Showing posts with label Gayla Swint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gayla Swint. Show all posts

Saturday, March 29, 2008

AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE MARCH 29, 2008

AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE MARCH 29, 2008

Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,

Welcome to our four new members. We now have 427 members of our group. I am not actively soliciting new people, but they are finding us on the Internet when they try to call Airleaf and the phones/websites are down. We are happy to help any victims who find our group.

I am not actively soliciting new members because this group is now large enough to bring about enough action with the membership we have. Some of you have been with me since my earliest organizing days back in August 2007. You have taken all the steps to get this case moving, moving, moving—and it is moving! I am in touch with both the civil authorities and federal authorities, and I have confidence that we will see some justice in the near future. When we do, I'll be traveling to Indiana hoping to meet some other authors who will join me for any legal court proceedings. I am a big believer in the accused having to meet their accusers, so I am hoping that as many of you as possible will be joining me. I will keep you posted as soon as any of this is taking place.

Our efforts in pursuing justice are very important because there are other companies out there are who practicing predatory publishing. This means that there are new victims all the time. It is my intention for our group to serve as a warning to anyone who thinks that he/she is above the law when it comes to publishing fraudulence. Too many of our authors are kind and trusting souls who were victimized once and now find themselves being victimized again. If you are in that situation, please write to me because I am compiling this new information and helping authors retrieve back their money. Please feel free to write to me before you make any decisions about republishing your book if you want my honest input and research. I'm happy to help you. As I have stated before, I don't want to do anything publicly to divert the attention away from our goal of seeing justice with the Airleaf case. However, privately and behind the scenes I am more than happy to help. Once our Airleaf case is resolved, then I will feel more willing to stop any other criminals who are participating in this unconscionable crime.

The requests for forming a co-op for our group continue to come in. I will work on this in May when I have some vacation time coming from my job. If you have any ideas you would like to share, please send them to me, and when the time comes, I'll notify our "co-op group" as to the suggestions.

Gayla Swint from Fideli Publishing called me to let authors know that Fideli is offering to copyright authors' books for the cost of the copyright even if they are published by another company. The cost for copyrighting is $45.00. Here is an interesting tidbit. Airleaf claimed they were "copyrighting" our books. I looked in my book and saw that it says "Copyright 2006." So after Gayla tipped me off, I went to the website from the Library of Congress and checked. I put the name of the book in, "Straight Wives: Shattered Lives." Well, it didn't really shock me to find that the book isn't listed at all as being copyrighted. To double check, I put in the name of a book published through a traditional publisher and the copyright came up immediately.

This means that there are publishers out there who are lying about getting your book copyrighted. Some of you have gone to companies that tell you that copyrighting is included in the publishing package. According to Gayla, you should receive a letter from the Library of Congress stating this. If you don't have a letter, this is a red flag. Take a moment to check your book in the link below to find out. If it's not there, your book is unprotected and anyone can copy it and say it is theirs. This is another publishing nightmare in the making. If you paid a company for this service and it has not been done when you check, call your company on Monday and demand that it be done or that the money is refunded to you for false advertising. Remember, an ISBN number is not the same as the copyright number.

Here's the link to check if your book is copyrighted:

Simple Search

If you would like to have your book copyrighted, write to Gayla at the following email address: sales@fidelipublishing.com. Fideli will charge you the $45.00 that it would cost you to do it, but they will do it for you and submit all the paperwork without charging you except for the cost. They are doing this as a service to try to help our authors so we are not victimized again.

Or you can do it yourself online if you prefer.

Here's the link to fill out the copyright work on your own:

U.S. Copyright Office

Authors are telling me that they are receiving their books and materials back from Bob Denton as well as Gayla Swint, both former Airleaf employees. Bob asked me to ask you to be patient because he is doing some of this work daily, but he still has a company to run, Mountain Valley Publishing Company, with deadlines to his own authors that he intends to meet. He plans to get to each request in the weeks ahead. If you have an emergency, write to him again and explain. He is being very accommodating in helping our victims. Gayla also has access to some of the books and may be calling you if she has yours to set up a way to return them to you.

