Where is our royalties? We paid to be published authors

My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of a group of authors who are victims of a publishing scam through Airleaf Publishing (formerly Bookman Publishing) owned by Carl Lau. We are seeking other victims who have been robbed of their dreams through investments of money and time.

As of October 2007, we have over 90 authors in our group who have been defrauded by Airleaf Publishing for nearly $1,000,000.00. We are taking aggressive action with the Martinsville, Indiana police and the Indiana Attorney General's office to bring criminal action against Airleaf. We have made great strides in our efforts which will hopefully find us the justice we are seeking. If you are an author victim, we welcome you to join our group in hopes of retrieving any lost money, putting the company out of business permanently, and pressing criminal charges against the guilty parties.

Here is some background about me. I am a professional relationship counselor in a niche market of straight/gay marriages which affects 4 million women in this country. Since 1984, I have worked with over 30,000 women who unknowingly married gay/bi men and over 2,000 gay men who need support to come out to their wives.

My website can be found at http://www.gayhusbands.com/. I constantly receive international publicity because of my expertise in this field. I serve as a consultant for the top television shows including Oprah, Montel, and Tyra Banks. You can see my website listed on their resource boards. I have also published 3 books other than the one with Airleaf Publishing about this topic—one through the traditional method and two others through POD.

In the summer of 2006, I researched a number of print-on-demand publishers because I had a new book I wanted to reach the public by September 2006. The book “Straight Wives: Shattered Lives” is a compilation of 27 stories from women in my international support group. Airleaf promised me that if I paid a hefty fee of $1,850.00, my book would be out on time. They were true to their word. I personally had no issue with that. In fact, I was on an Airleaf high because of the wonderful service provided to me.

My book came out the same week that former Governor James McGreevey’s book “The Confession” was released. I launched my own media campaign, and I was interviewed Paula Zahn on CNN and the national FOX news. Sales were booming. Airleaf kept telling me that I was their most successful author.

I was feeling so good about Airleaf at that point of time that I volunteered to talk to prospective authors who were on the fence. I now live with the guilt of convincing them to follow me down the road of doom.

Although I had a signed contract to receive quarterly statements and royalties, I only saw one check for $300.00 after six months. Nine months later, my attorney sent a letter threatening legal action with no response. Zippo. Nada. Nothing. Then I sent a letter to the owner, Carl Lau, that if I do not get satisfaction I will take my own action, and I am doing exactly that because there was no reply. It was only after I launched a criminal complaint with the Martinsville, Indiana police department that I received a second check which is still far from the money I am owed. I realized that there are many more like me who published with Airleaf and I started to seek them out.

I am gathering Airleaf authors together to join me in taking criminal action against a company founded on fraud. We now have 70 Airleaf authors with horror stories from people who have been defrauded from $99.00 to nearly $20,000.00 and who are joining me to fight back so we don’t have to be victims anymore.

I developed this website for two reasons:

(1) to warn unsuspecting, hard working authors not to throw your money away on promises that won’t come true. Airleaf makes some wonderful promises but they fail to keep them;
(2) to help other Airleaf authors who are looking for justice.

Please write to me at Bonkaye@aol.com for more information or to join this cause. It will not cost you ONE PENNY!