FEBRUARY 16, 2008 UPDATE
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
I would like to welcome our new members. As of today, we have 405 members of our Airleaf Victims group.
I would like to thank those of you who took the time to complete the survey from last week and sent me either via email or regular mail the information. This information is vital to our case to help in proving the fraudulence in Airleaf. I believe that when we have all of the information compiled together, we will be able to show that this was the greatest case of predatory publishing in the history of the country. To date, 63 of you have completed the information and sent it to me. If you need assistance in filling out the form, or if you would like me to send you the form as an email if you aren't able to print it out or download the form, please let me know.
We have been conducting our campaign since August 2007. Although it has been six months, and we feel the frustration of not having concrete results from the government authorities, I believe that this case will have some results by the spring. It is essential for us as a group not to get discouraged but to remain vigilant until we accomplish our goals of restitution and retribution. The work we are doing is not only for ourselves, but also for thousands of other authors who will also fall victim to dishonest publishing companies which have no problem stealing the dreams and money away from trusting and unsuspecting people. I believe that this will become a landmark case in the world of publishing and send a message loud and clear to others who are making their dishonest living off the hard work of good and honest authors.
This week, I am asking you to assist me in putting pressure on the U.S. Attorney's office in Indiana. This is the federal agency that has the power to move this case along. This is NOT the Attorney General's office that most of you have contacted for the civil suit, but rather the office in charge of bringing federal charges against Airleaf in conjunction with the FBI and Postal Authorities. I am feeling a sense of frustration because I have left four messages in two week with that agency and have not received a call back since my initial conversation with them last month. The email address is: usains.webmaster@usdoj.gov . You can cut and paste that address into an email or just click into the link. The Indiana U.S. Attorney's name is Timothy M. Morrison. Please tell Mr. Morrison that you are a member of the Airleaf Victim's group and that you have been defrauded out of money and services by this company. You can mention anything you like about your personal experience, and ask him when you can expect his office to take the necessary action to bring justice to our case. There is power in numbers, and if Mr. Morrison receives several hundred emails on Tuesday morning when he returns to work, I am hoping he'll realize how serious this case is. Please send me a note after you do this so I can track how many of you sent this note. It's not a form—just a note, so it should only take a few minutes.
One of our group members spoke with a former Airleaf employee last week who was closely involved in Airleaf until the near end and now has set up in his own publishing business. He told our member that Carl Lau is moving ahead with his new company Novels to Films. I assured this member that the only film that Carl Lau will be working on is "Escape from Alcatraz, Part 2," an autobiographical movie.
Carl Lau's dream of becoming a movie mogul has as much chance as your book becoming a major motion film hit. Ex-employees have told me that he paid money to both Cinemagic (the company that came from Japan and magically went back to Japan with your money but no movies) and LiteStone Entertainment (Al Smith and Lawrence Dixon, which has zero movies to their credit except the trailer for Jessie's Girl) in hopes of being part of the film industry. We all know the story of that fraudulence that I exposed last November. And yet, our member Debbie Stiles received this email from Carl Lau on December 17, 2007, two days before Airleaf shut down:
Hi Ms. Stiles
I’m sure that you have heard many things, however if you read between the lines you can see that Brien Jones and Bonnie Kaye are out to put me out of business and or destroy me personally which is something that they have done very well. It took me 55 years to establish my person and 10 months to destroy everything I worked for.
However the movie deal is real and I am meeting with the money people right after the first of the year in Hollywood. I will know more of the time frames and details at that time.
I will refund the monies as I can, right now money is very tight and I’m trying to get as many books done as I can, so we can more on to 2008 and I label the yeart the movie year. I will make it up to you somehow for being patient.
Thanks so much for your business
Carl
I left this letter un-edited so you can once again see the literary literacy skills of Carl Lau. Once his ghostwriting staff was gone, and he was on his own to correspond with customers, we had the opportunity to see the lack of literacy skills of the man at the top of the company ladder. Unreal! Prior to working for Author House in their sales department before getting fired, Carl Lau was a car salesman for 15 years--and it shows.
While on the subject of Carl and Hollywood, this was on a post of Writer's Weekly back in May 2007:
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 9:37 AM
To: [TF]
Subject: RE: Compalaint About Airleaf
Dear [TF]
We have told you in the past that your books are at the printers and when I called them yesterday and told them to hurry on your books, they sent me a report that shows that you are 8th on the list. I asked them to please make your book a priority and get it out this week.