In last week's update, I mentioned the website on Bob's website, Books4U, where you can see how your books are being distributed. This caused a lot of anguish to people who saw their books and felt even more helpless because they didn't know how to get the proceeds for them when they sell.

One of our victims wrote to his publisher, one of the major PODer's, about this and received this explanation that he said I could share with the group:

You have to remember that this is POD and, as such, a listing on a website is not an indication of sales or even of the book being stocked. What we have worked out with these distributors is that Ingram would carry a "virtual inventory" of 101 copies of your book so that it would not show an "out of stock" book, which would be an automatic deterrent to prospective buyers. I can understand the confusion, but I can assure you that since your book can be purchased very quickly, I doubt that any of these online retailers have any that are in actual stock.

What this says is that your book may be showing that it's available, but not be available at all. However, this is definitely a way for you to check if your book has been distributed as promised by companies who are selling you publishing packages promising it. If you see that your book is NOT there, then that means you have paid for a service that has not taken place. Let this site serve as a red flag for you.

As we are moving forward in the weeks ahead, I would like to promote our authors who have new books published. I think this is a great way for us to meet our fellow authors and see how diversified our genres are. If you would like to be included in this, please drop me a line with your book and information.

This week, I would like to send our heartfelt congratulations to Airleaf Victim Sarah Harrison, author of You Love Your Daddy, Don't You? A True Tragedy About Sexual Abuse. Sarah joined our group in January after waiting for a book that never came and continually emailing Carl Lau with no response. Due to the sensitive nature of the book, sexual incest, many people in the group where Sarah helps with counseling incest victims were waiting to get this book.

When Sarah and I first became acquainted in January, she shared with me a part of her book which I found horrifying based on her personal experience with incest from the time she was a young girl. As if she had not been victimized enough in her life, now her dream of helping others through her most difficult work of recreating this tragedy in book form had become another nightmare. Once again, Sarah was a victim and felt very defeated.

Sarah decided to publish her book with my new publisher, CCB Publishing. Her book was just released last week. This is the write up from her page on Amazon.com where you can order the book:

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

"Mama, something terrible is wrong with me. There is blood in my panties!"

Those were the words of seven-year-old Sarah. Mama told her she must have fallen or something and not to worry. Sarah went away feeling sad; her chance for help was gone!

It was Sarah's alter, Susie, who had been sticking pencils and other items in her private place. Susie had come when Sarah was only four years old. Susie had become Daddy's 'special' little girl by sitting on his lap. In return he gave her a dollar for any change she had.

Daddy played with Susie's pee pee and it was Susie that slept in the upstairs bedroom with her fourteen-year-old brother. Later in life, two other alters would appear.

You Love Your Daddy, Don't You? is told through the memories of Sarah. It reveals a child's determination to survive despite profound emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. This was compounded by constant neglect from both parents.

About the Author:
Sarah Harrison has written several articles for the Women's Institute for Incorporation Therapy's monthly newsletter as well as articles for spiritual magazines. She also volunteers as a mentor in a local school system, helps with special group activities in an assisted living home, and provides guidance to troubled parents and teens on www.experts.com.

After the death of her husband, Sarah Harrison moved from Atlanta, Georgia in 2007 to a suburb near Charlotte, North Carolina to be near her grandchildren. She has joined Harrison United Methodist Church and is active in Youth Group, Emmaus, Epiphany, and Faith Partners.

Sarah was so impressed by the services provided by CCB Publishing that she added her own testimonial to the others on the website. She wrote:

My name is Sarah Harrison, EDS. Having written my first book, "You Love Your Daddy, Don’t You?" In 2006, my goal was and still is to assist others who have suffered from child and sexual abuse in their lives.

