Thursday, December 20, 2007

"Airleaf Publishing, Self-Publishing Company, Closed Their Doors for Good."

Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
Many of you have received the following notice from Detective Jeff Buskirk of the Martinsville, Indiana police department. If you haven't, I am sending it to you so you can take the proper action. Please see my note at the end.

Good day,

This is to inform you I have talked to Carl Lau this date. He has closed down. However, he and his attorney has assured me that if I provide them with a list of items to be returned, they will make them available to return disks, galleys, books etc. Carl told me he has 60,000 books in his facility, of which he owns only about 10,000 of. The rest is yours and others who have published with him. When he receives an authors permission, he is donating books to Goodwill.

Here is what I need from each of you. I need a list of any items you want returned to you in a separate email sent directly to me. This email will be given to the attorney, so please only list what you are needing from the company. You may also indicate how much you feel they owe each of you, so that that can be recorded by the attorney too. Please keep the negative comments to another day, as we are trying to get each of you what we can get as we can get it. I will also need to know if you are willing to pay for shipping as I don't believe there will be funds to ship anything out from Airleaf and probably not from our agency. If you want to drive to Martinsville, please indicate this and I will try to set up a time in January to have a day or two where we can get this accomplished.

This does not stop the criminal investigation. Some of you have also asked about the class action or civil suit. You will have to talk to Bonnie Kaye about that issue as I have no involvement in civil matters at this time.


Finally, this is my last day of working this year, but I will be available thru email. Starting January 1, 2008 I will be working the streets and no longer a detective. Political change. As of today, I have continued to inquire as to how this case will be handled or if I will be allowed to continue this investigation, but the new Chief and administration has chosen to keep me in the dark. Therefore, I will just say I will do everything in my power to make sure this case is not forgotten nor ignored. Hopefully, I will be allowed to continue to work on this case as I change positions.


Thank you all for your assistance in this matter and I will be looking forward to hearing from all 150+ of you in the next couple of days as to what you need from Airleaf and what to do about your books if they have them.

Finally, in a total unofficial matter, I am on the Board of directors of the Boys/Girls Clubs of Morgan County which serves Martinsville and Mooresville communities. We currently have two clubs which are up and operational. If any of you have books which are appropriate for children ages 6-18 and wish to donate them to us, you can do so my sending them to me at the PD address. This is not a demand by any means, it's just a way for us to build up our libraries which we are just now putting together.
Sincerely,


Capt. Jeffrey C Buskirk
% Martinsville Police Dept
PO Box 1415
Martinsville, Indiana 46151
765-342-6614 Office 765-342-6725 FAX

It is with deep regret that Detective Buskirk is leaving his job. I had an extensive conversation with him this afternoon expressing our concerns for when he is reassigned. He has requested that he be allowed to finish up the investigation with Airleaf, but depending on the new mayor who starts after January 1, this will be determined later. We may need to write to the new mayor to express our concerns at that time, but I will keep you posted.

Although this isn't the final victory for us, it is a major victory. Authors will be able to get their valuable work back as well as books. Airleaf is out of business so that Carl Lau can't hurt anyone else like he has done to us. Although Lau is pointing the finger in my direction, I hope you all know that this fraudulence was taking place long before my Airleaf Victims campaign. I was not the cause of his fraudulence--he has to take the responsibility on himself.

We must continue our campaign with renewed energies after the New Year in order to see what money can be returned to authors as well as making sure that criminal charges are pressed against the man who was in charge of collecting our money. I will update you with more information on Saturday.

With love and hope,

Bonnie Kaye
Authors and friends,
We need you to continue blogging and sharing your stories so that justice can continue to all those parties involved in this horrific scandal.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

My name is Richard Freeman. I had Airleaf Publishing publish a book for me. The Title is A Carpenter's Tale: The Mystery of Kidron Valley. It cost me $,1500 for fifty books. I was to receive advertising in 10 bookstore chains. I have sold no books through them, ever.

Richard Freeman

Anonymous said...

Same with me!! I paid $300 for them to advertise my book and it never happened. Then I received countless mailings from Airleaf to spend more money with them. what a bunch of idiots!!!

Unknown said...

I have paid about $1500 for Airleaf to publish my fathers book "Islam through Quotations" in the April '06 timeframe. I have not received any feedback from them or royalties on any sales.

Dr Hibbert's Blog said...

have paid about $1000 for Airleaf to publish my book "Relationships From Singleness to Marriage" in 2006 They sent me a few copies, since then, I have not received any feedback from them or royalties on any sales. I cannot even find my book on line

Al Hibbert