I´m sorry that you had to wait however I want t make it up to you; because we are having such great success in Hollywood I will more than happy to take it there for free and present it at the pitchfest in July.
I have been very busy and I thought that others were handling your problem which I see wasn´t the case and just copying me on the emails.
Thanks
Carl Lau
President, Airleaf LLC
The highlighted red is mine; the mistakes are Carl's. Of course, he was having such great success in Hollywood even back then and of course, very busy. Priceless!
I would like to spend a few moments discussing book promotions and the reality of investing money in this. The majority of our victims paid large sums of money for a variety of different promotions including book reviews, advertisements in newspapers, press releases, vanity radio programs, website positions, letters sent to book stores. I cringe every time I look at the money that was spent for these campaigns.
The point I'd like to make is that even if all of these campaigns were actually fulfilled, please keep in mind the money you are spending vs. the money that will be returned to you. After all of the upfront costs that most of us don't realize which include the printing and the standard 55% discount on book sites such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com, you are realistically looking at $2.50 – $3.50 per book. In many cases, you are receiving less than that. If you invest $1,000.00 for promotion, you will have to sell at least 300 – 500 books to recoup that investment. A number of you invested thousands of dollars, meaning you would have to sell thousands of books to recoup your loss not including the price of upfront publishing.
This is why it is so important to be realistic about what your goals are and how they can be accomplished. It is virtually impossible to have a hit seller when your book is Print-On-Demand or a book published by a vanity publisher. I know that we all see advertisements for "Chicken Soup for the Soul" and how that book started out as self-published and became a huge financial success. But how many other self-published books can boast about the same experience? Ummm…I don't know of any others. And even if there are, it's such a slim and remote possibility. Miracles do happen, but very rarely in the POD publishing business.
I am sending you some links on how to do your own marketing and publicity from several websites where I have found some good, solid tips that you can do yourself with little or no expense. Don't feel compelled to buy any books or services from these sites since there are lots of free tips.
LINKS FOR MARKETING:
BOOK MARKETING / BOOK PUBLICITY / BOOK SALES
Free Book Marketing Ideas by Christine Hohlbaum: The Sideroad
Another inexpensive way of marketing your book is through sponsored ads on Goggle through Google Adwords. I use this form of advertising for Airleaf Victims as well as my own personal books. It has been relatively successful for me with a minimal investment. If you would like more information about this or need help in getting started, feel free to write to me, and I'll call you to walk you through the process.
LINK FOR GOOGLE ADWORDS:
Welcome to AdWords
I found a site that lists book publicists. I can't recommend any of them since I have no knowledge of any of them. But you may want to contact a few to see what they can do for you. So let's learn our lesson from Airleaf, so we don't repeat our past mistakes. If you contact a book publicist, make sure to ask the important questions. This would include asking what books they have marketed successfully, asking what their methods are for marketing books, (if it's just sending out press releases to a database, you can do that yourself with the same results for much less money), what are the press contacts that they have, and absolutely ask for references that you can call of authors who have been successful. Ask to see articles where these books have appeared and a list of radio and television shows where their authors have appeared. Think of a list of questions before you call, and if you need any help or want to run it by me first, please do. PLEASE DON'T SIGN INTO ANY AGREEMENT UNTIL YOU CHECK IT OUT. I'm happy to review any agreement before you sign so I can look for holes or other questions you need to ask.
LINK FOR PUBLICISTS:
Book Publicity Services
Please check out our Airleaf Victims blog to see some of our authors' book now displayed. If you have a book that is being sold on Amazon, I will be happy to list your book upon request.
LINK FOR THE AIRLEAF VICTIMS BLOG:
Airleaf Victims
That's the news for this week. Please feel free to send me any comments or questions at Bonkaye@aol.com.
With love and hope,
Bonnie :)
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 9, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
First, welcome to our new members. We have passed the 400-member mark this week with 401 members in our group.
This week, I have no new news to report concerning our case. I anticipate that some action will be taken by later this month. I have calls in to the US Attorney in Indiana, and I hope to hear from him by next week for an update.