The first attempt to publish my book with Airleaf was less than encouraging. They lied to me, took over $2,000.00 of my money and kept my manuscript for almost two years. I felt like giving up and never thought I’d ever see my book in print. However I had many friends and associates encouraging me, wanting to know when they could purchase my book.

This is when my friend, Bonnie Kaye, who has helped other Airleaf victims suggested contacting CCB Publishing. I am so grateful she did because it is like a dream to work with (the owner) Paul Rabinovitch. He renewed my enthusiasm and made me feel good about my book again. He understood my feelings and even helped me reword some phrases when I asked for his help.

When we converse by email, it never takes him longer than a couple of hours to reply even if it is just to say that he’s received my message and will get back to me in a timely manner.

I signed my contract in mid-February, and now before the end of March it is being printed. I have seen the first copy and am so delighted. It has been a true pleasure to work with Paul. CCB Publishing also allows its authors to have their books listed as “returnable” which encourages bookstores to purchase books. This is definitely an added advantage to us authors. I will recommend CCB Publishing to everyone I know.

In our efforts to promote our internal authors, please buy Sarah's compelling story. You can get it at Amazon.com or order it through her CCB website by clicking here:

Books by Sarah Harrison Sexual Child Abuse

Although I try to remain neutral throughout this mission, I feel compelled to tell our authors about the wonderful experience I had publishing my latest book with CCB Publishing. I think it's the best deal with the highest level of integrity and customer service. Please check the website at www.CCBPublishing.com to see for yourself.

If you have any books that have been printed in recent months and would like to share them with our group, please send me the information and I will share it with the group.

Please write to me if you have any questions or concerns.

Love, Bonnie

Sunday, March 23, 2008

AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE MARCH 22, 2008

AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE MARCH 22, 2008

Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,

Welcome to our new members of the group. As of today, we have 423 victims in our group who are victims of the largest predatory publishing scam in American history.

I am happy to share that a meaningful investigation is proceeding for our case. I have spoken to several law officials, and I feel reassured that there will be good news in the near future. This case is moving along thanks to all of you who took the time to diligently fill out the reports and send them to the proper authorities. There is power in numbers, and that is how we will be able to win this case. This case will send out a loud message to any other company or individual that believes that defrauding innocent victims goes unpunished.

A number of you have written to me to let me know that you are receiving back your disks and books from Bob Denton. Bob has opened up his own publishing company, Mountain Valley Publishing Company in Martinsville. In the past, I incorrectly accused him of being part of Airleaf's continuing business scam after it closed. I did send out a retraction of that statement immediately after I was corrected. Bob has been very helpful to us in our attempts to free our books that are being held hostage by Carl Lau in the Airleaf building. Since he has been flooded with over 100 requests, it may take him a couple of weeks to get to your request, but he is working daily to do this. Bob wanted to let you know that he is publishing books for people who want their books in print; however, he is not doing any marketing beyond putting the books on the traditional Internet sellers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

I would also like to mention that the ladies at Fideli Publishing, Robin Surface's group where Gayla Swint is now working, are also working to get back authors' books and work. You may be getting a call from them if they have retrieved your books and/or materials.

I would like to thank all of these former Airleaf employees who have decided to "do the right thing" in helping our authors retrieve their properties. It doesn't change the facts, but it helps with some of the hardships.

Remember—if Carl Lau contacts you to "sell" you back your books, say NO loud and clear and let me know.

There is one more interesting note about Bob Denton's website. He has placed a link called Bookfinder4U which can be found at: http://www.bookfinder4u.com. I found this site most informative. It tells you where your books are being sold on the Internet. I played around with it for a while, and I learned a lot about my own books. When you click into it, put your book name in there and you can find where your books are being distributed. The bad thing is that I haven't figured out how we will get the money if our Airleaf books do sell, but I will be pursuing that investigation in the near future.

