Monday, June 29, 2009

Animal Farm Revisited

ANIMAL FARM REVISITED

When I was in high school, one of the books that left its profoundly affected me was Animal Farm by George Orwell. This was an expose of communism and how proclaimed “equality” led to slavery. It’s a story where the animals took over the farm seeking justice and equal rights for all animals, but in the end, the pigs outsmarted the rest of the animals and treated them worse than their human masters.

At this stage of my life, I can finally identify with one of the main characters of the book named Snowball. Snowball was one of the revolutionaries who believed in justice for the animals. He helped teach the other animals how to read and stand up for themselves. But this didn’t work for the greedy pig Napoleon. He wanted to live with special privileges at the expense of the other animals who were doing all the work. He knew that Snowball, the voice of sanity and reason, would circumvent his efforts to lead the animals back into slavery.

Napoleon started spreading lies about Snowball blaming him for everything that went wrong on the farm. When the other animals would question this, they were put down and isolated from the group until they agreed to believe the lies. Eventually, a pack of wild dogs attacked Snowball and drove him away once and for all. From that day forth, when anything broke on the farm or the benefits weren’t trickling down to the animals, it was blamed on Snowball. He was still creating havoc to ruin everything—or so the animals were told.

Brien Jones is a fraud. He has deceived so many people that I’ve even lost count. And when he fails, rather than accept responsibility, whose fault is it? Bonnie Kaye’s. Yep, it is all my fault. I have become his modern day Snowball.

Here’s an example of what Jones wrote to several complaining authors:

"The last time I sent out bookstore contacts, the author gave the list to Bonnie Kaye and she proceeded to call each and every one of them. Many of our books were returned. Now that list is proprietary. We should have kept it confidential from the start."

That’s pretty funny. No author has ever given me a bookstore contact. The ONLY bookstore I ever called was the one that Jones has pictured on his site. It is called Books N’ More an Indianapolis bookstore. It is there for anyone to view, so I called the store to see if the books were still being displayed. The owner told me they were taken down last July. It had nothing to do with Bonnie Kaye, but rather that the books weren’t selling and it was a temporary display.

One thing that should have kept confidential was the list of authors that Brien Jones provided me with to start the Airleaf Victims campaign. On his recent blog, he states:

"Everyone exalts Bonnie Kaye for putting together 600 Airleaf clients and closing the place down. In the teeny tiny world of untalented writers turned watchdogs and their blogs she reigns supreme. (Hey Lee, I knew you were a guy! It was an insult dumbass.) I wouldn’t include any further insults that could be used against you."

"However, there is another side to the Airleaf story, one never told. At the end of 2006 and the end of my time in Martinsville there were 3000 clients. I have no idea how many authors bought services from Airleaf in 2007 and 2008, I wasn’t there. So we’ll be conservative and add ZERO new clients after I left."

"Subtract out Bonnie’s 600 victims (and I believe they were victims) and that leaves 2400 Airleaf authors.Out of those estimated 2400 Airleaf non-victim authors, how many paid just for publishing? How many received their books and didn’t sign up for anything else?"


The truth is that Brien Jones provided me with the original list of approximately 500authors and their email addresses claiming these were “angry authors” who felt they were screwed by Airleaf. That’s how I started contacting authors in the beginning—with Brien’s list. I’ll be able to produce that for court when he someday takes me there as he keeps promising. Now it may be true that Airleaf had 3,000 clients—but I didn’t have access to the rest of that list like Brien had when he stole the data base from Airleaf to open his new company. And yes, I can prove that too because now I have the list. It’s with another list of his Jones Harvest clients with little notes he writes about each person next to their name so he doesn’t forget the stories he’s making up along the way along with some derogatory notes about some of his authors. That list was given to me courtesy of several of his ex-employees who felt that by giving it to me, it would be in good hands. I’ll be showing those in court as evidence as well. And also one more lie that Brien keeps stating over and over—Airleaf closed on December 21, 2007, not 2008. Brien had been out of there just about a year.

The funniest thing is that in the beginning of my Airleaf Victims campaign when I sent my letters to authors about being cheated by Airleaf, at least 80% of them were complaining about Brien Jones and not about Airleaf. He was the salesman who made promises to take their book to fame and fortune as he happily took their money but somehow ignored them after he drained them. In those days, I defended him to the hilt because I didn’t know any better. I believed his lies that he was a victim of Airleaf just like me. But getting back to the point, I didn’t have the list of 3,000 so there was no way for me to contact the other potential victims until recently. At this time, it would serve no purpose to contact authors because Airleaf is closed.