This week, I am asking you to help me get our case organized because I believe that we will see some results in the near future from all of our efforts. I have attached a profile sheet for each of you to fill out so I can compile the data for all of us, the government agencies who will be bringing charges against Carl Lau, and the media. All information will be kept confidential from the public unless I personally ask you individually to allow me to share it with an agency or news source. I would never compromise anyone's integrity by giving out information without your permission.
I am trying to pinpoint when the fraudulence started to escalate at Airleaf and who the employees were who knowingly participated in it. I am also trying to differentiate between the publishing services versus the promotional services. Some of you paid for books to be published by Airleaf, some of you paid for your own books to be promoted by Airleaf, and some people paid for publishing and promotion by Airleaf. From our 400 members, I want to get a significant sampling to make comparisons.
For example, I went to Airleaf to publish my book Straight Wives: Shattered Lives. I paid $1,895.00 for publishing, 50 copies, and placement in 15 book stores. That price also included a return policy so I could have books signings. My book was published quickly, and I did receive the 50 copies. However, my book copies did not show up to my first book signing (problems with the printer was the excuse), it never appeared in 15 bookstores (I checked), and when I requested a book signing to be set up in Southern California last summer, I was told that there were no bookstores interested in this in Southern California. Since my book was publicized on national news stories, I found this amazing. I also was promised quarterly royalties, but we all are familiar with that story.
In my early days with Airleaf while I was still in the "honeymoon phase," I bought a promotional package for a book I published through iUniverse called ManReaders: A Woman's Guide to Dysfunctional Men. I paid $350.00 to have the press release for the book sent to "important decision makers" in the television market. Of course, there were no responses, but as my Airleaf consultant told me, "Lots of interest." So in my case, I paid for publishing and promotion of an Airleaf book, and promotion of my own book published elsewhere. On the survey form, please check all of the services that you paid for.
Some of you may need reminders to jog your memories, so I have gone back to some of my old emails and looked at some of the promotions that were sent to me. These include:
You have until November 30, 2006 to save on selected bookselling
services!
Reach 2000 bookstore owners for just $239.40! You save $160!
Reach 1000 Filmmakers for just 210! You save $140!
Reach 400 Traditional Publishers for just $270! You save $180!
Sell your book on 10 websites for $299.40! You save $200!
Reach 10,000 bookstore owners with our Maximum Impact Service which
includes direct telephone calls to bookstores for just $990. You save
$660!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
NEW BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB
While we have sold thousands of books to hundreds of book stores, we have
never focused on selling books directly to individual readers--Until now!
With Airleaf's new Book of the Month Club we will be tapping into this
multi-billion dollar consumer market for the first time.
Book clubs like Oprah Winfrey's and The Today Show's generate millions of
dollars in book sales every month. We hope our book club will do the same.
We have selected a few of our best titles for club members, but we believe
the Book of the Month Club will benefit ALL Airleaf authors.
Please take a look!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
And my personal favorite lure to author fame from 3/28/07
Is your book the next to appear on the big screen?
Check out www.airleaf.com to see the trailer for our first film, Jessie’s Girl.
We are making another trip to Hollywood in April to present all new books to all new Producers and Directors! We will present your book in face to face meetings for just $650.
So, hopefully some of these campaigns will help you remember which ones you bought. And for sure—they all sounded so, so good—and legitimate!
I would like to share two links with you today. One is from our friend Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, a website that gives excellent advice to writers and warms them about possible scams. I told Victoria that I am working on some helpful links to help our writers with their book promotions in a meaningful way. I believe that most POD companies that offer package deals are misleading and/or ineffective. All of us want our books to sell, but there are many things that we can do on our own for little or no money rather than pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to promoters.
Victoria welcomed me to share her link about services for writers, and I know you'll find some excellent ideas there.
Link to Writer Beware: Writers' Services
The second link I would like to share with you is the link to help find a literary agent. I have found this link to be extremely helpful when trying to find an agent. It was sent to me by an agent friend, and I have been using it to test it out. There is no cost for using this link, Agent Query. Some of you have written to me that you would like to go through a "traditional" publishing route, so here is the way to start.