I had a little over two dozen people respond to Chris Varga's idea last week about a print-on-demand author "co-op" venture. This was the idea where we could promote each other's books and buy other each other's books supporting the group and other POD authors. If you are interested in joining this venture, please email and let me know. We have so many diversified authors in our group with so many different types of genres that there is enough material to whet anyone's reading appetite.

I want to address the issue of a "class action" law suit since I get a few requests about that each week. One of our Airleaf victims suggested that I call an attorney he recommended in the Martinsville area. This attorney was kind enough to give me nearly an hour of his time to discuss the case. He confirmed for me what I learned from other lawyers that I have spoken to regarding our plight.

Basically, any legal action that we would take would cost money. When I say money, I mean thousands and thousands of dollars. Even if we could find a lawyer who is willing to take our case on a contingency basis, he would still require thousands of dollars for filing fees and investigation fees. If Airleaf was operating and making money like it was a year or two ago, it would be worth it because we could have won a case more easily. But by the time we started our group in August, the company was in the process of downsizing due to losing money. By October or November, the production at Airleaf was shut down, and almost every printing company dealing with Airleaf was on hold because of the outstanding bills. Employees were having their checks bounced and their health insurance stopped even though they were contributing for those benefits. The money was gone. Even though Carl Lau owns personal assets, we don't know how much is really available. He has other obligations besides ours that may take priority including the loan he took out last year for $216,000.00. According to the Morgan County courthouse, Airleaf has 12 tax issues on their records as well.

If we could be assured that investing money into a legal fund would guarantee us money in return, I'd be the first to participate and chip in; however, my fear is that we will all invest MORE money into Airleaf and still end up on the short end of the stick.

So, I think our best bet is to rely on the government agencies that are working on our case that will discover what there is as far as any assets visible or hidden. When the Attorney General's office files a civil case on our behalf, this will be requesting money for our losses. Bottom line—the lawyer agreed with me that with the complexities of this case and the lack of viable cash, we are taking the right route. If you have any further thoughts on this, please let me know.

Happy Easter to all of our Easter Airleaf Victims!

With love and hope,

Bonnie J

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Airleaf Victims Update March 1, 2008

MARCH 1, 2008 AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE

Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,

Welcome to our new members. We are now a group of 412 authors who are seeking restitution and retribution for the fraudulence done to us by Airleaf Publishing and members of its staff.

A number of you received a second form at home from the Attorney General's office. I contacted Tom Irons, our representative, and asked him if a third report had to be filled out. The first was on line; the second was a hard copy sent to your home. His response to me was:

Bonnie:

On the complaint issue, we need to have a signed copy of the complaint. As long as the author has sent in a “signed” copy, not just a complaint form filled out, they can disregard the yellow form (the signature assures us the author’s claims are true, under penalty of perjury-akin to an affidavit).

Tom

This means if you already sent back one form that was sent to your home, you do NOT have to send in this second form.

I appreciate all of the surveys that have been returned to me to date. If you haven't sent yours in or you're having a problem with it, please let me know. This information has been very valuable already in helping me prepare information for the various government agencies which will need them in moving forward with our case.

I am seeking your help with transactions that took place between the time period of November 2007 and December 2007 when Airleaf closed (December 21, 2007). I contend that the remaining staff at Airleaf knew that there was no way they could deliver on any promises because the production staff was gone and the printers were holding our books hostage for non-payment. Some of you were solicited for publishing and promotions throughout this period and paid for work during this time frame. If you were one of these victims, please let me know the circumstances and amount you paid as well as who you were working with. This includes offers of selling back your own books to you at a discount price.

I have no specific news for you this week; however, I feel confident that there is movement in our case. Please be patient. I did ask Captain Buskirk for an update but haven't heard from his this week. I told him that we are frustrated as far as getting back files and books. I'll write to him again on Monday.

