with it.
I am preparing to take them apart at the seams.
Cuss,
First the web page has been modified since we all last had suspicions about it. It used to be god-awful ugly. It looks more professional these days, however any publisher which must explain in the FAQ (on the “Publisher’s Corner” page) why they deserve rights in perpetuity and why they don’t conform to industry standards is a huge red flag to me.
I was contracted to MardiGras publications (a romance ebook press) when they went down. Let me tell you their contract was professional and had all the things I like to see in it. I only signed away exclusive e rights for 2 years, and if they didn’t publish my book within 3 months of the release date (they didn’t) then all rights reversed back to me. They explicitly stated that they had no rights to the characters or settings and the first right to look at sequels only. I had no problem at all with anything in their contract and they still went down. So I don’t understand why anyone would take a chance with a press that is defensive and rights grabby upfront.
Since my Shocklines apology was linked on here, I felt I should respond.
First and foremost, I posted that apology as just that – an apology to the people who had to go through the headache of reordering the book. I also wanted to make it clear that Larry over at the Horror Mall was not blame.
That being said, it’s easy enough to infer what my thoughts on the whole mess are. However, I did not write that in an attempt to start some kind of public or legal feud with our publisher.
Obviously, Eric and I had our problems with how the publishing of “Snuff” was handled, but we bit the bullet and renegotiated our contract to avoid delays and legal action, which would have benefited no one.
The other writers that have signed contracts with BPP obviously can do whatever they feel is right for them and their work.
Personally, I’m disappointed that the two anthologies were dropped (and how it was handled), but at the same time, I’m not going to jump the gun and sabotage our book to prove a point.
In the future, I’ll be more careful with contracts, but based on Eric’s prior experience with BPP (they published “The Reckoning” and “Ghost of a Chance”) I have no reason to believe that the royalties negotiated in our contract will not be paid in a timely and fair manner.
I’m certainly not endorsing or defending BPP or its owner, but I wanted to clarify my original intention before things got out of hand. I hope this helps.
I’d also like to thank everyone who has supported Eric and I through all of this. Your friendship, encouragement and advice is sincerely appreciated, and I can assure you we’ve taken the necessary steps to ensure nothing like the Horror Mall fiasco happens again.
If you’ve got any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Adam
ahuber83@comcast.net
You are very right, Michelle.
Savage, I’ll take that advice, esp. since the JAG office on base will do that $250 lawyer’s job for free. Love them Army perks!
And Michele, you were right about the contract:
“1. Grant of Rights; Term; Territory. The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher, during the full term of copyright and any renewals thereof, the exclusive rights to manufacture, publish, distribute and vend the Work in the printed form and all E-versions in the United States.”
I feel like such a toolbag now. I’ve learned so much in the intervening months since signing that thing… I’d catch something like that in a contract sent to me now. I should have known better. Damnit.
Look at it this way, Lincoln. At least you learned this before it happened to a novel or the like.
UPDATE:
Word is getting out. Michele linked here, and to Absolute Write. The link trail led to this. Strauss knows about it, for sure. It’s also possible that Crispin and Kuzminski do, as well.
Someone I don’t know at LJ (the username is not familiar, anyway) also linked here.
The good thing that I’ve seen so far is that most folks seem sympathetic toward the writers caught in the “blu flameout.”
Rusty:
Kuzminski & Strauss know. Crispin does, too. It was not a surprise for Kuzminski.
Excellent. I’m glad to hear that, Khazar. Word of
keyboardmouth among the right circles was exactly what I hoped to achieve.“I’m not going to jump the gun and sabotage our book to prove a point.”
Very telling point there, Adam..
From what I’ve heard about you, God forbid anything get in the way of a few bucks…especially anything as trivial as principles.
BPBB,
I’m not sure who you are, but I’d be happy to discuss this with you. I’m trying to be civil and not go public with things that could have future legal repercussions.
We’ve put our heart and soul into a book, and we’re trying to do the best with that project. I haven’t come out to defend BPP, but I’m not going to throw away anything I’ve but this much of myself into to further online drama.
The people out there who have problems with BPP should certainly find a way to remedy them (just like we did in our negotiations).
Like I said before, feel free to contact me at ahuber83@comcast.net to discuss it further.
And as far as what you’ve heard about me. I’m far from a public figure, so I can’t imagine you’ve heard much about me at all.
Adam
Okay, pull up your pants, and stop shitting on each other.
Adam, I’m not the enemy. I just get testy when folks get weird on me, in comments, directed at whomever. As far as I know, nobody’s knocking you.
Rusty,
I didn’t mean my response as an an insult to you or the blog. I love what you do here.
However, whoever posted comment #30 seemed to imply I was somehow only interested in money and had no principles. I took offense to that statement.
I’m not asking you to censor comments or anything like that. I just wanted to offer that poster to contact me personally to take up whatever issue they had with my previous post.
I’m really just trying to make the best of a bad situation and keep everything civil.
Adam
Fair enough. I don’t know who #30 is. I could research it, but I’m not inclined to do so (way too tired, and you are not entitled to know, anyway).
Here’s my take on it: you and Eric got stuck between a rock and a hard place, not of your making. Most people feel sympathy for you, including me. But, please stop pushing it.
I honestly didn’t think I was pushing for anything. I just responded to a negative post directed at me and my “lack of principles.”
I’m not asking for sympathy, just a fair shot at defending myself.
Both Eric and I appreciate the support shown by you and others. We’re not trying to capitalize from it. All I ever did publicly was post an apology for the benefit of the people who got screwed over in pre-ordering and Larry over at the Horror Mall.
I’ve tried to be honest about everything that happened. I’ve never tried to slight this blog or even refute any criticism against BPP. People deserve to be warned, but at the same time, I’ve had to politely decline personal emails and messages looking to file lawsuits or start some kind of online crusade against someone I’m contractually obligated to work with.
I don’t thin there’s any reason we can’t be both honest and civil.
Adam
Adam, this is a really old thread. You’re fine.
Fair enough. I’ll let it die. Sorry for any inconvenience. I just like to keep things straight. Consider it dead, Rusty. Good night.
*UPDATE #2*
This site, of which I’ve never heard, liked to this blog entry about the Blu Phi’er fiasco.
I’ve also heard from one of the authors that Blu Phi’er will not release any of its authors from the rights-in-perpetuity clause. It really sounds like a move for a buyback from the authors to those rights, but I think it will backfire on Bernoudy.
Has anyone ever stopped to remember that Eric Enck was the marketing director for Blu Phier? And furthermore that most of the decisions that were made (like the shoddy website) were done by Eric Enck?
Sounds like a little bit of sour grapes if you ask me.
My understanding is that Eric booked outta there before the joint tanked. If you have any further knowledge of the situation, I’d love to hear about it. This whole thing just gets weirder and weirder.
The “joint was tanking” partially b/c of Eric from what I’ve been told.
U guys need 2 read the owner book he states how he get over on people because he is an attorney. This guy wrote a book about his victim