Link to Agent Query:
AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
Some words of advice when seeking a literary agent: Expect rejection and don't personalize it. I have gone through the traditional route twice. I have found two excellent agents, one who was able to sell my first book, and a second one who believed in my book but was unable to sell it. I sent out 60 targeted inquiry letters both times and only received three people who were interested the first time and two people interested the second time. And although I was able to sell my first book, there was a long turn-around time between throughout this journey. So if you are expecting a quick fix—forget it. Make sure that if you choose this route that you have a strong query letter done in the proper format. There are lots of websites that give great advice in how to prepare one, and I am always happy to look it over for you and give suggestions. Also keep in mind if you are lucky enough to find an agent, there is usually a back up time in publishing once they find a publisher of between 12 and 18 months.
Last week, I sent you to our Airleaf Victims blog site. If you looked there, you saw my books were listed on the right hand side and available on Amazon. If you are selling your books on Amazon, my blog-keeper will be glad to have your book or books listed on our Airleaf Victims site. Just drop me a note, and I'll tell you what I need.
Here is a link to the Airleaf Victims blog site so you can see my books listed:
Airleaf Victims
In the upcoming weeks, I will share some excellent ideas and links with you to help you with your book promotion. These links and ideas are mostly free ideas that you can do yourself.
Please remember to fill out your survey and get it back to me with any documentation you have. If you want to send it to me by mail, my home address is listed on the bottom of the form. In three weeks, I will take a few days off from my job so I can compile all of the information that you are sending in and give you the results. If you do not have a printer and you would like me to send you the form as an email, just let me know.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye :)
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
First, welcome to our new members. We have passed the 400-member mark this week with 401 members in our group.
This week, I have no new news to report concerning our case. I anticipate that some action will be taken by later this month. I have calls in to the US Attorney in Indiana, and I hope to hear from him by next week for an update.
This week, I am asking you to help me get our case organized because I believe that we will see some results in the near future from all of our efforts. I have attached a profile sheet for each of you to fill out so I can compile the data for all of us, the government agencies who will be bringing charges against Carl Lau, and the media. All information will be kept confidential from the public unless I personally ask you individually to allow me to share it with an agency or news source. I would never compromise anyone's integrity by giving out information without your permission.
I am trying to pinpoint when the fraudulence started to escalate at Airleaf and who the employees were who knowingly participated in it. I am also trying to differentiate between the publishing services versus the promotional services. Some of you paid for books to be published by Airleaf, some of you paid for your own books to be promoted by Airleaf, and some people paid for publishing and promotion by Airleaf. From our 400 members, I want to get a significant sampling to make comparisons.
For example, I went to Airleaf to publish my book Straight Wives: Shattered Lives. I paid $1,895.00 for publishing, 50 copies, and placement in 15 book stores. That price also included a return policy so I could have books signings. My book was published quickly, and I did receive the 50 copies. However, my book copies did not show up to my first book signing (problems with the printer was the excuse), it never appeared in 15 bookstores (I checked), and when I requested a book signing to be set up in Southern California last summer, I was told that there were no bookstores interested in this in Southern California. Since my book was publicized on national news stories, I found this amazing. I also was promised quarterly royalties, but we all are familiar with that story.
In my early days with Airleaf while I was still in the "honeymoon phase," I bought a promotional package for a book I published through iUniverse called ManReaders: A Woman's Guide to Dysfunctional Men. I paid $350.00 to have the press release for the book sent to "important decision makers" in the television market. Of course, there were no responses, but as my Airleaf consultant told me, "Lots of interest." So in my case, I paid for publishing and promotion of an Airleaf book, and promotion of my own book published elsewhere. On the survey form, please check all of the services that you paid for.
Some of you may need reminders to jog your memories, so I have gone back to some of my old emails and looked at some of the promotions that were sent to me. These include:
You have until November 30, 2006 to save on selected bookselling
services!
Reach 2000 bookstore owners for just $239.40! You save $160!
Reach 1000 Filmmakers for just 210! You save $140!
Reach 400 Traditional Publishers for just $270! You save $180!
Sell your book on 10 websites for $299.40! You save $200!
Reach 10,000 bookstore owners with our Maximum Impact Service which
includes direct telephone calls to bookstores for just $990. You save
$660!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
NEW BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB
While we have sold thousands of books to hundreds of book stores, we have
never focused on selling books directly to individual readers--Until now!
With Airleaf's new Book of the Month Club we will be tapping into this
multi-billion dollar consumer market for the first time.