Some of you suggested that I write to the Indiana Bar Association asking them for help. This week, I wrote first to the Indiana Legal Services asking them for help with a pro-bono lawyer. This was the response:

Ms. Kaye,
Generally Indiana Legal Services does not take cases that would result in a monetary settlement. However, you can contact your local legal service office and see if there is some way that we could assist. To locate your local legal service office, go to our web site, www.indianajustice.org and click on the "Find Legal Help". Put your county in the search box and all legal service offices that support Martinsville will come up with contact information.
Another option is to contact your local bar association president. She or he could provide a referral to a private attorney. This attorney would not be free but may be willing to take your case. You can find the bar association president on the same list from our web site.

Victoria Deak, Esq., Project Director
Access to Justice Project Indiana Legal Services, Inc.
www.indianajustice.org

I then wrote back to Ms. Deak explaining that I am not an Indiana resident and received this response:

Ms. Kaye,

If you use the web site and contact the referrals from the bar association perhaps you could do this by phone. Indiana Legal Services also does phone intake. The listings on the web site have the times and days that phone intake occurs. Your other option is to request someone from Indiana to make the contact.

Victoria Deak, Esq., Project Director

A special thank you goes to Ms. Deak who responded within an hour of my request early on a Sunday morning. This is truly a woman who cares about helping others.

I am still pursuing an attorney to do a class action suit, and I requested help from the Indiana Bar Association with no response as of yet. My friend Patty brought up a good suggestion for some of you who are in Indiana that I researched. If you live in Indiana, you may want to think about filing a claim in the small claims court. You can file a complaint if the value of your claim is up to $6,000.00. You don't need legal representation for this, and the cost of filing the claim is relatively inexpensive. I will try to reach the Morgan County Small Claims Court this week to see what we can do to file out-of-town claims with them. If you have tried this already, please let me know so I can share with others the results. If you live in Indiana and want information on how to do this or who to contact, please write to me and I'll send you the information that I have checked out.

This week, I would like to talk to you about information on what is referred to as a "Bookstore Return Policy."

One of our authors, Willard Gray, received this letter from Xlibris and asked my advice:

I have a very good marketing strategy that will give a greater chance for your book to be available in the physical bookstore, We call this Bookstore Returnability Program wherein your book will be listed under i-page (the latest software that all of the resellers/bookstores are using to check for new and returnable books). 30 biz days once the book is published your book is already listed under i-page so there is a greater chance that bookstores or reseller will just directly acquire or order your book because they can always return the unsold books to us and process a refund without affecting your sales or revenue from those books that they have ordered. Also you can go to any of the bookstore that you want and present this Bookstore Returnability Program for them to acquire your book. This is only $699 that you can pay using installment plan of $243/mo for 3 mos. This is good for 1 year and after a year bookstores/resellers will be given within 6 months for then to return the unsold copies of the book for refund. This is a very good hassle free marketing strategy. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

A number of authors have asked me about this because some of the more prominent book companies including AuthorHouse and Xlibris charge $599.00 or $699.00 for this package—FOR ONE YEAR!! Yikes! That's a lot of money, and especially when you understand what this means.

When I first heard about this return policy a couple of years ago, I found it exciting because it gave authors the ability to go to major bookstores for signings. Most major bookstores don't allow print-on-demand book authors to have book signings because if they order books and the books don't sell, they can't return them to the publisher and they are stuck with them. So a return policy was devised by some of the larger POD companies as a carrot to dangle in the faces of uneducated consumers—like us—to serve as an enticement.

By now, most of you know the reality of how much you can make on a book sale. Let's review the formula. If you have a book that sells for $14.99, book distributors such as Amazon.com get a 55% discount on the retail price. That means $8.24 comes off the book to begin with. That leaves you with $6.75 as your starting point. Take away the cost of printing of an average book of 175 page book of approximately $4.50, and you are now left with $2.24 per book. Even if you are receiving a 50/50 split with your POD company, you are looking at $1.12 for each book. As I warn all of you, it takes a lot of book sales to make back your initial investment of publishing, especially if you are paying big fees for special promotions.

