The publishing house En exergue, founded in 2011 by José Carlin-Perez and who developed his brand from 2016, encountered some turpitude after leaving Harmonia Mundi for MDS at the beginning of the year.
Disagreeing with Christian Bourgois
Part of its stock, around twenty titles, is blocked at Harmonia Mundi, whose broadcasting and distribution contract runs until October 2025. At the origin of this situation, a disagreement between the broadcaster and the publisher Christian Bourgois, who supported the development of En Exergue between 2019 and 2023. After the separation of the two editorial entities, Harmonia Mundi did not reach an agreement with the Christian Bourgois group to terminate the contract. Consequences, ” my stock of books is blocked with my former distributor and by publishing a marketing stoppage, titles which were selling are no longer selling », deplores José Carlin-Perezfounder of En Exergue.
Among the blocked titles, several award-winning ones, such as 21 turns of Fred Chicken – (Grand Prix Sport&Literature) or The road warriors d’Etienne Bonamy (Antoine-Blondin and Louis-Nucéra Prize) and successes such as the biographies of Roger Federer of Fabrice Abgrall et François Thomazeau or Gervais Martelwritten in collaboration with Bernard Lions. « This represents approximately 36,000 copies », whispers the editor, a former journalist and communicator in the sports world, who has not stopped his activity however.
New collaboration with Media-Participations
Since the end of last year, it has joined the Media-Participations group via a partnership which resulted in a broadcasting-distribution agreement with its subsidiary MDS in the first quarter of 2024. This collaboration has enabled it to release new titles, such as that The Immolated Iconof Lionel Froissartas the thirtieth anniversary of the racer’s death approaches Ayrton Senna last March, or a new album by the illustrator Ernest Pignon-Ernest on the Olympics, The gold Rushpublished at the end of April.
No control over the rest of the program
The fact remains that as a publisher, the freezing of its stock “ devalues the brand and the fund », grumbles the fifty-year-old who faces a situation that he cannot control. The latter can last until the end of the contract with Harmonia Mundi, if no agreement with Christian Bourgois is reached before then. Last February, the group ofOlivier Mitterrand had announced in Weekly Booksvia a press release signed by the editions In highlight, “ the cessation of marketing on March 31, 2024 of all published titles » with a ” returns accepted until June 30, 2024 ».
An announcement of which the authors were not previously informed, according to José Carlin-Perez. “ They can therefore request and obtain recovery of their rights and sign a new contract with me which will allow me to republish them. », assures the editor. It remains to be seen what will become of the stock returned to Christian Bourgois, via Harmonia Mundi. In the meantime, En exergue continues its journey away from Christian Bourgois and into the bosom of La Martinière.