Book clubs like Oprah Winfrey's and The Today Show's generate millions of
dollars in book sales every month. We hope our book club will do the same.
We have selected a few of our best titles for club members, but we believe
the Book of the Month Club will benefit ALL Airleaf authors.
Please take a look!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
And my personal favorite lure to author fame from 3/28/07
Is your book the next to appear on the big screen?
Check out www.airleaf.com to see the trailer for our first film, Jessie’s Girl.
We are making another trip to Hollywood in April to present all new books to all new Producers and Directors! We will present your book in face to face meetings for just $650.
So, hopefully some of these campaigns will help you remember which ones you bought. And for sure—they all sounded so, so good—and legitimate!
I would like to share two links with you today. One is from our friend Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, a website that gives excellent advice to writers and warms them about possible scams. I told Victoria that I am working on some helpful links to help our writers with their book promotions in a meaningful way. I believe that most POD companies that offer package deals are misleading and/or ineffective. All of us want our books to sell, but there are many things that we can do on our own for little or no money rather than pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to promoters.
Victoria welcomed me to share her link about services for writers, and I know you'll find some excellent ideas there.
Link to Writer Beware: Writers' Services
The second link I would like to share with you is the link to help find a literary agent. I have found this link to be extremely helpful when trying to find an agent. It was sent to me by an agent friend, and I have been using it to test it out. There is no cost for using this link, Agent Query. Some of you have written to me that you would like to go through a "traditional" publishing route, so here is the way to start.
Link to Agent Query:
AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
Some words of advice when seeking a literary agent: Expect rejection and don't personalize it. I have gone through the traditional route twice. I have found two excellent agents, one who was able to sell my first book, and a second one who believed in my book but was unable to sell it. I sent out 60 targeted inquiry letters both times and only received three people who were interested the first time and two people interested the second time. And although I was able to sell my first book, there was a long turn-around time between throughout this journey. So if you are expecting a quick fix—forget it. Make sure that if you choose this route that you have a strong query letter done in the proper format. There are lots of websites that give great advice in how to prepare one, and I am always happy to look it over for you and give suggestions. Also keep in mind if you are lucky enough to find an agent, there is usually a back up time in publishing once they find a publisher of between 12 and 18 months.
Last week, I sent you to our Airleaf Victims blog site. If you looked there, you saw my books were listed on the right hand side and available on Amazon. If you are selling your books on Amazon, my blog-keeper will be glad to have your book or books listed on our Airleaf Victims site. Just drop me a note, and I'll tell you what I need.
Here is a link to the Airleaf Victims blog site so you can see my books listed:
Airleaf Victims
In the upcoming weeks, I will share some excellent ideas and links with you to help you with your book promotion. These links and ideas are mostly free ideas that you can do yourself.
Please remember to fill out your survey and get it back to me with any documentation you have. If you want to send it to me by mail, my home address is listed on the bottom of the form. In three weeks, I will take a few days off from my job so I can compile all of the information that you are sending in and give you the results. If you do not have a printer and you would like me to send you the form as an email, just let me know.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye :)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 2, 2008
February 2, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 391 members in our Airleaf Victims group. Each week, more people are finding us as they try to call Airleaf or check their website only to find they have vanished.
Earlier in the week, I spoke to Detective Buskirk. He is moving along with the case, and as of the time of our conversation, he had 256 official complaints from our group. He is preparing his case to present to the federal agencies which can bring criminal charges against the people from Airleaf who have victimized us. I am hoping that we will see some concrete results this month. He is also trying to arrange times when authors who want to pick up their files and books can do so and hopes that will happen shortly. Hang in, and I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday, I spoke with Tom Irons from the Attorney General’s office. Tom is a very nice man who took over the case from Terry Tolliver after Tolliver left several months ago. Until that point, the incoming complaint files were just being compiled by paralegal Raven Bobbio, but it appears nothing more than that happened in the interim. After having my second in-depth conversation with Tom, I realized that regardless of how strong of a case we currently have (he told me new complaints are still coming in each week from our group), there is nothing very meaningful that his office can do at this time. In as much as the AG’s office can only bring civil charges, and in view of the fact that Airleaf is now shut down thanks to our efforts, his office is somewhat at a loss of taking meaningful action. He went through all of the steps that their office would have to go through to get to get to court with Carl Lau, and it sounds very overwhelming as far as getting us real results.