Even if the profit percentage is somewhat higher at a bookstore because the discount ranges at approximately 40% instead of 55%, and even if you make $4.00 a book in profits, how many books do you have to sell to recoup your initial investment? The answer is A LOT. Unless you have a large local fan base or a book that is a hot topic, it will be very difficult to recoup that loss.

After my Airleaf nightmare, as I explored where to go from there for my upcoming book that came out in December, I researched over 40 different POD companies to see which one would meet my personal needs. There is no ONE solution to all of our publishing needs. I found a publisher, CCB Publishing, which met my needs, as well as a number of other Airleaf victims, for publishing. The website is at www.CCBPublishing.com. One of the many selling points for me was that I could buy a return policy for $100.00 a year. This seemed reasonable. It gives me the ability to do book signings and at least feel that I have a chance of recouping any investment.

To be sure that I was on the right track, I asked our expert advisor Victoria Strauss if I was accurate in my assessment. I wrote to her:


Hi Victoria,
I tell my authors who ask me about return policies from companies like AuthorHouse and Xlibris that charge 599.00 or 699.00 that this is a waste of money. It would take the selling of hundreds of books to make up for that each year. Do you think that is correct advice? I don't see where it can pay off for almost any author unless he/she is traveling around the country setting up book signings on a topic that is going to sell that many books. Please let me know if you think I'm right.
Bonnie

Here is Victoria's response:

Hi, Bonnie,
I do think you're right about this service not being worth the expense. Returnability might make some stores more willing to place orders--especially larger stores--but there are no guarantees, and as you say, writers would have to sell a lot of books to make back the extra expense. Given the average sales of books from these companies (less than 200), it is unlikely to be worth it for most authors.
Victoria

On another note, a number of you have recently written to me about special promotions that you are receiving for book marketing. These packages start at $750.00 and go as high as $3,500.00. Once again, do the math. See how many books you have to sell to make back this money.

Some of these promotions include placement on a POD website. Many of you are excited by that prospect. In reality, the only people who go to those websites are you and the other potential buyers of POD services. Some of you believe that at least your book can be seen on the Internet on a website. So here's a solution to you that is far more cost effective.

I have worked with some of you on obtaining your own websites. The best bargain in town can be found at Register.com. This is where I purchased some of my domain names including AirleafVictims.com. For $35.00, you can buy a domain name for a year. For that same $35.00, Register.com will give you a FREE one page website where you can advertise your book for no additional hosting fee. This is an excellent deal! If you have any computer savvy, you can design your own website for free. If you are like me, and you don't have that ability, you can find someone to do it for you. My web person for our Airleaf Victims website charges $200.00 for setting up your one page site with a link to your book and where it can be bought. She would be happy to work with any of our Airleaf Victims for that price. If you are interested in doing this, let me know. I can walk you through the steps of getting your own domain name and setting up your account. Then I can refer you to my webmaster if you would like her to do your site.

Talking about websites, I meant to tell you another way that Airleaf made money from authors. I recently found out from an author that he was paying $250.00 a month to be positioned on the first row of the Airleaf website. This was really disturbing to me. If any of you were paying for website positioning, please let me know. I'd like to add that to my research.

A few people have written to me recently about tracking down former Airleaf employee Gayla Swint. Gayla is now working with Fideli Publishing owned by former Airleaf employee Robin Surface. Some of you have written to me about the positive relationships you had with these women as well as other Fideli staff members. You can write to Gayla at gdswint@yahoo.com. She is happy to hear from any of her previous authors that she worked with. If you are seeking other former Airleaf employees, please let me know, and I'll do my best to track them down for you.

Have a good week and feel free to write to me about any questions or issues I can help you with.

With love and hope,

Bonnie