Publishers Behaving Badly: Blu Phi’er
I am not at all surprised by this. I was just using Blu Phi’er’s in perpetuity clause as an example on a writing list and now this.
Blu Phi’er has been under scrutiny for a while due to a poor contract that not only does an rights grab in perpetuity (as close to forever as is legally allowed) but in the past (and maybe now as well) they have operated as a subsidy press and they have contractually prohibited royalties to the author until the publisher regained their investment. The later clause was rather “back door” but no less of a fee. It’s my understanding that the language of the contract not only takes rights for the length of the copyright, but the publisher regained all monies put out for that project before the author received any royalties.
I was recently told that Blu Phi’er has begun dropping their horror authors. Yesterday I noticed a note on their web site saying that they had over bought and were unfortunately forced to let some of their authors go. Their exact words are: “Another thing that I regret is that I started 2008 obligated to publish a lot more books than we can handle. This has caused a number of delays and we have even had to terminate several contracts with authors which I deeply regret.” (http://bluphier.com/page19.html)
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I was also told by the same person that the anthology “Night of the Working Dead” had been canceled. Of that the Blu Phi’er web site says: “We also regret to inform you that previous anthologies listed to be released by the company have been abandoned.” (http://bluphier.com/Anthologies.html)
Even though Blu Phi’er did not contact their authors about this cancellation word passed along as it is apt to do. Lincoln Crisler, whose work had been accepted and who says he had already signed and turned in a contract (which was not signed by the publisher and returned to him) reports having a less than satisfactory email conversation with Blu Phi’er representatives that brings their treatment of authors into question. (http://lincolncrisler.com/?p=125)
Today seems to be a bad day for Blu Phi’er as author Adam Huber reports here (http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/5470) that the publisher opted not to fill pre-orders of his book, SNUFF.
More rumors are coming to light on Absolute Write (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53293&page=6), and a snarkier take on the matter is available here (http://therustynail.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/warning-blu-phier/).
I sincerely hope that the damage to authors is only anger an a bit of stress and nothing worse. And I hope potential authors do their research before signing any contract.
This sure is shitty.
*sighs* I don’t know why these small presses that go through this don’t close to submissions, allow themselves to properly catch up and handle a publication schedule, before they bite off more than they can chew. It is just good business practice, imho.
Whoot! I see what you are currently reading, and I hope you are enjoying it.
I hopped ship shortly after receiving the acceptance email for Night of the Working Dead. I’d been contacted by several writers (one sent a novel contract that the writer refused to sign as it was, and they wouldn’t change it) about their practices, and then I was re-informed that the owner was the guy with ‘the background’ (nudgenudgewinkwink). After everything Rhia went through, I wasn’t going to work with someone like that.
Louise~ I don’t understand it either. Many decent markets have gone out of business and have closed submissions first. My personal suspicion is that when they stopped doing the cost sharing option they couldn’t afford all the books they’d obligated themselves to. I know most decent publishers know how many “slots” they can afford in a year.
And I’m not sure I’ve ever read a straight historical romance before. But I do love the detail and intrigue.
Jodi~ I remember seeing that you’d pulled out of Night of the Working Dead. After that I suspected it was going down. Did they give you any trouble for pulling out?
On DWD — Whoot!
lol