And so we will have to put our faith in the federal agencies such as the FBI, Postal Inspector, and US Attorney in Indiana for getting meaningful resolve. I did explain to him that I hold the AG’s office responsible for allowing things to get to this point since they were aware of our situation and sat on it for so long. The AG’s office was aware of Airleaf last year when they made settlement with two other authors, issued them a warning as I’ve mentioned in an earlier update, and sat on it when our complaints started coming in to them. Since the AG’s office is responsible for consumer fraud, I contend that it was their responsibility to protect us. If they could have put an injunction against Airleaf until our issues were resolved, many of our victims who were taken after August when our complaints started flowing in could have been saved. In the days ahead, I will be asking for accountability of that agency with other government officials who oversee that office.
I’m sure if Tom were there during our tribulations, he would have been very responsive, but he started in this job too late. However, he is going to pursue whatever action he can for us, and he is working to organize a case from the complaints that have been filed to see if he can put together a civil complaint for restitution for us. I will check back with him next month to see how he is progressing.
I recently asked the group if you have documentation about the “Hollywood Pitches” that Airleaf charge you for to take your books to Hollywood. Seven of you saved the information that was sent to you with the report and mailed me copies to compare. It was no surprise that they were the standard printed letters that I expected to find. I’d like to share this with you.
First—here was the confirmation to authors:
Dear _______________
This agreement is for the “Face to Face Hollywood” program, where your book will be discussed in meetings set with Hollywood producers.
Per our agreement we will create a “Film Treatment” of your book and have at least 5 face to face meetings with different producers, promoting it for feature film, direct to video, or TV.
Also per our agreement you will receive updates after the interviews with the producer’s company name, and dates of the presentations.
Thank you for your business,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf Publishing
Well, it didn’t look like the “5 face to face meetings” ever happened, but here are the results of the “Face to Face Hollywood” program sent out to the authors.
All of the form letters were dated either June 7 or June 8, 2007.
Dear _________
The producers that I met with this time in the representation of your books are as follows:
Al Smith – Lite-stone Entertainment
Brad Hong – Cinemagic Entertainment
Cliff Miracle – Capstone Productions
I met with these people privately so I had plenty of time to thoroughly discuss, the overview of your film idea. I have received commitments for 6 different children’s books for “direct to video” production, as a direct result from those meetings. This is very exciting, and as of yet I have not been told of any rejections, which is also good news!
If you look on our website, you will see over 20 books that we have movie commitments for. When I present to other producers and tell them that we have “X” amount of said commitments, they take us seriously and pay attention to what we have.
I have already seen this and use it to our advantage. For the last 2 years we have worked very hard to get a movie made. We knew that once we did, each one after that would be easier to get done.
We do see that happening and hopefully yours too will soon find itself in that mix. These producers and filmmakers know of your books. If we hear anything, you’ll be the second to know.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to pitch your film idea. I will be going back for follow up in a little over a month. Feel free to let me know if you need anything.
Best regards,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf LLC
(I have reprinted the letters exactly—not cleaning up the poor grammar skills of Carl Lau)
Now, if I were one of the victims who paid for this service, I would have felt very excited—as you all did. There was no way for you to know that this was a fraudulent set-up. This is where Lite Stone Entertainment falls into my conspiracy theory because they put up their website listing 20 Airleaf books in production or pre-production. Those were the 20 of you who believed you really had a chance after getting your books made into a movie. This gave more false hope for those of you who started investing in the Hollywood promotions. You were seeing actual Airleaf authors whose books were in production or pre-production—and you believed with the excellent marketing of Airleaf’s sales team that yours could be the next big hit. You were told that Jessie’s Girl was an Airleaf book being made into a major film—and the trailer for the film was at the top of the Airleaf website to make you believe that this could happen to you. You were duped by the best.
We all know the Lite Stone story. And the Cinemagic Story is well…magic—here today, gone tomorrow. Carl Lau hooked up with Brad Hung from Japan’s Cinemagic at one of these gatherings. The “magic” about Brad Hung is that he disappeared, never to be seen again except on the Airleaf website sitting with a few of our authors. That was the most visible he was in this country.