One last thought--even if his assumption was correct that there were 2,400 happy authors, does that negate the hardship, pain, and loss of money of the 600 who were scammed? Jones's logic would think so because that's how he conducts his business. It doesn't matter if over 80 people are accusing him of taking their money--he'll have a few dozen state they love him and that makes it okay.

And now for the update on the “Sue Bonnie Kaye” case. Brien is sending this letter to authors:

"Jones Harvest Publishing along with 230 (so far) plus SIX OTHER COMPANIES is finally filing suit against Bonnie Kaye. I already paid the Miller Law Group in West Lawn PA for the whole thing, so I don't need any money from you or anyone.
I have decided to include clients like you in the suit at no charge. Please believe me when I tell you her attacks on my company have hurt you and your books. You deserve compensation too."

"You don't have to do anything, or say anything, or pay anything, or go anywhere. You'll just get a share of whatever we get back.If you want a share of the settlement, all you have to do is say "Yes" and I'll add you to the list.
I would love it if you stood with us."


This is quite interesting because Brien doesn’t have 230 authors. According to his Amazon reports, he has approximately 150 authors who have published with him. And the funny thing is I have over 80 reports from authors who have been scammed by him who came to me for help, so somehow, these numbers just don’t add up.

But let’s say that Brien could find 5000 people to join a law suit against me. What is it he is suing me for? Telling the truth? Revealing that he has been deceiving authors and taking their money without providing services? Is this a crime? Are we all living on that Animal Farm where truth becomes lies and lies become the law?

By the way, in an effort to find a new way to make some money, since selling books isn’t what Brien is good at according to Brien when he tells authors:

"I hope you have noticed that you haven't received any letters about new bookselling packages. It's not because we ran out of stamps. We decided to make it or not, with the books and authors we have. We're still trying to find a way to sell books, when I come up with something I'll call."

Now that’s finally something that IS true! They are clueless in finding ways to sell books and they refuse to do what they have authors pay them for—like contacting every media outlet and bookstore within a 100 mile area of their homes.

So now here’s the Jones Harvest new letters sent to all the former Airleaf mailing list:

You don't need to send money or books.

I'll put your book on our websites. No charge, no obligation. I'll even make a few calls. If you want to send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)

I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.

http://www.jonesharvest.com/

http://www.authorgifts.com/

http://www.bookwheat.com/

http://www.myauthorprofile.com/

http://www.myperfectheart.com/

If you don’t pay anything and you don’t have to send me books, how can you become a “victim”?

Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075


Then when you say "yes" to this free offer agreeing to let Jones sell your book, here’s the next letter you get:

We have 800 books for sale on http://www.jonesharvest.com/ including yours. However, there are only 25 spots for book covers on the home page.

I can offer you one of those powerful places for 3 months for just $400. I can put your book on the top row for just $600! No one will have to type your name or title into the search box, your book is RIGHT THERE! That means any bookstore owner that looks at our site will see your cover!

I have one spot left on the top row, two on the second row and eleven more total. Whoever gets them first gets them!

Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075


The first book on the top prime row is “The Stone” by David Welden. According to the synopsis of the book:

The author reveals firsthand accounts of people who have been aboard alien ships. He also provides a detailed timeline of the chronology of Earth from 450,000 B.C. to 2023 B.C. Welden goes on to explain the genetics behind it all, including a discussion of mitochondrial DNA and the role of the Y chromosome.

This book was published by Jones Harvest in 2008 and the ranking on Amazon is #3,894,935. So if this is the first book on the first line giving it “prime time viewing,” you can imagine how well the others are selling—NOT. And yet, people are PAYING for those SPOTS?

I don’t understand how some people are still so suckered in. I have so many letters of people feeling ashamed for throwing their money into the bargain basement of the Jones Family Home, where their publishing company is located. Lots of people are spending lots of money, but who besides Jones is making lots of money?

There is no shame in being conned. It happens to decent, hard-working people who believe in the goodness of people. The shame is to allow it to keep happening or refusing to stop it when it happens again.

You don’t have to be a victim—you can be a victor. All you have to do is “Just Say No” when you receive an offer from Jones Harvest. If you want to give money to charity, make it a worthwhile one that you can at least use as a tax write-off.
Love, Bonnie Kaye