Then there was Cliff Miracle of Capstone Productions. I’ve tried researching this with no luck at all. I did find a Capstone Productions on the Internet and explained our situation. Their representative was kind enough to write back:
Bonnie,
Good morning. There are a number of Capstone production companies out there, but we’ve never been involved with any movie making. We specialize in TV and radio commercials and corporate videos. Feel free to call or write if you have any further questions.
Jeff Hayes
COO, Capstone Production Group
So if any of you have a clue how to find Cliff Miracle at Capstone, please let me know because I’d like to have a chat with him--if he really does exist. And that would truly be a “miracle.”
Each week, I send a copy of this update to various government officials. It has been brought to my attention that others also check this weekly update in our blog. It is important for us to keep telling the stories to pressure the authorities to take action. When you have a chance, please check out our blog. Here is the link:
BLOG LINK: Airleaf Victims
At the bottom of the blog there is a place for you to post comments. These comments are read by the people following our case—government officials, former Airleaf employees, and of course, Carl Lau. It’s important to start voicing your feelings when you have a chance. If you are willing to share your stories in this update, this is important as well to let others know they are not alone in being taken by Airleaf.
Next week, I’ll be sending you a questionnaire to fill out so I can systematically put all of this together to help the legal authorities in an organized manner. It is important for us to keep up the momentum as we move along. We don’t want the Airleaf fraudulence to be an issue that is overlooked or underrated as far as a priority. We must keep up our pressure on the federal agencies so that we can seek justice for the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims that are out there. And when this does get to trial, I look forward to meeting some of you as we celebrate our success.
Please feel free to write to me with any questions or concerns.
With love and hope,
Bonnie :)
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 391 members in our Airleaf Victims group. Each week, more people are finding us as they try to call Airleaf or check their website only to find they have vanished.
Earlier in the week, I spoke to Detective Buskirk. He is moving along with the case, and as of the time of our conversation, he had 256 official complaints from our group. He is preparing his case to present to the federal agencies which can bring criminal charges against the people from Airleaf who have victimized us. I am hoping that we will see some concrete results this month. He is also trying to arrange times when authors who want to pick up their files and books can do so and hopes that will happen shortly. Hang in, and I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday, I spoke with Tom Irons from the Attorney General’s office. Tom is a very nice man who took over the case from Terry Tolliver after Tolliver left several months ago. Until that point, the incoming complaint files were just being compiled by paralegal Raven Bobbio, but it appears nothing more than that happened in the interim. After having my second in-depth conversation with Tom, I realized that regardless of how strong of a case we currently have (he told me new complaints are still coming in each week from our group), there is nothing very meaningful that his office can do at this time. In as much as the AG’s office can only bring civil charges, and in view of the fact that Airleaf is now shut down thanks to our efforts, his office is somewhat at a loss of taking meaningful action. He went through all of the steps that their office would have to go through to get to get to court with Carl Lau, and it sounds very overwhelming as far as getting us real results.
And so we will have to put our faith in the federal agencies such as the FBI, Postal Inspector, and US Attorney in Indiana for getting meaningful resolve. I did explain to him that I hold the AG’s office responsible for allowing things to get to this point since they were aware of our situation and sat on it for so long. The AG’s office was aware of Airleaf last year when they made settlement with two other authors, issued them a warning as I’ve mentioned in an earlier update, and sat on it when our complaints started coming in to them. Since the AG’s office is responsible for consumer fraud, I contend that it was their responsibility to protect us. If they could have put an injunction against Airleaf until our issues were resolved, many of our victims who were taken after August when our complaints started flowing in could have been saved. In the days ahead, I will be asking for accountability of that agency with other government officials who oversee that office.
I’m sure if Tom were there during our tribulations, he would have been very responsive, but he started in this job too late. However, he is going to pursue whatever action he can for us, and he is working to organize a case from the complaints that have been filed to see if he can put together a civil complaint for restitution for us. I will check back with him next month to see how he is progressing.
I recently asked the group if you have documentation about the “Hollywood Pitches” that Airleaf charge you for to take your books to Hollywood. Seven of you saved the information that was sent to you with the report and mailed me copies to compare. It was no surprise that they were the standard printed letters that I expected to find. I’d like to share this with you.
First—here was the confirmation to authors:
Dear _______________
This agreement is for the “Face to Face Hollywood” program, where your book will be discussed in meetings set with Hollywood producers.
Per our agreement we will create a “Film Treatment” of your book and have at least 5 face to face meetings with different producers, promoting it for feature film, direct to video, or TV.
Also per our agreement you will receive updates after the interviews with the producer’s company name, and dates of the presentations.
Thank you for your business,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf Publishing
Well, it didn’t look like the “5 face to face meetings” ever happened, but here are the results of the “Face to Face Hollywood” program sent out to the authors.
All of the form letters were dated either June 7 or June 8, 2007.
Dear _________
The producers that I met with this time in the representation of your books are as follows:
Al Smith – Lite-stone Entertainment
Brad Hong – Cinemagic Entertainment
Cliff Miracle – Capstone Productions
I met with these people privately so I had plenty of time to thoroughly discuss, the overview of your film idea. I have received commitments for 6 different children’s books for “direct to video” production, as a direct result from those meetings. This is very exciting, and as of yet I have not been told of any rejections, which is also good news!
If you look on our website, you will see over 20 books that we have movie commitments for. When I present to other producers and tell them that we have “X” amount of said commitments, they take us seriously and pay attention to what we have.
I have already seen this and use it to our advantage. For the last 2 years we have worked very hard to get a movie made. We knew that once we did, each one after that would be easier to get done.
We do see that happening and hopefully yours too will soon find itself in that mix. These producers and filmmakers know of your books. If we hear anything, you’ll be the second to know.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to pitch your film idea. I will be going back for follow up in a little over a month. Feel free to let me know if you need anything.
Best regards,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf LLC
(I have reprinted the letters exactly—not cleaning up the poor grammar skills of Carl Lau)
Now, if I were one of the victims who paid for this service, I would have felt very excited—as you all did. There was no way for you to know that this was a fraudulent set-up. This is where Lite Stone Entertainment falls into my conspiracy theory because they put up their website listing 20 Airleaf books in production or pre-production. Those were the 20 of you who believed you really had a chance after getting your books made into a movie. This gave more false hope for those of you who started investing in the Hollywood promotions. You were seeing actual Airleaf authors whose books were in production or pre-production—and you believed with the excellent marketing of Airleaf’s sales team that yours could be the next big hit. You were told that Jessie’s Girl was an Airleaf book being made into a major film—and the trailer for the film was at the top of the Airleaf website to make you believe that this could happen to you. You were duped by the best.
We all know the Lite Stone story. And the Cinemagic Story is well…magic—here today, gone tomorrow. Carl Lau hooked up with Brad Hung from Japan’s Cinemagic at one of these gatherings. The “magic” about Brad Hung is that he disappeared, never to be seen again except on the Airleaf website sitting with a few of our authors. That was the most visible he was in this country.
Then there was Cliff Miracle of Capstone Productions. I’ve tried researching this with no luck at all. I did find a Capstone Productions on the Internet and explained our situation. Their representative was kind enough to write back:
Bonnie,
Good morning. There are a number of Capstone production companies out there, but we’ve never been involved with any movie making. We specialize in TV and radio commercials and corporate videos. Feel free to call or write if you have any further questions.
Jeff Hayes
COO, Capstone Production Group
So if any of you have a clue how to find Cliff Miracle at Capstone, please let me know because I’d like to have a chat with him--if he really does exist. And that would truly be a “miracle.”
Each week, I send a copy of this update to various government officials. It has been brought to my attention that others also check this weekly update in our blog. It is important for us to keep telling the stories to pressure the authorities to take action. When you have a chance, please check out our blog. Here is the link:
BLOG LINK: Airleaf Victims
At the bottom of the blog there is a place for you to post comments. These comments are read by the people following our case—government officials, former Airleaf employees, and of course, Carl Lau. It’s important to start voicing your feelings when you have a chance. If you are willing to share your stories in this update, this is important as well to let others know they are not alone in being taken by Airleaf.
Next week, I’ll be sending you a questionnaire to fill out so I can systematically put all of this together to help the legal authorities in an organized manner. It is important for us to keep up the momentum as we move along. We don’t want the Airleaf fraudulence to be an issue that is overlooked or underrated as far as a priority. We must keep up our pressure on the federal agencies so that we can seek justice for the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims that are out there. And when this does get to trial, I look forward to meeting some of you as we celebrate our success.
Please feel free to write to me with any questions or concerns.
With love and hope,
Bonnie :)
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